Critical Commentary
"The Wandora Unit is like a John Hughes movie about the Bloomsbury Group. Funny, poetic and charming, Jessy Randall's novel about growing up in a literary magazine shows why the greatest friendships are the ones that can't last." -- Charlie Anders (Choir Boy, She's Such a Geek).
"Witty, lyrical, and shimmering with laugh-out-loud moments. This unconventional exploration of a friendship gone awry captures the everyday poetry of high school." -- Todd Mitchell (The Traitor King).
"Jessy Randall captures what is perfectly confusing, wonderful, and bittersweet about friendships and high school. -- Michelle Sewell (Just Like a Girl).
[A Day in Boyland] Makes you want to jump on the couch and yell, I love this poet! These are the poems of the alien child of James Tate, Russell Edson, Richard Brautigan and Lee Upton: Four Thumbs Up.
-- Leonard Gontarek
Disturbing and funny at once, Jessy Randall presents readers with a unique vision in Slumber Party at the Aquarium. She writes matter-of-factly of the ruined future of libraries, a post-apocalyptic visit to Disneyland, and the various failures of language. Throughout, her poems consistently surprise and delight: they open the door to new ways of seeing, to alternate interpretations of seemingly ordinary objects and experiences. They help us acknowledge that our understanding of our world is always incomplete.
-- Greg Boyd
Many contemporary poems present themselves like examinations, often in a language no one speaks. They aim to put you in your place by exposing your vast ignorance. Jessy Randall's poems arrive like gifts when it isn't even your birthday. They aim to please, and they do. Witty, deliciously bite-sized, frisky, strange and real as dreams, these are poems you will savor and show your pals. Melissa Penwell, your elementary school friend, may think these poems are "weird," but I'll bet you will tape them up on your mind's refrigerator.
-- David Graham
Who can resist a book of poems with titles like: The Astrological Chart of New York, The Voice of My Tumor, The Extra Chin, Yeast Infection, My Cervix is an Alien? Jessy Randall writes humor and she does it well! Some of [her poems] are laugh out-loud funny and some are mixed with poignancy.
-- Melanie McConnell, The Alsop Review
