The dictionary defines consumption as both the ‘use of a resource’ and ‘a wasting disease’. This collection explores the different acts of self consumption a person can go through—sacrifice and selfishness, defeat and hubris. It’s an unpacking of guilt for making the wrong choices; for contradictory compulsions; for complicity.
‘You will never be able to unfuck your ex, but reading Ally Chua is the next best thing. Intimate yet implicated, compelling and complicit, this is poetry so good you’ll want to scrawl it on the walls of your local dive bar. Read this book in the mosh pit, in your hookup’s bathroom, at a Jalan Besar void deck after midnight, but keep it the hell away from the hipsters at your A meeting. These deliciously subversive lyrics thrum and pulse with the electric thrill of actual living. Leave everything you thought you knew about Singaporean poetry behind in that boring house party, follow Acts of Self Consumption out into the alley, and let it push you up hard against the wall, where it will murmur into your copper mouth what your pounding heart already knows: that Ally Chua is a badass and a rock star.’
Samuel Caleb Wee
‘Ally Chua’s debut poetry collection reads like the crime scene of a thriller. Every page brims with tension and an unrelenting violence that will leave readers yearning for the next poem.’
Natalie Wang
We all have scars. And some of us travel a long way to try and forget them. This debut collection by Singaporean poet Ally Chua sees her using America, New York in particular, as backdrop for her journey through pain and heartbreak […] Chua maps out and layers personal history and pain in a way that feels more intimate. Here you will find fresh poems for old wounds, bristling with dark, pragmatic wit and a generous willingness in the poet to confront her past and present.
Jennifer Anne Champion