Book Review: Scandals by Alex Osman

Reviewed by Samantha Hui

An examination of the American psyche through a fire-starting magnifying glass

“Sometimes I miss the respiratory depression / And the thrill that I could die in my sleep”

Alex Osman presents Scandals, a searing poetry collection that crackles with the intensity of lived experience and the ache of American contradictions. These poems are gritty, jagged, and unflinchingly honest. They don’t offer readers a safe landing but rather a reality that is raw, cracked open, and radiating a mournful beauty. Readers who appreciate contemporary poetry that is both socially conscious and emotionally intimate will find in Scandals a collection that stings, stirs, and stays with them.

“He went to jail for a meth bust in 1997 / The lab almost took out my friend Jacob’s trailer / While they were in Disney World for his sister’s / Make-A-Wish vacation”

Rather than tell a single story, Osman’s collection explores a constellation of lives, some famous, some forgotten, all undeniably human, all too human. These poems meditate on the absurdities and hypocrisies of American life: meth lab explodes while a Make-A-Wish child is at Disney World; addict nods off in the theater balcony during Jesus Christ Superstar; pop culture icons like Buddy Holly, Brutus Beefcake, and Jim Jones collide in a surreal American dreamscape.

Osman’s subjects are wounded, addicted, bitter, often broken, and yet, the collection invites readers not to look away, but to look closer. In a country shaped by both nostalgia and neglect, Scandals elevates the neglected: the parentified child, the overdosed brother, the neighbor who never came back from war. These are poems that grieve, mock, remember, and forgive.

“They came here looking for something / And they found it / And when they found it / It exploded like a hand grenade”

Osman invites us to see not only the flaws of his subjects but also their humanity and beauty, shaped by the era and systems that produced them. Poems like “GRANDMA AND GRANDPA” and “FUNERAL OUTFIT” are catalog poems. Through his detailed listings, Osman gives us the sense that the speaker is truly present in the scenes he describes. The objects listed feel tangible and specific; we can almost see the grandparents as if they were our own or we can picture each item in the funeral outfit, as though we’re helping the speaker lay them out.

“Brutus Beefcake stabbed Cesar Romero / Swimming in the Atlantic with the remains of Jim Jones”

Other poems, like “GOLD TOOTH IS A KNUCKLE SANDWICH” and “BRASS CRAWFISH,” use anaphora to evoke the repetitious, cultural noise of America. Referencing Starsky and Hutch, Gilligan’s Island, ALF, and Buddy Holly, Osman shows how pop culture becomes a constant loop, embedding itself into our collective consciousness. These poems suggest that both the people on the page and the readers themselves are shaped by these repeated images, creating a culture where life imitates art.

“Exhaust fumes remain nostalgic / Microwave dinners melting in a vacuum”

Finally, poems like “WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN” and “I SHOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING” are strikingly brief, composed of only two lines. They read like passing comments or half-remembered thoughts, barely poems in a conventional sense, but their inclusion and titling force the reader to pause and reflect. Their power lies in their brevity; Osman invites us to linger on what might otherwise be overlooked, revealing the weight behind seemingly casual remarks.

“When I’m dead, I’m dead / Eradicated like a crippling virus / I just want some quiet”

Alex Osman’s greatest gift is his ability to write about the unpoetic with profound lyricism and care. There’s an undercurrent of mourning in these poems, but also empathy. These aren’t just stories of failure or despair; they are testaments to survival, portraits of dignity among the wreckage. Osman never romanticizes addiction or trauma, but he refuses to discard the people shaped by them.

Scandals is a collection that’s unafraid of the dark corners of the American psyche—for who want poetry that challenges as much as it comforts.

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