Girl Mess: A Katabasis in Verse

by Kim Rashidi

Dante's Inferno, but for the girls.

I open my mouth, swallow myself whole / I am inside the beast, the machine of a girl

A ritualized traverse into the underworld, GIRL MESS is a way back into the body. The feeling, pulsing, tragicomic body. This atmospheric story, guided by a whimsical psychopomp, follows a girl’s peculiarities as she navigates uncanny rooms with strange creatures and even stranger memories. Loosely following the stages of spiritual alchemy from calcination to coagulation, the girl evolves past the nightmares of ageing and comes to understand what it means to live a wondrous life.

GIRL MESS is a cabinet of curiosities, a kaleidoscopic experience, and a decadent feat of imagination. Conceptually playing with the notorious demonization of girls' interests, this novel in verse is a lyrical exploration of the human condition through the trials and trepidations of girlhood. Poetically bold and idiomatically subversive, the pages of this book journey into a celestial realm of introspection to form a connection with the psyche. Pulling on occult threads and alchemical traditions, these poems take inspiration from Rashidi’s dreams and mediations and are aided by Jungian analysis.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Feminism, Literary Fiction

79 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2024

About the author

Kim Rashidi explores the cosmos through her words and has a soft spot for capturing love and life in the mundane. Writing about the lives, cities, and timelines that mirror back the romantic, she weaves reality with imagined possibilities. She holds an MA in English literature and is based in Toronto.

Reviews

[mel🕯 · Rating 5 out of 5]

“come child, let me brush your hair,
untangle the strands of story woven
with little care”

“i am afraid of drowning
deep in water,
i am afraid of big things
not yet ready to be a daughter //
blood of the coven,
water of the womb,
release me, this flesh i cannot consume”

this was so fantastic. i don’t think i have ever read a poetry collection that has felt like one seamless story while enthralling me with each individual poem as this one does. at every step the writing is beautiful, the imagery vivid, and the story poignant.
it’s a collection i can see myself coming back to over and over again, never once tiring of it and finding more gems each time.
kim rashidi you have become an instant favourite.
i also want to point out how much i adored seeing this start with “there was someone, and there was no one” which, in farsi, translates to “yeki bood, yeki nabood” which is how persian tales always began (our version of “once upon a time”)
this collection comes out on october 8th and i feel beyond lucky and grateful to have had the chance to read it early and i urge all of you to pick it up as soon as it’s released !!

”i fear i love too much
for saying goodbye is never easy,
only memories to appease me
i fear i can’t love enough
for people always leave me”

[Salem Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

"we’re all a tiny bit moon, inside"

I loved this book. I read mostly contemporary poetry so these poems in verse were out of my regular comfort zone – however, Raishidi made the more complex forms, rhythm, and meter so accessible that by the end I was fully immersed in the language, which is dark in a mischievous way as we follow a main character who is beautifully self-deprecating and self-indulgent. Rashidi’s intimate understanding of poetics shines through in this collection, and she proves herself very knowledgeable of the rules and conventions of classic poetry – which makes it extra poignant when she intentionally defies those rules.

I would say GIRL MESS is a must-read for young femmes and queer folks in their brat eras but who want to get a little intellectual with it. I have too many favourite poems from this collection to name them all but my top three are probably “VISCERALLY INSANE,” “POETIC JUSTICE TASTES LIKE MOM’S SAFFRON PUDDING,” and of course, “GIRL MESS.”

[kate]

twas good! a bit overreliant on aesthetic at times (pomegranate seeds i’m looking at u) but quite effective overall i think, a nice divergence from the usual girlmesscoquetteacademiaconfessionalpoetrytumblr genre, eg w the figure of moonhead and i did like the katabasis of it all

good language but it didn’t necessarily move me

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

my brain will not recover from this poetry collection, but I want more of it because self-indulgence and self-deprication is such a messy and relatable world to escape into

[Milena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely need to read it once or twice more, to fully grasp and digest some parts. There were some lines that I will keep thinking about for a long, long time.

I think that I really needed this to be the first book of 2026!

[nineinchnovels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written for all the magical girls out there who still dare to strip to their core - even in this ugly world.

[Imogen O'neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

GIRL MESS is for all of us - this is a book I will return to many times and I know it will be waiting with eager hands to guide me through the underworld again.

“my girlhood, wine; and I, drunk”

Reading Kim Rashidi’s writing feels like an epiphany after one too many glasses of wine. GIRL MESS in particular is akin to all the best parts of a fever dream. A white hot and dripping red mess of magic and beauty and rage - for all sad complicated messy women to get lost in and claw their way out again.

Rashidi’s ability to paint deeply saturated pictures of characters and places with so few words is unmatched - I can just feel how carefully and thoughtfully each word has been placed to support her vision of a world that only she has seen.

I will think of Moonhead and their gentle reminder that “we’re all a tiny bit moon, inside” often.

Thanks to Kim for the advanced copy of GIRL MESS, for welcoming me into your very strange and wonderful brain.

[vee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was honestly simply stunning.
I read this three times round in one sitting, because I simply could not digest everything in one read, and it definitely meant I enjoyed it even more.
Really horrific, and horrifically real, Girl Mess is such a beautiful way of capturing the essence of womanhood.
The metaphors of music and continuous references to pomegranates got on some peoples nerves, but I thought it was the perfect usage and was beautifully done.
This might be 20-year-old me's version of Dead Poets Society (life-altering, perspective-changing, awe-inspiring).

[Anna Sutorova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know if it’s going to sound weird, but the mystical headrush this book gave me was similar to The Halloween Tree.

A journey through the Underworld, lead by a mystical creature that is neither here not there, and at the end of it, the beginning of an understanding.

Delicious. Will read again. And again.

[Syd ⭐️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A trip to the underworld, but make it statement about womanhood. A gorgeous moving poetic adventure.

A katabasis is a Greek word for going down and therefore a trip to the underworld. This is a book of poetry that explores an uncanny journey to the underworld by a very odd girl. Strange, weird, mysterious, incomprehensible read.

I can’t explain my love for this book fully because it would turn into word vomit. I’ve never read a book like this and I will forever be searching for more like this. Genuinely just amazing.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

obsessed

full review on insta: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBeFchhx4...

[vampire_kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely beautiful, whimsical collection of poems that as a whole, read as one story about a girls descent into the underworld.

Peel my flesh, Unskin myself

Girl mess is about how infuriating it is to be a girl; to be misunderstood, underestimated, lusted after and a performer. How being a girl is to be full of rage and capable of destruction. How being a girl is to be magic, connected to celestial realms and the soul.
Girl Mess is about transformation and rebirth.

They’ve never been a teenage girl
Cannot fathom it’s hellish depths:
To have pretty clothes and shiny nails
A throat closed up, raw flesh

[Charlie Reese · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me get back in the headspace of writing poetry. I thought it was a beautiful look into girlhood. I don't feel like my life was changed by this book but Kim Rashidi's imaginative poetry was very fun to read, not too difficult to interpret,(which I really like in a collection of poems) and meaningful to the female experience.

[Jacque]

Read in 1 sitting. This was definitely not for me. I thought it would be something completely different. There were stray lines here and there that I liked, but overall the imagery was gross & graphic and I really didn't like it much at all.

[Flor Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kimmy does it again <3

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I open my mouth,
swallow myself whole

I am inside the beast,
the machine of a girl”

[Sarah Seaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like a book for the Rupi Kaur people but a little more evolved. I liked the concept and getting to feel like I was in the club of girlhood

[AK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little detente. I love being one of the first 20 people to review something on here.

[lesdoigtsdargent · Rating 2 out of 5]

a poetry collection that has aesthetic as a main focus rather than a real theme to explore...

[Maddie Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful!

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting journey and writing style

[grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh. this felt like an attempt at an “i’m not like other girls i’m so eccentric” poetry collection.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am 31 and already did a lot of therapy and self discovery. For me, this feels like it was meant for someone 15-25, and I couldn't connect to some parts. Good book tho.