Cry Perfume

by Sadie Dupuis

Lyrical poems that engage with grief and loss and the toll of overdose and addiction with an activist bent.

The title of Cry Perfume is an imperative to bottle sorrow in a beautiful vessel and shed the chemicals that cloud your sight. Written over a four-year period on tour and after losing loved ones and peers to overdose, Dupuis funneled complicated grief into harm reduction advocacy, working to fundraise for and distribute overdose prevention resources in venues internationally.

The slick performativity of pop, punk humor, electronic glitch and sampling, and the surprising leaps of improvisation influence these poems, but beyond music, these poems are informed by Dupuis’s larger concerns about justice and organizing. Cry Perfume is a hopeful but realistic inventory of the virtues and evils that emerge when arts and tech collide. Those dualities are cloaked in the same sparkling fragrance, and there are twinned pleasures and regrets in parting the smokescreen.

Genres: Poetry, Music, Memoir

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2023

Reviews

[ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75?

[Sarah Tudzin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master of word alchemy & seeker of truth, Sadie Dupuis is the voice of a generation, whatever that means.

[{ rosina } · Rating 3 out of 5]

*more like 3.5 stars*

fanciful as all heck, but since I'm reading at 4:30am, that means I had to go back and reread a lot as I found myself just scanning the words instead of reading.

some poems in this were actually really great, but some were just nonsense stinkers, I'm sorry.

[jess mak · Rating 4 out of 5]

really cool very fun poetry by speedy ortiz frontwoman!!! lots to unpack and many passages i plan to return to. some poems really rocked and others made no sense at all. really really enjoyed though, thank you izy for getting me this book (signed copy!) great airplane read and poetry remains my 2024 challenge for my brain

[Lacy Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know that it was poetry going in so when I opened it up, I was a little shocked. But I’m sober of 9.5 years. This deals with a lot of complicated addiction and drug themes, which were interesting. I don’t know, I just don’t love poetry as much as a novel.

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC given by Edelweiss+ for Honest Review

Deep, lush, and lyrical. Dupuis has a way around words that draws readers in and had them begging for an encore. I really connected with the activist and harm reduction themes.

My favorite poems are: "Come Over Make Mac And Cheese :)", "Steal My Sunshine", and "Full Worm Moon."

[faith adams-michaels · Rating 2 out of 5]

there are a few poems where an authentic voice comes through, but mostly it felt like a gobble of oddly chosen words that didn't tie together poetically, didn't tell much of a story, and was not professionally edited or revised. maybe it is just that im more of a Plath, Sexton, Rich poetry person. maybe it's because the poems require a lot of context to make any sense of them.

[Mr. Major · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up before the author's poetry reading.

I feel like books of poetry should have a rating scale of accessibility - because this book is a challenge. Some people love a challenge, to wrestle with the meaning of a single poem for multiple readings. This book is full of those - I felt like I was significantly missing context behind each of these, constantly.

But overall, the flow is good. And there's undeniably meaning behind each stanza, each word choice - you just don't get anything out of them until you hear the author read them, talk about them, or read them yourself under influence of a selected inhebriet.

[Kelsey Atherton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so used to poetry collections as references and reources that it felt almost indulgent to read this in chapters and binges. Dupuis has a talent for phrases and forms, bending words like daggers and leaving moments like ruins. There is, throughout, a deep sense of being and perceiving, a vocabulary fluent in online without requiring the reader be as well.

My favorite, at least on this read, was "Bulldog Me In Salted Water". I will think about openjng couplet "Frogs choose you as god then follow for life / Puffing over quick steps in cold ocean" for a long time, and I look forward to discovering poems anew over time.

[Pasha Salnikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s something hauntingly beautiful about Cry Perfume — it captures raw emotion in a way that feels both intimate and powerful. It reminds me that fragrance isn’t just about smelling good; it’s about telling a story, expressing a feeling, even when words fall short. At METHRA https://methrashop.co/products/nomad-... , we hold that same belief close. Every scent we create is designed to reflect deep individuality and evoke real emotion. Whether it’s quiet strength, vulnerability, or bold confidence, our perfumes are crafted to let people feel something — and be seen for who they truly are. Like Cry Perfume, we believe fragrance can be a voice.

[Ella Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know what... I really wanted to love this but I just couldn't really connect with it. I love Sadie Dupuis' music and the cover of this book is great so I had high hopes.
I read most of this on the plane from New York to Chicago and I felt like it was either so good and so niche that it went over my head or just barely too personal and full of someone's inside jokes to themselves that it didn't make any sense. There were a lot of almost-great moments for me but nothing stuck with me long term, which is my main indicator that I love a book.
I really liked some of the silly titles of the poems. They felt very now if you know what I mean. But I felt like I understood and remembered the titles more than many of the poems' actual contents.
I really don't have much else to say about it. Poetry is tough for me though, so take this with a grain of salt. And yes...I do the thing where you reread them over and over, looking for different things each time. I just kept getting the same nothing.

[A.M · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some four star poems in here, but you have to wade through a lot of two star poems to find them. I like her use of alliteration, but a string of alliteration alone is not a poem. The line breaks were not effective in many poems, and often they worked against it by creating some confusion about which lines should be read as a continual stream and which actually chopped up the narrative. The best part of this book was the cover. I read all of the poems within a couple of hours and only wanted to go back and analyze a few of them (White Diamond was my favorite).

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

rrrrrrrrk i really tried to luv this book but i just couldn't at all rrrrrrk
mefeels a lot was thrown onto these pages but not a lot at all was expanded upon and i get that it very well may just be the style but that style isn't myyy style
really tried to flow with this but i wasn't hooked :(

favorite poem: "CONGENITAL SUNBURN"
notables: "bowling a 666", "ten minute set time", "same name head wound"

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems, which I gulped in one sitting, are like a fireworks show for your brain. I jump with joy at the combinations of words — “puffy endlessness” or “gladiators longknifing off the wrinkles of Pioneertown.” Or: “Moon like a razor” or “settling down in a house from which it was evicted.” “Taffy stilettos and a cloven embrace.” Wow.

[Madeline Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

metaphor after metaphor after metaphor that sound clever on paper but fully went right over my head in praxis. some strong lines, some strong poems, don't get me wrong, but wholly did not click with me as a collection as i genuinely could not figure out what she was getting at most of the time. modern elevated nonsense that could've used some serious grounding at least here or there

[Kayla Morrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.25⭐️
📚 I really wanted to like this collection, but I struggled through it. So so many of these "poems" felt like random words strung together on a page. The vast majority did not work. Maybe this style of poetry just isn't for me? There were just so many that seemed to lack understanding or purpose, but it could have gone over my head.

[Emma Skinner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cry perfume was even better than Mouthguard— I wish I could write poetry as well as she does

[Sam Pawlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

i want to like this more. i feel dumb?

[Juniperus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like the last one I kind of just didn't get it?

[Seven S · Rating 3 out of 5]

many of these poems were powerful and electric. many also felt half-finished. a promising, spicy, and ingenious collection despite its faults.

[MM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t totally understand, but interested to come back.

[Mariah Colbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I miss my sister I have no sister” made me shed a tear i can’t lie

[Jessica Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I went into reading this thinking I would like it a lot more than I actually did, although there were poems that were worth reading and I will read again.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

a lot of this felt so underdeveloped to me...

[Courtney Mosier Warren · Rating 1 out of 5]

So obtuse that it bordered on nonsense at times. I found the authorial voice lacking and the tone confusing.

[meg]

I like speedy ortiz but I didn’t super care for these poems but then again I don’t super care for poems generally

[Ariail Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadie Dupuis gives us an intimate look into her mind with this collection of poems. Through heartbreak, creativity, and daily life we are able to see how she channels her emotions.

I love poetry collections but this one felt a bit off for me personally. I couldn't connect with the pieces and felt like they were very choppy in theme. I love that Sadie is a songwriter and it made me inspired to listen to some of her music but I don't think her poetry is for me. Overall it's a great read and a great look into the raw emotions of someone.

[Madi Vordenbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge thank you to Sadie Dupuis and Thank You Books for hosting Sadie on her book tour. Sadie was incredibly generous with her time and talent. Very thankful to have heard several of these poems in her voice, literally.

Cry Perfume is a collection best read allowed and responded to in the margins. Dupuis work requires the reader to really interact and think about the poem at hand. Its musical and complex almost to the point of nonsense.

I am a better writer and reader for having read it, I am unsure how much of it I understood but I was certainly moved.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh god I just watched a man, watching streaming with my married friends, I think you just called me, be my valentine ii, and hostage situation all are stand outs to me.