(In)Habit by Hetty Cliss is a collection of poems charting the decline of a relationship that is often abusive, with the speaker working their way through not only the loss of love, but also the shock and awe of a partner becoming coercive and controlling.
The poems balance the struggle to maintain a sense of self in this environment, while also attempting to present a unified and happy front to the outside world, through a combination of invigorating imagery and use of form. There's a humour here too, and a very English sense of both the interior and exterior, the keeping up of appearances threaded through pints and Sunday lunches, with emotions suppressed for the good of a 'quiet life'. But the book's trajectory offers hope to the reader, with the speaker rediscovering their strength and finding the courage to break free and take on the world again by its end.
