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Lydia Forssander-Song is a sessional instructor in the English
Department at Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C.

Most of the poems in this highly accessible collection are set in
British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, as indicated by three of the
book’s four section titles: “Valley Girls,” “Sometimes Boys Go
Missing,” “Valley Girls Love Valley Boys.” The setting changes in
Part 4 (“Drive”), which documents a road trip from Vancouver to
Montreal.

Bachinsky uses the sonnet form repeatedly throughout the “Valley
Girls” section in “St. Sarah” (three sonnets), “For the Teen
Moms at the Valley Fair Mall” (four sonnets), “How to Bag Your
Small-Town Girl,” and “Night Voices.” In the “Valley Girls Love
Valley Boys” section, she returns to the sonnet form in “Petit Mal,
Petit Mort,” “To a Future Delinquent,” “B&E,” and “The Diner
of Her Heart.” The final section, “Drive,” contains a sequence of
15 sonnets. None of these are strictly conventional sonnets. Similarly,
none of their characters, although easily recognizable, are strictly
stereotypical. Bachinsky’s tone is ambivalent—at once dispassionate,
affectionate, and compassionate.

Bachinsky also plays with the villanelle form in “For the Pageant
Girls: Miss Teen Motel 6 et al.” and “For the Punk Rock Boys.” The
repetitions in this form effectively emphasize the “why and how” in
the former poem and the distinctiveness of “Sean and Shaun and
Michael, Paul and Steve” in spite of pressures to the contrary in the
latter poem.

The section titled “Sometimes Boys Go Missing” comprises a single
poem with nine parts that is based on a real-life incident. Bachinsky
successfully pays homage to a particular time, a particular place, and a
particular people. The only section that escapes this strong focus is
the final section, which is set elsewhere and largely concerns family
relationships.