Villainies is a speculative poetry collection set in a near-future civilization shaped by algorithmic governance and digital capital. The poems explore how surveillance, data extraction, and platform economics subtly reshape our lives. Dark in atmosphere yet sharply contemporary, Villainies speaks to readers interested in digital culture, and the future of personal freedom.
CRITIQUES
“Ochie's Villainies is a poetry collection crackling with defiant intensity. With its vivid dystopian resonances, the book critiques blind obedience, authoritarianism, and exploitation in all its forms. Sharply tuned to our tumultuous present, the speculative gestures of Ochie's verse warn of the futures we are actively creating, permitting, too passively accepting. A radical and energetic work, Villainies is a collection for our times. Ochie's voice is one we need to hear and heed. ”
- Stephen Dudas,poet-cartoonist. PhD in literature, author of Sketches of a Modern Square
“There's an overarching sense of grief and anger, but also resilience and,survival. The tone isn’t afraid to be raw, satirical, accusatory, and yet, at unexpected moments,vulnerable (...) The mood swells like a tidal force; readers feel submerged, overwhelmed at times”
-Angela Yuriko Smith, award-winning Ryukyuan -American writer, editor, and publisher
“I think there are some profound and punishing lines in this collection. Finding them proved to be more work and less wonder, though. Poetry is song, and this felt like hard metal or punk. That doesn't make it lesser, but simply not my thing. Others may find exactly the revolutionary fire and expression of our current dystopia that they are seeking. I hear a lot of people saying it makes them feel insane that everyone just goes about their lives like nothing is happening, and this collection feels like it's shouting a response to that madness. It's a rightfully angry and spitting style of poetry that feels young and ferocious. Don't let the density of the first few pieces bury you before you start--the rest of the collection has many poems that offer a more open dialogue. “
-Julie Reeser, poet, speculative fiction author, and prolific book reviewer
