Ruin Me Before the Party Ends by Chloe Rodriguez

Name: Ruin Me Before the Party Ends by Chloe Rodriguez
SKU: 144487
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Through lushly rendered descriptions, compelling lyricism, and a stark awareness, these poems masterfully tour us through life’s varied and complex landscapes: the natural and the urban, childhood and womanhood, the visceral and the spiritual, the romantic and the profane, innocence and decadence.

–Richard Blanco, 2013 Presidential Inaugural Poet, author of Homeland of My Body

Chloe Rodriguez’s Ruin Me before the Party Ends is a wild invitation to one “manic pixie dream girl’s” riot of color, lights, and dive bars, and through it all, she asks “What is it be a woman?” A little girl sees the pink neon sign for a pole dancing club. Is that it? A late-night deejay, Delilah, hands out romantic advice. Should we take it or is it just another trick? Are we all as lost as Laika in the outer reaches of the cosmos? Or are we post-pop princesses ready “to hang up the combat boots?” There are so many women inside one woman, and Chloe Rodriguez has invited them all to her party. A rock ‘n’ roll debut!

–Barbara Hamby

Chloe Rodriguez‘s poems resonate with both large personal and Americana iconograghy. Her poems zing and sing with tremendous energy. They are beautifully crafted and elegant on the page. Her voice is unmistakable and resonates with gusto and bravado. Congratulations on her entrance to the church of American poetry, a much welcomed and brilliant debut!

–Virgil Suarez

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Ruin Me Before the Party Ends

by Chloe Rodriguez

Paper

979-8-89990-296-3

2025

Ruin Me Before the Party Ends is a sharp, intimate exploration of memory, identity, and the ghosts we carry from past loves and forgotten places. Through a series of vivid and surreal odes, the collection delves into the tangled landscapes of love, longing, and the personal histories that shape us. With wit and vulnerability, the poems invite readers into a world that balances the chaotic energy of youthful rebellion with the quiet ache of growing up. From the neon glow of Miami’s forgotten dive bars to the haunted swamps of Florida, each poem is a search for meaning in the spaces that elude us—whether in the fleeting pleasure of a fast-food quesadilla, the fading memory of dive bars and strip clubs, or the tender grief of a mother’s absence. Ruin Me Before the Party Ends is an invitation to a party where nostalgia, loss, and the desire for connection are all tangled together, and where the end always feels just around the corner, with each poem a desperate attempt to hold on before it all slips away.

#poetry #memory #identity #loss #place #love #belonging #womanhood #girlhood #Florida

Chloe Rodriguez is a poet, translator, and instructor from South Florida, where salt air and memory shape much of her work. She holds an MFA from Florida State University and is currently a PhD student in Creative Writing. Her poems trace the soft violence of nostalgia, the ghosts of girlhood, and the absurd rituals of longing. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work appears in Delta Review, The Windward Review, Midnight Mind Magazine, The South Florida Poetry Journal, and elsewhere.Ruin Me Before the Party Ends is her debut chapbook. She is currently working on a full-length poetry collection and a memoir, and is forever yearning for a swamp hermitage somewhere deep in the Everglades.