This is a very strong case of it's not you, it's me. Poetry collections are some of the most intimate narratives, and while Masks & Layers certainly carries so many wonderful expressions, I never felt fully engaged with it.

Personally, I felt that majority of the poems were underdeveloped. Strong poetry often needs to weave stories and descriptions together to create a working flow of text, and I didn't find that within  a*k²' writing. There were plenty of pieces with potential for more, but struggled to truly stand out. However, there is a very strong running theme of light within this particular collection, and I do believe that it is a point in favour with how consistent the writing is.

I was disappointed by the shorter poems that popped up more frequently than I would have liked. Pieces like 'The Point of Life' and 'One Gigantic Experiment' failed to provide anything meaningful in one or two lines only. It often favoured repeating the title and really distracted from the longer works. 'Let yourself go' was simply a title floating with no text, which makes it difficult to tell if this was an error from the author or an ill fated attempt at brevity. For a collection revolving around such delicate themes of darkness and light, these particular poems struck me as immature and unnecessary. It would have been really nice to see personal growth.

'Ironical Irony', 'Rush & Slow', 'Magic & Miracles', and 'Born as Light' were some of the better poems in Mask's & Layers. A*k² managed to show a polished flow of detail in these four pieces in particular. I would be very interested to watch how A*k² develops their writing style in the future. This collection wasn't something I personally enjoyed, but I see plenty of potential and good bones in their work sometime in the future, with a more defined editing process.