"Words are being mutilated into little yellow faces. This is the antidote."
Just what a words worth is a fiercely raw, darkly comedic poetry collection that acts as an urgent, post-punk defense of language in a hyper-digitised world. Railing against the alienation of modern technology, Darren Hobson contrasts a deep-seated yearning for a simpler, tactile world of paper and books with a society where deep reading is threatened by modern abbreviations and sterile emoticons.
Do not expect polite, ornamental aesthetics. Hobson channels an unpolished stream-of-consciousness rhythm to turn the humanmind into a chaotic battleground of anxiety, insomnia, and mental exhaustion. In this uncompromising collection, cozy domestic realism—making coffee and navigating the ordinary mischief of cats named Spook and Gizmo—collides violently with visceral, grotesque horror. From demonic sirens and insectoid swarms to nuclear trauma and a stark, unromanticised look at the raw regret of the afterlife, Hobson anchors abstract emotional pain in gritty physical reality.
Driven by a blunt, conversational inner monologue that rejects traditional literary pretense, Just what a words worth frames the physical act of writing as an essential lifeline for survival. This is a sharp, confrontational, and deeply honest transmission from an independent voice that refuses to compromise.