A gorgeous, haunting, terrifying, scary, but also utterly beautiful collection of poetry.

So I found out about Haunt Publishing sometime this year and when I saw they had a kickstarter to get their newest works up I knew I had to help out. I supported this book and two others that are set to release in 2022 and further. I was delighted when in November I got the mail with the epub/pdf for this book. And after the week I had (writing this one on 10-12) I could use something dark and haunting so I decided to read it. And WOW.

These poems are dark. They are haunting. They are at times scary. Sometimes gory. And some are surprisingly light-hearted (like the Tinder one). But with the exception of one poem (corona), I read through them all. It wasn’t always easy, but my curiosity got the better of me. I just wanted to know how things would go. See what would happen next. I was just mesmerized by the beauty and darkness. These poems will stick to me for a while.

Here are a few parts I loved:
From The Visit:
“They dig themselves out, fingers raw,
scraps on bone, hair frayed loose on scalps.
Deep inside the grey matter, memories
turn nuts and bolts of consciousness.”

From Hikikomori
“Sitting on the train
colours ran away from me
as the world scrolled past
fading everything
to monochrome
the vibrant trees and hills
and the passengers
who
hung
lifeless and grey
hand-hoooked
on hand-rails”

The Thing on the Subway:
“I sat down and there it was again,
like the previous night and the night
before, six seats down in the carriage,
alone, rigid and pale as a pile of bones.”

I loved that these poems weren’t always the standard format of verses after verses, hope that makes sense, but at times also would break apart, fall apart, words go up and down.

A big big PLUS goes to the trigger/content warnings that are given at the beginning of the book. That way I could prepare myself for what was to come. More books should add trigger/content warnings, sadly many don’t. And I definitely need them.

I loved that we were going through stages of decay and that the poems fit well with that stage. I loved how each stage was announced with a beautiful artwork with the name of the stage in it.

All in all, beautiful and haunting and I am happy I supported the kickstarter and that I got to read this book. It was just what I needed at the moment. Recommended to all.