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soulsow's review against another edition
1.0
I did'nt connect with it at all, it felt blurry and confusing. It tried to be deep talking about some things but were only grazing the surface and very vague. The only thing I could get is that it was dark. There was a good idea though, it has potential.
zj5's review against another edition
3.0
I’ll start by saying that while this isn’t my favourite style of poetry, I was surprised to find myself returning again and again to some of these miniscule poems.
The Smallest of Bones is filled with ideas on gender, sex, sexuality, and feminism. Each brought into brief existence through scant, unpunctuated lines. Most are affecting but others feel better suited for inspirational Facebook posts. They’re not bad but the brevity and structure can too easily distract from the intended meaning.
On the other hand, the consistency of theme is to be admired. Walrath begins each section to a rundown on a particular human bone and then expands on it with condensed emotion and minute anatomical imagery. We travel down from the cranium to the mandible and then the sternum all the way down and back around to the spine before stopping at the temporal bones at the ears. It’s as much a tour of heartbreak and existence as it is an anatomy textbook.
I don’t know that I would classify much of it as horror but there’s definitely a macabre feeling throughout the book. It’s a quick read but one that, when it connects, will have you flipping back to your favourites.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley
The Smallest of Bones is filled with ideas on gender, sex, sexuality, and feminism. Each brought into brief existence through scant, unpunctuated lines. Most are affecting but others feel better suited for inspirational Facebook posts. They’re not bad but the brevity and structure can too easily distract from the intended meaning.
On the other hand, the consistency of theme is to be admired. Walrath begins each section to a rundown on a particular human bone and then expands on it with condensed emotion and minute anatomical imagery. We travel down from the cranium to the mandible and then the sternum all the way down and back around to the spine before stopping at the temporal bones at the ears. It’s as much a tour of heartbreak and existence as it is an anatomy textbook.
I don’t know that I would classify much of it as horror but there’s definitely a macabre feeling throughout the book. It’s a quick read but one that, when it connects, will have you flipping back to your favourites.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley
twilliamson's review against another edition
5.0
The Smallest of Bones has the biggest of hearts when it comes to poetry, and Holly Lyn Walrath has to be one of the finest voices I've encountered in this style of dark poetry. In every poem, Holly manages to weave a familiar emotional yearning, a reaction to human fragility that seems to infect every living system of our beings, so that there can be little discernment between love and pain, desire and destruction, agency and enslavement.
Walrath's poems are packed with symbolic significance, in spite of some of their brevity. Her concision and consistency in voice pitches her work into higher elevation, even as her subject matter remains rooted somewhere in the guts, shivering in the spine or along the mandible of a body.
I love this collection, and it hits the human, emotional beats I desperately crave from poetry. She delivers a startling wit, a righteousness in pointing out injustices especially as it comes to sex and agency, and a collection of poetry that acts as a study of human fragility that cries out to be read.
So read it.
Walrath's poems are packed with symbolic significance, in spite of some of their brevity. Her concision and consistency in voice pitches her work into higher elevation, even as her subject matter remains rooted somewhere in the guts, shivering in the spine or along the mandible of a body.
I love this collection, and it hits the human, emotional beats I desperately crave from poetry. She delivers a startling wit, a righteousness in pointing out injustices especially as it comes to sex and agency, and a collection of poetry that acts as a study of human fragility that cries out to be read.
So read it.
librarian_katie's review against another edition
2.0
The Smallest of Bones is a strange poetry collection, split into different sections named after various bones. I did not really enjoy this, as it was strangely formatted, and hard to tell where one poem ended and another began.
chasingholden's review against another edition
5.0
"Hiding our hearts is easy when we have so many bones"
"A man
once asked how I got so thin
I told him I was made of glass"
The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lyn Walrath is an amazing, beautiful, and powerful collection! With shards of bone and glass I felt safe to curl up between my ribcage right alongside the little ball of pain I've lodged there for safe keeping, and truly explore myself, my experiences, and the world in relation to everything from sexuality to religion to the darkness that comes along with being alive.
Perhaps it is because I myself have always used bone's and the human body in my own private writing to express various feelings I was forcefully drawn to this collection for word one. I literally could not put it down (I tried, lasted all of five minutes) and I felt a strange rush of comfort and connection with the words so perfectly chosen by Holly Lyn Walrath. It is a collection that I will be purchasing for my own collection as soon as I possibly can, for there is a spot on my shelf screaming to be filled with this book and only this book. I have been searching for a collection like this for so long, I feel like I can finally breathe having finally found The Smallest of Bones which far exceeded anything I had hoped to find.
Highly recommended!
Thank you so much to Netgalley, and of course Holly Lyn Walrath and publishers for granting me an ecopy in exchange for my honest opinion. I can happily and truthfully lend my opinion.
"A man
once asked how I got so thin
I told him I was made of glass"
The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lyn Walrath is an amazing, beautiful, and powerful collection! With shards of bone and glass I felt safe to curl up between my ribcage right alongside the little ball of pain I've lodged there for safe keeping, and truly explore myself, my experiences, and the world in relation to everything from sexuality to religion to the darkness that comes along with being alive.
Perhaps it is because I myself have always used bone's and the human body in my own private writing to express various feelings I was forcefully drawn to this collection for word one. I literally could not put it down (I tried, lasted all of five minutes) and I felt a strange rush of comfort and connection with the words so perfectly chosen by Holly Lyn Walrath. It is a collection that I will be purchasing for my own collection as soon as I possibly can, for there is a spot on my shelf screaming to be filled with this book and only this book. I have been searching for a collection like this for so long, I feel like I can finally breathe having finally found The Smallest of Bones which far exceeded anything I had hoped to find.
Highly recommended!
Thank you so much to Netgalley, and of course Holly Lyn Walrath and publishers for granting me an ecopy in exchange for my honest opinion. I can happily and truthfully lend my opinion.
larissalee's review against another edition
4.0
The poems in each section of this book read like one larger piece, while also standing alone as glimpses into someone else's story. It was a refreshing and interesting way to approach a poetry collection, and the poems bled smoothly out of section introductions that described the bones in focus: cranium, mandible, sternum, and so forth. The mix of technical detail and poetry gave the poems that followed each intro greater depth.
(Note: my ebook ARC edition didn't include any art, and that's the only thing I think this collection was missing. Between a lack of formatting to truly separate the poem and a lack of anatomical art to go with each bone-themed section, I feel like they're missing out on an opportunity to create a collection full of aesthetic beauty to go with the poems themselves.)
(Note: my ebook ARC edition didn't include any art, and that's the only thing I think this collection was missing. Between a lack of formatting to truly separate the poem and a lack of anatomical art to go with each bone-themed section, I feel like they're missing out on an opportunity to create a collection full of aesthetic beauty to go with the poems themselves.)
cbfredriks's review against another edition
4.0
I just wish I knew which way to go when I get lost
*Thank you to Netgalley and CLASH Books for sending me an e-arc in return for my honest review.*
4/5
A book full of poems inspired by bones. Sounds weird at first I admit, but this is very much worth the ride. The author manages to weave facts about bones that sound rather dry when you look at them out of context into an exploration of trauma, love, death and sexuality. The poems captured me completely and I couldn't look away from start to finish.
*Thank you to Netgalley and CLASH Books for sending me an e-arc in return for my honest review.*
4/5
A book full of poems inspired by bones. Sounds weird at first I admit, but this is very much worth the ride. The author manages to weave facts about bones that sound rather dry when you look at them out of context into an exploration of trauma, love, death and sexuality. The poems captured me completely and I couldn't look away from start to finish.
poetryandsolitude's review against another edition
2.0
I was really intrigued by the theme of this book and excited to read it, but my expectations were not matched . I liked the in-between short descriptions, some parts of the poems were beautifully written, too. The topics it tries to cover could be really interesting (ghosts, sexuality, love — among others) but the writing style of the poems and the actual poems didn’t really win me over. They appear to be, at least in my opinion, very simple and cheap. This whole thing reminds me of Rupi Kaur poetry which I also disliked.
gruhuken's review against another edition
3.0
A short, vivid and visceral exploration of sexuality, abuse and bodily autonomy. I never quite know how to review poetry aside from how much I connect and feel whilst reading this and I definitely connected and felt the pain of the author. I also thought that the metaphor of old-fashioned anatomy did a great job of capturing the themes of this poems
steministkendra's review against another edition
4.0
I’m quite honestly not the best with poetry I don’t understand some of the metaphorical writing but what I did understand I loved! Some the the lines in this was outstanding the lines about love hit me hard. I may be wrong but some of the poems reminded me of a toxic and or abusive relationship with a partner. Definitely not what I was expecting but very impactful.
I think the only reason it wasn’t five stars was the formatting but I know some poems do this to highlight specific things I just never really enjoy it as much.
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc of The Smallest Of Bones.
I think the only reason it wasn’t five stars was the formatting but I know some poems do this to highlight specific things I just never really enjoy it as much.
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc of The Smallest Of Bones.