I picked this work up at StokerCon, where it was recommended to me as worthwhile if I wanted to check out more horror poetry. While it came with some trigger warnings, none of those warnings are ones which normally affect me, so I looked forward to digging in. And, well...I finally did.

The truth is, I don't understand why or how this could have been recommended. I've got wide-ranging tastes in poetry, but I couldn't force myself to get through most of the longer poems, and in general, this simply felt incredibly underwhelming. Many of the poems felt like they were still in rough-draft form and weren't publication ready, and so many moments felt as if they'd been built only for shock value, I had a hard time enjoying any of the works here. There were some moments and lines that struck me as powerful, but unfortunately, they only seemed to make it clearer that a lot of the poems weren't living up to their full potential or had been rushed to publication. Or maybe the final result here is the absolute intention, shock value above all, but if that's the case, it's just not for me. I've read some horror poetry I loved, but I'm afraid I can't really find anything here to speak highly of, much as it pains me to say that. ( )