Interesting premise to group together a collection focusing on longing. Longing for love, companionship, blood.
Some lovely lines in here but could have gone deeper.

I’m not usually one for poetry and I often find I can’t connect well with them at all, but I wanted to give this a go as I love the idea of a poetry collection from the POV of a vampire. I’m really happy I did — La Petite Mort by Eli Wilde did not disappoint.

La Petite Mort is a collection of poems by the vampire Rufus Hobster. The poems explore his feelings on immortal life, his relationship with God and a woman named Elise. It’s a soul-crushing and emotional collection that makes it impossible to not feel a connection to Rufus and it’s a perfect book for anyone who loves vampires.

Eli Wilde has done an exceptionally good job portraying the emotions of an immortal who has lived for hundreds of years, who struggles with his feelings on immortality, humanity and everything in between. It also feels absolutely perfect to write a poetry collection from the POV of a vampire, as you can imagine only an immortal would have the range of emotions that rarely can be carried onto paper by mere mortals.

I’m still new with poetry and I’m still not sure how I feel about poetry in general, but I did enjoy this collection a lot and for once, I also felt I could understand the different poems and the emotions they tried conveying. A definite recommendation for anyone who’s into gothic poetry and vampires — but also for anyone who is new to poetry!

Thank you NetGalley and Eli Wilde for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me a copy of La Petite Mort by Eli Wilde in exchange of honest review. Never experienced reading a gothic-horror poetry before, but this booked definitely hooked me up on this genre for sure.

This book is not your typical poetry book because Rufus Hobster, A vampire, write this book. It’s first person POV, rufus tell us a hauntingly poetry for his journey as a vampire, before he met Elise, during Elise and past Elise. And each prose is just so beautifully haunting and I’m just so mesmerized by it!

It’s a collection of poem from Rufus experience as a vampire, around 100 pages, quick read and entertaining, daunting but still fun to read too! It’s definitely more suitable for adult audience.

La Petite Mort is about Rufus, a vampire and basically him exploring his feelings through it.

It’s an ambitious book. Sadly for me, it doesn’t work. Couldn’t connect and did not find a gothic appeal. While I enjoy this culture, I think the feelings were a mere representation of a “fight” or conversation with “god” rather than a collection of beautiful thoughts.

I'm always a little hesitant to review poetry because it's always a little harder to critique. Just because it's not a voice that resonates with me; doesn't mean it won't resonate with someone else.

That said, while this wasn't my favorite collection, it had moments that I did adore. "I loved you before I met you" will always warm my heart and I found that the passages at the beginning and closer to the end were much more enjoyable and easier to consume.

During the middle portion, it felt that the words became inflated just to be inflated. It didn't add anything to the storytelling or the narrative voice, and just became a bit repetitive over time. I understand wanting to use the perfect word, especially in poetry when every word not only should, but kind of has to serve purpose; but it started to seem like words that seemed "cinematic" were just being thrown in.

Overall, I found this to be a cohesive work with a clear vision and told the story well; I just feel that it could have been condensed a little more and a little more to the point. 3.75/5

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Gorgeous cover art coupled with an interesting synopsis, I was looking forward to reading this one. I think this would appeal to romantics, and especially to Twilight fans. I don't often read poetry, and I must say this one just wasn't for me. The melancholic longing told through flowery language and some rhymes got a little too redundant for me. I did like there was an overall theme and story told throughout instead of a bunch of random poems jumbled together. But, I noticed the same words and same things being said over and over, so it lost my interest pretty quickly. Like I said, readers who enjoy supernatural romance may really love this, but it wasn't for me. I will still check out more from Eli Wilde because I do appreciate anything in the horror and horror-adjacent genres!

I was quite a few poems in before I realized the story that was unfolding. We follow a vampire that is living a relatively mundane dead existence through a series of poems. He contemplates his soul, God, his insatiable hunger, and his own self-hatred at what he has become. But then he comes across a woman and finds himself obsessively in love with her. He finds new things to ponder, his existence, his undying love, and his tainted relationship with God. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece of work. The first couple of poems at felt very bland basic vampire thoughts but after finishing the book, I think that is the point. It's definitely a slow burn in the beginning. You should give this book a shot if you like passion in the face of death, grappling with your own soul's existence, and hauntingly beautiful writing.

My favorite poems were SINGULARITY, CHOLERA MORBUS, PSYCHOSIS, DETATCHED, SHORTCUT TO A DREAM, MARKED, FOOTPRINTS IN THE RAIN, FAINT SMLE OF THE SUN- for their stimulating descriptions and lovely words that particularly moved me. I would like to thank the author Eli Wilde for writing this and thank you to the publisher who has allowed me to view this work ahead of its release date.

Thank you net galley for providing me with a free copy of "La Petite Mort" in exchange for a honest review.

The book was haunting and beautiful in ways that exceeded my expectations. While I don't consider myself a poetry reader, Eli Wilde is really pushing me into diving more to the poetry genre with writing such master pieces.

Love and grief although main topics of the book do not make an immediate appearance. There are so many poems at the beginning regarding what I considered to be depression and feelings of hopelessness along with self destruction and the selfishness often accompanying it. The religious mentions were also brilliant. One could feel the love, loss, sadness and despair of the main character. Also poems discussing innocence and it's loss.


I was mesmerized from start to finish and there were at most 3 poems that I didn't enjoy. Overall an extremely underrated and great read.

This was a short and powerful collection of darkly romantic poems. Many were incredibly beautiful, although some felt too forced and angsty for me.

An interesting story full of twists, turns, fun characters and overall a book I would consider reading time and time again.

Rufus Hobster is a vampire and this is a book of poetry written from his perspective. it is beautiful and intricate. I truly enjoyed reading this. thank you netgalley for the ARC

A collection of stories told through poems, written by a vampire. While I’m not sure if it was the subject matter, the genre, or the format, I just could not enjoy this book. I found it hard to connect or get immersed in the story. That is not to say it was poorly written. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m sure there are people out there who will enjoy it though.

I am not usually a poetry reader. However, I was immediately drawn to the description of this book and it's topics of vampires and love. It had a meloncholy feeling throughout these poems that lingered until the very end. I think I would have given this 5 stars if there hadn't been so many God or religious references.

Thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Eli Wilde for the opportunity to read La Petite Mort in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a story-based collection of poems told from a vampire's perspective. Only about 100 pages long, this collection is a quick read, but not the same as a hi-lo novel that you find more for teen audiences. This is definitely an adult selection of poetry.

Rufus Hobster is a vampire, and his romantic tale and spiral into mental darkness is told through his poetic visions.

There is a lot to say about the depth of each poem and how it tells Rufus' tale and explores his relationship. He continually mentions "the virus," which I took as being a vampire, as I have read books before about vampirism as a disease. Another take on "the virus" could be how depresseion/mental illness affects the mind, consuming someone like a virus taking over. Either way, there is a lot to take in from Wilde's word choice.

The collection delves othen into synesthesia, or the use of the five senses to help the reader experience the world how Rufus does. There are some great metaphors throughout the collection, especially in relation to religion/holy aspects that are intriguing, as there is the stigma of vampires being specifically unholy.

The poems hint at Elise, a human lover who may yet become a vampire. Per the book description, the loss of Elise is what brings Rufus into his downward mental spiral. At one point, it is hard to determine what is real versus what is all in his head versus what is merely a dream.

Overall a really enjoyable collection that tells a story. I fell like the poetic structure could be played with a bit more, with the poems exploring different line or word breaks. Excellent word choice and a really fun way to explore the vampire perspective.

I actually downloaded and read two books of Wilde’s at the same time, thinking that between his poetry and prose, I’d get an idea of what his writing is like. Not for me, apparently.
I didn’t like the short story collection and gave it one star and these poems I liked much, much less and one can’t go any lower rating-wise on GR, so there it is, still a one.
These are poems written by a fictitious vampire presumably providing author an interesting remove. They read kinda sorta like a vampire had written them–The Twilight brand of a vampire that is. Which is to say twee and overwrought and tritely sentimental by the way of a lovelorn goth teen.
But at least it’s a very, very quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

Beautiful little collection of free verse poetry. This book is easy to read. I finished it quickly. Rufus is a vampire who writes poetry. The collection mixes melancholy of life, but also of his growing love for the love of his life (and for eternity).

3.75

"Am I merely a voiceless choir? A congregation waiting, still and expectant, watching with eyes that never see."

I honestly quite like this poetry collection. It's fragmented yet carries vivid imagery of the character's perspective and emotions. Every line is full of intense longing, passion, and sadness which I very much enjoy devouring. However, the end part fell short and lacks a bit of an impact for me. Overall, it's a raw and promising stream-of-consciousness poetry collection.

I'm typically not a fan of poetry, but this is actually a quick fun read. Many parts where I was uncomfortable and I'm not quite sure if that was the intention but it definitely did it well.

"Rufus Hobster is a vampire.
He writes poetry."

Really good poetry.
I struggle so much with poetry, I really want to like it so I try time and again to give it a go. It barely ever works and I end up feeling like I just don’t understand it. But then books like La Petite Mort come around and my hope is restored, absolutely brilliant!

La Petite Mort is a short collection of free verse poetry about a vampire longing for his eternal bride. The poems are, as you’d expect, melancholic and thematise death and the afterlife as well as love and lust. Did I find the poems groundbreaking? No. Did they stir my emotions? Some did, yes. We will never understand what it means to live eternally, but through art we can at least imagine what it could be like. Recommended to lovers of anything vampire who don’t shy away from free verse poetry.