Rituals by Lorcán Black is an arrangement of vivid images and edgy, emotional writing that also grips the reader. I have shared about it gladly on my blog, along with some other poetic titles. Many thanks to the publisher for this digital advance copy.

I was honestly a little lost with this, and there was a strong disconnect between the poems themselves. Sometimes, with poetry, the reader fails to feel it, and I believe this was exactly what happened to me with this one. Some were beautiful, but most too much for me.

This poetry collection definitely has more of a classic feel to it. For everyone who likes that more than the shorter modern style, this book will be amazing. I just couldn't get into it and felt no connection to the poems. They were well crafted and I enjoyed, that the book was short and every poem felt like it had a reason to be there and wasn't just filler.

I would recommend it to anyone who likes longer, more lyrical poems. It just sadly wasn't for me.

This is a lovely collection of poetry from a talented poet and I really enjoyed reading it. There were different styles and I particularly enjoyed the dark subject matter and how the poet addressed these topics. I loved the witchcraft elements as well. There is a diversity of themes in this poetry collection, everything from mental health, parenting, and much more. I was a pleasure to read and quite a few of the poems left me thinking afterwards.

I often forget how I enjoy poetry, until I read it again. Each of us interpret a poem off the backs of our own collective experiences. Our pasts help us process what we are reading so we see it through our own eyes. This collection of poems is dark, often sad, and laced with loneliness. A few of the poems I didn't personally connect with. Possibly because I myself haven't had experiences that I can relate back to. But the imagery was strong even when I didn't connect. I particularly enjoyed Tapestry, The Snare, A Lesson in Needlework, Nightwatch, And What the Light Does to Us. The wording in those works spoke to me. If you enjoy dark poetry you may like this collection.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free digital download of this book by NetGallery in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was disappointed in this volume of work. While I knew some of the writing would be dark due to subject matter, I didn't expect the entire book to be so dismal. The writing style also seemed to evade my perception. I found it to be very rudimentary.

The book itself had a lot of blank/filler pages and could have been condensed.

I don't claim to be a poetry expert, but this one simply offered me no reading pleasure.

Thanks to NetGalley I received an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
It was hard to focus on reading Rituals but its the same with every other rituals after all. You daze off but you continue the ritual. Because it matters.
Two or three of the poems struck me like a lightening; Asylum, Aleppo

I was so excited going into this collection, especially following the first poem, but I felt most of these pieces were too literal for my taste. Very specific events were described in a beautiful fashion, but little was left up to the reader to translate for themself. The illustrations were beautiful, but also very literal depictions of the events rather than seeing the artist's interpretations of the poetry.

Thank you to NetGalley and April Gloaming Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this collection.

I gave this a two out of five stars. I didn’t connect to any of the poems and I felt like it was dragging on. I liked the illustrations and a few poems but they weren’t very memorable.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!

I'd say Rituals was a short, quick read. The poetry was thought-provoking. I enjoyed the majority of the book, although some poems just didn't hit the mark for me.

Rituals was a quick, short read. The poetry was very descriptive, although at times a little too flowy and confusing. Overall I enjoyed the book, and ended up thinking about it after I read it.

Wonderful poetry. I enjoyed the poems and they were beautiful. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing the arc

I didn’t enjoy this poetry collection at all. It was basically 100 pages of poetry and 97 pages were filler pages to make a book. The poetry wasn’t written very well and it just didn’t make any sense to me with the way the layout was completed. I won’t be reading anything else by this author..

«The window is a void in the wall / I cannot get to.»
Fortunately, he can reach our souls with a touch of delicate words frozen on ice, hot as fire, that take of all of our masks. Cuts deep into the scars, physical and metaphorical. I love the word "Rituals" and fits perfectly this set of poems, filled with fragments of very raw reality. Even if these poems are very subtle they contain a strong melancholic charge. And that's kind clever when the shape is perfect but the deep emotions pop out. Heads as balloons or the moon with it's "virginal purity". A sense of innocence that's so pleasurable to read. Not very common nowadays.

Via #netgalley

I was drawn by the cover of this book. The poetry, however, isn't one that fits with me. The topics are dark but I can't relate to them in the least and the descriptiveness of each poem is crude. I admit I don't very much mind the style in which is written as it is very realistic but the words themselves or the 'message' behind it wasn't one that resonated with me. As for the illustrations, they were fine but it was nothing eye-catching or extraordinary.
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I did enjoy a particular set of lines from Asylum:
“I was in one piece once until my mind bent and broke like a river.”

I managed to get to 50% of this book and just gave up, the topics this author writes about I just couldn’t fully connect with and a few were confusing to read.

A beautiful collection of poems mostly about the darker aspects of the mind, with some witchcraft leanings.