"Our Naked Souls" is a collection of modern poetry told in four parts and covering a range of emotions from love to loss.

The poems were written so well and the different emotions the poet wanted to convey came through easily. You follow along on a full journey from the very first section all the way to the ending. The poet didn't hold back any punches when it came to their writing and it presented as a wonderful full body of work. I found myself returning to multiple poems throughout the book and rereading them because they left such a lasting impression on my mind. I also enjoyed the added artist element of them simple drawings throughout the book. I feel like they also helped to convey the over meanings the poet was striving for. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of poems by Wetch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this e-arc of "Our Naked Souls" in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this! I found it beautifully enticing. These poems take you through a great love, a heartbreak, and a self-transformation through it all. It was heart wrenching and relatable at times.

Thank you NetGalley for ARC. This was a great read the poems are raw and beautiful. I throughly enjoyed it.

Let's first talk about all the things about this book that's great. THE ART. From the cover to the pages of drawings of this book it is stunning.

However I have a slightly different thought about the poems. Yes the poems was good but that's just it, Just GOOD. I thought the writing was beautiful and to some extent I was enjoying the poems but there was something lacking. Maybe it's the way it is written. The full extent of the emotions wasn't evoked. There wasn't a connection for me. Might be because I couldn't relate to certain things that's why I didn't get the feeling but over all it was still an enjoyable read.

love this book so much. at some point, I can relate to some things inside of it. reading this book in one sitting. .

I never imagined myself DNFing a poetry book but I cannot really think of this as poetry. I like the simple modern Rupi Kaur kind of poetry (she probably wasn't the first, she was the first for me when it comes to poetry like this), but this one is overly simplistic, no deep meaning, what it says it's what is it and it is the most simplistic and boring poetry ever. It sounds mean, but... I am not sure hot to put this nicely.

"Love starts as a feeling,
But to continue is a choice;
And I find myself choosing you
More and more every day."
-Justin Wetch.

This a poetry collection about love, but how to love or how you feel when you struggle with anxiety and mental health.
I found it beautifully written, and I really enjoy it but at first I had some issues cause I feel attached but in the same way it made me nervous.
Anyway, if you like poetry, the kind were your feelings are all over the place, you should pick this up.

Our Naked Sole is a modern poetry collection that I decided to read on a whim because every now and then I like to try different books in this genre. This collection in particular deals with similar themes that these books usually have such as love, heartbreak, healing and relationship issues.
I really love both reading and writing poetry and I find that it’s something so difficult to judge sometimes because how can you make someone feel and understand your words on a deeper level, that is the struggle of a poet. With a book an author has time to delicately lay a path for the reader to follow and let the story develop over time, but poetry is meant to be direct and impactful almost immediately

this collection was not for me at all. I am really really disappointed by this collection. too cliche and not in a good way

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with an E-ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

"Our Naked Souls" by Justin Wetch was an absolutely delightful surprise. I went into this book thinking it would be very dense and difficult to understand, not realizing that it is in fact modern poetry. I was happy to see that, as it was very accessible to someone like me who often struggles with traditional poetry. "Our Naked Souls" is a poetry collection that discusses love, mental illness, social justice, and existentialism. The collection is broken up into separate sections tackling each of these topics, but I am struggling to remember how many sections there were. I believe there were five, but I could definitely be mistaken.

I thought the writing of these poems was quite beautiful. There were many lines, and sometimes even whole poems, that blew me away and that provoked both internal and external reactions from me. I deeply enjoyed the exploration of every single topic in this collection, and I never found myself rolling my eyes at the poems about love either (which I often do lol). Justin Wetch's way with words felt entirely unique, and I am eager to read more of his work.

Additionally, along with the poems, there are illustrations throughout the book by an artist named Travis Kalani. There was an illustration at the introduction of each new section, as well as some accompanying specific poems. I thought these added such a wonderful touch to the overall reading experience. They were absolutely stunning, and I immediately followed the artist on Instagram upon finishing reading the book. I don't know whether the art will be full colour in the finished copies of "Our Naked Souls", but even in black and white, they were beautiful.

Overall, this was a lovely poetry collection and it lended itself to a great reading experience for me. I would give it a 4.5/5-star rating. The only reason it's not a full 5/5-stars from me is just because I didn't find myself relating personally to a lot of the content in the poems, and therefore, it just lacked that bit of connection for me. But obviously, that is completely subjective, and I truly believe this is a great collection that a lot of people should read.

I received an arc of this book by Netgalley.

"There is a duality in all of us that demands to be acknowledged. To admit to yourself that you are only human, that you are flawed, is a step toward reconciling the irreconcilable."

The cover art for this book, is what made me initially pick this book up. It was quite the eye-catcher. I just got back into reading poetry books and this was quite a nice one to get me back up into it.

The book is separated into four chapters/parts that talk about a man falling in love, having a relationship, the ending of a relationship and life with all of the highs and lows in short.

I really liked this poetry collection even though, some of the poems were quite simplistic, but I don't feel like every poem should be convoluted and hard to grasp.
The writing wasn't as flowery a lot of the times, but more to the point. However they did really described the feeling and tone that was necessary for the poem.

The drawings by Travis Kalani were also just really beautiful and intriguing to look at whilst reading. However it was quite nice that there weren't so many that it took away attention from the words.
Chapter three and four hit me the most, where Justin Wetch writes more about mental health, being an artist, society and life in general. I felt like I could really relate to that.

Delicate illustrations but the poetry is very naive, the kind that you write when you are in primary school...I can understand that there is a certain kind of adult sensibility which resonate with this kind of rhymes but it failed to get my attention and interest so far.

[ESP]
Tristemente pensé que Our Naked Souls me ayudaría a amigarme con la poesía, pero me encontré con mucho amor romántico clásico y muy pocas poesías que realmente me gustasen.

[ENG]
Sadly, I though that Our Naked Souls would help me to be friended with poetry but, instead, I found myself reading about romance in a way that I didn't enjoy at all.
Therefore, I would recommend Our Naked Soul to you If you love the poetry and love every aspect of the romantic love.

This is a poetry collection on love, life, heartbreak, growth, hope, dreams, and much more. Justin Wetch writes so beautifully. It is heartfelt, beautiful, relatable, hitting! I was even on the verge of crying sometimes. I absolutely enjoyed it! Totally recommended!

I think that poetry is hard to rate, how do you rate someone else’s feelings? And I’m no expert in the field so the only way I can say wether I like it or not is by understanding what it made me feel, specially how much it connected to me and unfortunately this one didn’t connect as much.
The collection is divided into four sections, each one of them talking about a different aspect of life, love and art. I really like the second one, which deals with heartbreak and the first one had some beautiful ideas too, however I just couldn’t connect with the last part and that was such a let down for me.
Even so, I think that someone might relate and find comfort in this, so if this sounds appealing to you, I would still encourage you to read it

Although the poems were easy to read and understand, I found them to be quite repetitive. This collection would have benefited from having some poems edited out. The illustrations though were very nice. Overall, this was a quick and pleasant read, although it was a bit lacking in complexity and originality.

There are 4 parts in this book but I think I loved part 1 & 2 more than 3 & 4. Goshh it's hard to review poem because it come from the heart. Ohh btw I loved few poems but I forgot to list out the one that I love 🤣

"We must build a bridge
Between our love languages
So that I can speak enough of yours
And you enough of mine.

Understand that no two people
Perceive love exactly the same:
There are as many dialects of love
As there are perceptions of reality.

-Kings and Queen of Bridges Burned"

Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel for providing me with a temporary e-arc.

'Our Naked Souls' is the second poetry collection by Justin Wetch tackling the most universal and daunting human experience—love. In this collection, Justin, with poetry, lays bare a spectacular love, a devastating heartbreak, and a spiritual self-transformation along the way.

Divided into 4 sections: Naked Souls, Broken Hearts, Weary Spirits and Cosmic Minds, 'Our Naked Souls' is a moving collection of soft and unfeigned modern poetry & prose poetry.
The collections seems to be a collective experience-like story which begins from being in love, so blinding & deep, cheesy & heart-warming and full of passion & desire (Naked Souls) TO what one might think to be the end- the separation and the heartbreak after experiencing such love (Broken Hearts). But instead, it reminds us that it is not the end and explores coming in-terms with life &its intricacies, realising it is alright to seek help, the idea of knowing the need for healing from such emotional & psychological distress, acceptance and finally, taking the first few steps towards healing (Weary Spirits). To end with, it explores seeing the beauty of it all, appreciation for music & art, cosmos & multiverse, power/revolution and philosophy (Cosmic Minds).

With metaphors and imagery of cosmos, physics and chemistry to explore love and existence, Justin Wench's writings are bound to steal the hearts of those who love such metaphors and imagery with his simple and beautiful usage of them. I suck at identifying fonts by their given names, but the font used in this collection took me back to my childhood and stirred nostalgia inside me about all the times I read poetry printed with the same font. I think it was a standard font used to print poetry books, mainly classics, back in my day (I say it like I am 81 when I haven't even been alive for two whole decades LOL.) The font made my reading experience stir some strong feelings inside me like how one constant thought in my head was how this was what that made me adore poetry in the first place. The font and the themes of the collection (which I am a sucker for, GIMME EXISTENTIALISM AND MAKE ME SO FREAKIN SAD AND PLANT SOME COOL ASS IMAGES IN MY HEAD BORN OUT OF THE METAPHORS USED) crashed my mind in figuring out the styles of poetry but they are written pretty fine!

The illustrations are gorgeous and thought-provoking . You can stare at it for hours wondering about the details and how they complement the poetry they are associated with. Special shoutout to the illustrator for that!

And finally, there was something about this book drew my energy to it in a way that I haven't experienced in a long time! I would advise you to not take my rating seriously (my ratings are personal rather than critical, unlike my reviews) and go for this, this is far too good to pass on. And if you are someone who is beginning to explore the genre and sick of getting recommended to check out Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur, this collection by Justin Wetch is perfect. Also, this is truly a nice and quick read for fans of Nikita Gill.

Rating: 3.5/5

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for making this book available to me via #Netgalley.
I have fallen into the world of poetry and this book is a great addition to the list of poetry books I have read this year. This book follows the journey of a lover who seems to understand the importance and inevitability of finding and losing love as he struggles through social, mental, physical restrictions. There is the exposure of man's inner workings and how vulnerable we as people are.
There are so many poems that I have come to love in this book, poems like "Clovers" that expresses the importance of finding love through hope, "Love is like magic" which expresses the requirement of love and how giving yourself fully into love increases the possibility of it lasting longer
"Love demands unshakable faith;
The more you believe in it
Without hesitation or vacillation
The more love transcends possibility"
Then there are poems like "The Tree of Life" that expresses the fragility of love and how it needs to be cultivated. I think one of my favorite poems has to be "Act II", here 'love like a fairytale' is exposed and one is reminded that Falling in love isn't the end of the story, it is just the middle and the tribulations come after and you have to work hard to maintain your love. Love is not immune to anything, it can crumble and fall if not cultivated with care and dedication.

Then there is also "Captive"
"I am a prisoner of your memory, A captive of possibility" when love is lost all that is left is memories you become a slave for all the things that you could have done differently.
There are so many poems that I could just chant over and over again because they are just so lovely and hard-hitting and a few I really loved include
"Art becomes complete"
"Selfish"
"These Words"
I hope you check this book.

I thought this was a pretty strong poetry read. Many of the poems are emotion-evoking and the imagery is solid, but not all of the poems had that impact. I like the different sections of the poetry, I found the poems about love the most powerful. The two poems that come to mind the most is Lying in Bed and Drive with Me! I really liked those two. The illustrations are killer! The fact that they take up a lot of the page without disturbing the poems is spectacular.