Arc provided by netgalley for an honest review ✨


I will probably not remember the poems from this poetry collection but I appreciate the work the author put into it. A lot of beauty can be added to this book by the poet himself.

The Quick Cut: A book of poetry that captures the inner feelings and motivations of Dacre Montgomery. 

A Real Review: Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.   
 If you have internet and Netflix, there's a pretty good chance you've heard of Dacre Montgomery. An actor who played Billy on the show, he's known for his ability to play a part. However, in his first book, he's written a number of poems that speak to his inner battles with his OCD, along with all the feelings that condition comes with. 
 It's a rare occasion when I willingly read poetry. Sorry, but I was the girl in high school who would groan when we got to the poetry section of the class and never understood what they were talking about. However, what Dacre does with these sets of poems is more than just words. What he's written speaks to the inner battles a person can have, whether it be anxiety, depression, or any other form of psychologically based condition. With each page that he wrote, it felt like someone was writing to me and talking to some of the struggles I've been through with my own situation. That's a powerful ability when sometimes anxiety can eat you up and empty you out as a person. Even if you're a person who has a hard time relating to others, it was hard for me not to relate to this. 
 The book includes an introduction where Dacre talks a bit about his life and what motivated him to publish this collection of poetry. The poems themselves are broken up into four sections: Fear, Love, Anxiety and Spirit. Each one has its own rhythm to it, but I did find myself preferring that final section, Spirit. 
 Whether its good or bad, Dacre Montgomery manages to powerfully capture the internal battles we all experience throughout life. 
My rating: 5 out of 5

2/5 Stars.
Not my cup of tea. None of the poems really struck with me, found a lot of the repetitiveness and the rhyme unnecessary. Some were plain confusing or just boring.

Best wishes for Dacre's poetry career!
Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful collection of relatable and intimate poems and poetries. Each poem in this book is unique and original. The book is divided into four parts: Fear, Love, Anxiety and Spirit, each expressing a different part of herself. I found the illustrations in between the pages intriguing and they give a new perspective to the readers. The poetries contains analogy and metaphors throughout the pages. The poems are empowering and full of emotions.
The cover is interesting and piques the interest of the readers

DKMH: Poems by Dacre Montgomery
Andrews McMeel Publishing

(my poetic response)

Staccato; reads like bullets

Shot through grocery lists

Pellets piercing silhouette targets.

A cadence, a short march;

A waltz, stepping on toes

By rhyme.



Dacre Montgomery, Stranger Things star, has a book of poems. With lines as pointed and bulleted, and with rhymes that almost get cheesy, a curt, yet deep character emanates from unpretentious words. The book is fairly dark, not lacking in hope, but not quite emerging from egocentric sorrow. It is accompanied by illustrations of continuous line-art silhouettes which represent, visually, the very minimalist style that Montgomery writes in. And like these illustrations, despite the minimalism, his poems provide complicated space between simplicity, and tell a much richer story than the sparse words could normally tell.


As an aspiring poet, I learned a lot from this book, yet it is not a read for everybody.

As a big fan of the podcast, I was really excited to get into more of Montgomery's poetry. I really enjoy his writing style and descriptions. However, I will say I do think I enjoy the poetry more as it's read and performed by Dacre himself rather than reading it in a book. That being said, I really did enjoy the poems here still. It's a very modern and brusk style.

For a debut it’s not bad. Obviously there needs to be touching up to do. But I not gonna lie, it was still a pleasant read!

In the beginning of the collection there is an introduction piece, and man do I wish the rest of it would be in the same style. That introduction was amazing. I could relate to every line, in each confession I recognized myself. I don't even remember when was the last time that something effected me so deeply. So it was especially disappointing that the rest of this collection did not compare. The poems were disjointed and did not make much sense. I don't remember even one that impacted me, unfortunately.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The poems are bland and there's nothing special or memorable in the book really. It's weird in a different way.

It was unique to include a recommended playlist of songs to listen to while reading. It helped set the tone of the poetry however I did think some of them lack proper flow and while nice thoughts to read overall it did lack memorability. A spoken word format would have been better to add depth.

Poems you can really relate. I loved the art as well but my honest opinion is that it was to short.

Thank you NetGalley and Dacre Montgomery for this ARC.

Another collection of poems from the author of Stranger Things. These poems were extremely different and brought a unique perspective that I enjoyed

My opinions of this are so neutral that it's almost as if I have no opinion at all. I didn't find any poems or lines that will really stick with me, and I didn't find these to be that well composed or moving. I imagine that hearing these performed would add an emotional element that is missing in this for me, which is unfortunate. I often find that slam poetry is written in a way that just falls flat and reads as immature, and that's the case here. The good thing is that at least it's better than Rupi Kaur.