I think this book has a lot of potential, I like the darker aspect to the poems but the e-arc made it extremely hard to tell where one poem stopped and another started. It was pretty much just a jumble of words. If this comes our in print I will definitely pick it up.

thanks to NetGalley for giving me this!


this was interesting at first but i don't really like it. it's my first shot at a poetry book this year and it was just an 'okay' experience. is this the best poetry book i've ever read? no, doesn't even come close to my favorites. i didn't vibe with the writing style and it didn't make sense most of the times. some lines slapped but that was that.

I was really excited to read this as I love a poetry collection and the cover and description of this one really intrigued me.
Unfortunately I really didn't enjoy my reading experience with this. I think i understand what Walrath was trying to do, but I just didn't connect to her writing style.
It was really beautiful in some places, but then incredibly crude in others that caught me offgard.

Not for me.

This poetry collection is a little treasure. Not only each and every poem is a gem, the general idea of writing poems inspired by the bones, by the hard facts about them and transform those facts in a lyrical way to talk about love, sex, desire, violence, I think is brilliant.
Thank you for letting me read this book in advance and for putting this author on my radar!

Well... I’ve never read anything like this. This novel is a set of poems that are centered around our bones, but it’s so much more then that!

It’s about love, hate, passion, fear and wants.

This is a very intriguing novel of poems.

Yep... I liked it a lot.

A small collection of lovely poems. I really enjoyed reading the poems in this book and this would make a great read for anyone who likes poetry.

*Thanks Netgalley and CLASH Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

The poetry book was not what I expected but there was some lovely poems in there and it is easy to read this book that I will come back to again .
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

I retesting concept for a poetry book. I was expecting more than I got, but it wasn’t bad. I would read her again.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**


Holly Lyn Walrath presents a poetry collection, The Smallest of Bones, discussing a broad variety of topics including relationships, queerness, ghosts, and darkness. NetGalley also chose to classify this work as Horror in addition to Poetry.

I find poetry in particular to be incredibly difficult to review. A reader's experience with poetry is so incredibly subjective and the composition of poetry is so widely varied that it is hard to point at a poem and differentiate between a "good" or "bad" poem, let alone a "well-written" versus "poorly-written" one. That being said, I will try to present facts as I see them to guide other readers who have interest in this collection.

Walrath's poetry style is consistent with the short-form "instagram-type" poetry which has been popular in recent years. Some poems may have a few stanzas, and others may have a line or two with deliberate formatting. Walrath also writes in a manner that I perceive as being raw and laying the words bare rather than engaging in a lot of double entendre or wordsmithing. I do not have any particular personal complaints about Walrath's poetry style.

Each section of the collection was broken up by Walrath addressing a particular bone of the body. These paragraph style installments were most enjoyable to me.

Overall, I didn't find myself particularly connected to this collection, but that would not prevent me from recommending it to others. I appreciate the content of the collection and wish Walrath much success with its launch.

I loved the description of this poetry book, but I just couldn’t get into it. I expected more from it. Nothing was relatable to me.

The Smallest of Bones, Holly Lyn Walrath 3/5

A small collection of intimate poetry framed around the bones of the human body.

This beautiful collection manages to cover love, death, gender, darkness, sexuality and love all within a small scope of intimately carved poems. Haunting and timely, this small collection will remain on the mind for a long time.