Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.

This collection of poetry was weird. It was dark and that's about all I got from it. I love poetry but this one just didnt do it for me. I guess her writing style just isnt for me. I could see what she was going for but it didnt cut it for me. I really loved the cover of this book though. I guess from the description I was expecting something more.

I dont know what's wrong with the e-arc version of this book but it made it very difficult to understand where a poem started and where one ended. I hope the print version is fixed up properly.

This is a weird little book.
The poetry is dark and compelling. while I didn't relate to all of it, I still found it gripping and intriguing.

I love the cover. However I struggled with the format in e book, it was hard to see where one poem finished and another started. I think the print version will be much nicer.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I read this in one sitting. Wow. I'll be honest I'm not usually the biggest fan of poetry. It is usually a territory which I stay away from but this I adored. Throughout the collections the poems showed pain, explored sexuality and touched upon topics like death in a beautifully written, contrasting but well flowing array of thoughts.

this poetry collection was a simple and fast read. it's really short, but i quite enjoyed reading it. i didn't fully connect with the writing style, it was way too simple (?) idk how to explain it 😂 and the synopsis seemed sooo intriguing, but ended up being not at all like it says lmaoo but still, if you want something warm and quick to read - i would recommend this. nothing too impressive, but somehow still warming at times xx

This collection of poetry is short but definitely not sweet – but in a good way! The topics this poet covers are not easy, but she tackles them in a raw, honest way that will touch readers. Each section of poetry is broken down by a different bone in the body (i.e. cranium, sacrum), and I really liked this touch by the author. This really added to the overall collection and presentation. I connected with some poems more than others, but I think most will find these short poems powerful and thought-provoking. Perfect for any poetry lover! 3.75 stars.

I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

'my body is two-thirds
whiskey
and one-third
ghosts'

ABSOLUTELY. FRAKKING. STUNNING POETRY.

'I think we write about ourselves so we can become creatures
we wish we could get out of our skin'

Walrath is an excellent poet and I cannot wait to read more of her poetry. ♡♡♡

It’s not much of a secret that I don’t read much poetry. For much of my life, I actively avoided it, actually, thinking it was just old white men lamenting over lost loves or confessing said love to a girl/woman they met once and never saw again. It took a long time for me to realize poetry could be used for so much more than that, and that it could find ways to reach inside and pluck heart strings you didn’t even know where there, or in tune.

The Smallest of Bones managed to do just that to me. It’s a small collection of poetry based on some of the bones in the human body. The way a description of the bone was turned into poetry was beautiful and moving. It’s hard to accurately speak on and review poetry because meaning is so incredibly subjective, moreso than other forms of writing where meaning may be come clear. Poetry has the freedom to be completely subjective, so lines that were meant by the author in one way become interpreted in ways they weren’t meant.

I enjoy the mix of beauty and un-beauty. The language used isn’t always what one might call ‘poetic.’ Lines like “I still loved the fuck out of you” are intertwined within metaphors and imagery of the fragility of flowers. The two sit alongside each other in a way that is sometimes jarring, but in a way that makes sense, that pulls meaning and delivers a punch to the gut.

The collection is very short, and as such is, for the most part, easily digestable. Any longer and it might have started to get repetitive, and the style of mixing altered faux-text book descriptions of the bones juxtaposed with the poetry may have begun to feel forced or lacked some of the meaning they were written with. Still, the words are a beautiful collection of what it means to be broken, and to put yourself back together.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love the idea of this poetry collection, but i didnt fully connect to the authors writting style. I liked that she wrote little information to the specific body part at first and then the poem, that was really interesting!
This was an average read for me, but if u are interested in this book, u perhaps should consider picking it up!
(Thank you netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc)

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.

4 on 5 stars!!

The Smallest of Bones by Holly Lyn Walrath is a weird yet hauntingly beautiful collection of poetry. I'm not very well versed when it comes to poems. But when I read some, they have to be from the horror genre, and they often talk about body horror.

When I saw that this book had a similar theme, I requested it at that very moment. And I'm glad that I did that, cause this little book beautifully manages to talk about bones, their locations in our body, and how they are impacted in conditions like trauma. The author successfully managed to intertwine our body and bones with deeper topics like love, death, and sexuality. Some of the lines in this book also reminded me of incidents from my all-time favorite horror novel, To be devoured by Sara Tatlinger!

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me a review copy via NetGalley. I appreciate it.

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.