I hadn't fully realised this book of poems was going to be quite so religious however I still really enjoyed the collection.

It was very nicely written and the flow of the love theme was beautiful.

Thank you for the arc.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it. The Plot was amazing and I can't wait for others to read it too.

Ultimately I am not the right reader for this collection. It was a bit more spiritual than I can connect with. There was a bit more of a traditional, less modern viewpoint on love and relationships than I have, so it just wasn't the book for me.

I found the language of the poetry to be stagnant and uninspired. The poems almost felt like I was reading someone's journal prompts rather than well-honed craft. There were some interesting lines that were rather thought-provoking but overall, I didn't find that the poems really spoke to me overall. Perhaps an older audience steeped in church culture and tradition would enjoy this book far more but it just wasn't it for me.

I really liked this. I appreciated the biblical stories symbolism and the poetic writing style that was exhibited in this book.

The "stars" in "The Oracles of Our Stars" are the ones in the eyes of a young couple. Apparently they've been very close, but they separate. So, like Tanya Mills' "Worthless," this is a losing love story. Like Mills, Seropian has an impressive talent for expressing the feelings of people who have noble ideals and fall short of them..

Before girls go to college they should be aware of the kind of guys whose notion of spiritual love includes exploiting girls' bodies and moving quickly away. Spiritual love, friendship, brother-sister love between people who are not ready for marriage, are beautiful things that should never be sullied by any carnalities like extended hand-holding. Guys like Seropian's speaking characters are the cause of the depression of girls like Mills' speaking characters. They also cause unwanted pregnancies and STDs.

I think this book would have been better written after the author had studied authors like C.S. Lewis and Elisabeth Elliot. However, considered strictly as free-verse poetry, it's well written and charming. :Love of friends, love of country, love of humanity, and love of God are discussed as often as the love of the girl the speaker abandoned, in a voice that sometimes seems merely earnest but usually seems lucid and insightful. It's not for the starry-eyed, but it's a heart-warming read for mature people who are or were happily married.

I smiled at the fatuity of lines like "if you are not insane you are not in love," but then again I felt moved by "Lebanon will rise with love in its heart." If you are ready for meditations on how a nation might rise with love in its heart, this book is for you.

The thoughts behind the words were often insightful and inspired me as a reader to truly reflect on myself. I appreciated the biblical analogies and the breaking down of God’s word into beautiful, digestible pieces. However, about half of the poems were about faith and how to grow as a Christian while the other half were about romantic heartbreak. These lost-love focused poems I thought were redundant and sometimes even sloppy. They disrupted the flow of the collection and didn’t transition out of or into the faith poems well at all. I think if these poems were broken up into 2 different collections with 2 separate, clear themes then that would have changed my opinion of it as a whole.

Received it as an ARC via Netgalley from Serge Seropian in exchange for a review.

It’s been a nice read. I liked a lot of the poems within the collection. Just a few didn’t really click with me. But that’s okay. Poetry is really personal. So, yeah. It was alright.

I enjoyed reading this book of poetry! As an Astrologer, I also loved the title. The author has a beautiful way of expressing Godly devotion and faith with his words. His message is especially needed now in a time when so many have lost faith and commitment to life as the suicide rate rises daily! The author's "spiritual" poems ring truer for me than the intimate relationship poems. When he mixes the two together throughout the book it feels sometimes like going from 1st gear to 5th gear. Yet overall, definitely worth the read.

The Oracles of Our Stars by Serge Elie Seropian, 124 pages. POETRY. Serge Elie Seropian, 2020. $17.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Seropian’s collection focuses on themes of love, the universe, yourself, and worship. None of these poems are titled. Instead, the book itself reads like one long poem, flowing and evolving over the pages.
The flow worked amazingly well for the first two-thirds of the book. Towards the end, the poems got longer and less poetic, more like sermons than emotions to connect with. I am still adding a couple of poems to my personal favorites, even if the entire book didn’t have my attention.
The mature content rating is for mention of alcohol.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I requested this book because I have been trying to read more poetry, however this specific type of poetry was not was i was looking for. While the wording is well done, the subject matter was a bit repetive for my taste.

These collections of poems have love and religions. Making it quite meaningful. I like some of the poems and it truly speaks with some expressions.

This book was read through NetGalley.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

Ultimately, I decided that this book was not for me. I just didn't like the poetry. I wish there was more to say about that.

This collection is interesting - the pieces cover deeper topics of love and mortality alongside personal value - but confusing. The structuring of the book and theming of the poems make it difficult to tell where one poem ends and the next begins. As such, it's hard to rate the poems on their own, and reading them back to back becomes tiring quickly.

Still, the works themselves play with words in interesting ways, so it's worth a read.