Thank you Netgalley for the early access to Where The Worm Never Dies, in exchange for a truthful review.

Look, I’m a simple man. I read a poetry collection with an ode to Argento, an ode to Fulci, an unofficial sequel to Killer Clowns From Outer Space (via PM Entertainment), and some of the most fucked up shit this side of a splatterpunk anthology?

A collection that also features a separate poem depicting a wereclown? WITH FULL MOON FEATURES LIMERICKS?!!

I click five stars and smile.

Honestly, this thing isn’t so much a poetry collection as it as video store, I loved it.

Despite the full spectrum of trigger warnings, there’s a weird innocence here. It’s the sweetest edgelord shit I’ll encounter this year, I’m sure. I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I found this poetry collection to be a vast range of hits and misses. Some of the best poems speak to generational trauma and grief and have excellent biblical and horror imagery. However, others sounded uninspired, and didn't even feel like poetry at all, just short stories with weird line breaks.

The poems I enjoyed were as follows:
"Breaking the Cycle" - this dealt with generational trauma and how it can mess you up so so well.
"Not Just Anybody" - excellent concept and follow through. Loved the idea of sin-eaters.
"The Power of Grief" - a beautiful look at death and grief, more haunting than scary.
"Pawn" - a fantastic exploration of Judas and how he was just what God made him to be.
"True Crime" - an insidious look at just how normal serial killers can appear
"Hypocrite" - an honest and graphic look at how Christians are not very Christ-like

Most others were regrettably very forgettable, but I did greatly enjoy this handful.

Publication date: June 1. 2024

Thank you NetGalley and Swann + Bedlam for the chance to read and review "Where the Worm Never Dies" by Quinn Hernandez!

A quick search for the phrase "where the worm never dies" shows you that it's a biblical phrase; something that I did not pick up with the title (I'm muslim, so this isn't an area I know too much about). This is an interesting phrase because even a small look into it shows you a myriad of interpretations and why this makes an excellent title for the book.

The phrase can mean a worm that continuously feeds on the flesh without dying, as in the horror and pain never ends (as can be seen in the poems on hell and other violence in the book). It can also mean that the work that needs to be done, will continue to be done (the work of writing horror, or the work of torment and darkness or cycles of violence and trauma that continue to perpetuate just that). Either way, the title suits the book!

That being said, I'm not a horror girly, but I am a die-hard poetry girly which is why I picked up the book and was excited to read it. But to sum, horror > poetry when it comes to this. As poetry, it's fairly standard modern poetry, but the horror made me flinch and quite uncomfortable, which is not to say that it wasn't interesting. Poems like "Breaking the Cycle", "Pawn" and "Not Just Anybody" are really interesting explorations on religion and inherited anger.

While my review for this book is 3 stars, many people reading this will weigh the poetry to horror aspect very differently; if poetry is what's important this is 3 stars. If horror, then you're looking at something along the lines of 4 stars.

I enjoyed all of the poems; the author has a knack for creating great imagery for the dark/horror themes. The atmosphere kept my attention fully engaged throughout the entire novel. You can definitely tell the author is a lover of all things horror and so am I!

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

A delightful collection of macabre and horror themed poetry. There are limericks, freestyle prose, traditional rhyming schemes, and more, along with subjects ranging from satirical and comedic to straight laced and somber. It's not every day I see horror poetry, but I think that's what lends charm to this fun little book.

While there was commentary threaded between the lines of the book, the overall execution fell flat. The longer, narrative poems do have more bite to them and the overall discomfort from the horror does linger. Unfortunately, that feeling is short-lived as very few pieces leave a lasting impression after the fact. As a voice in horror, Hernandez has some interesting ideas but the poetry format may not be the best vessel for them.

I enjoyed reading this book, it had everything that I was looking for from this description. It had the horror elements that I wanted and enjoyed about the concept. it was a great overall collection and enjoyed how good this all was. Quinn Hernandez has a great writing style and I hope to read more.

True horror poetry! Each poem creating a raw blistering image. Each was a joy to read as a fan of the genre. It pulled from tropes (lovingly) and established unique ideas in turn. Splattering viscera and rotting flesh, like a cult classic film.

interested in it because of the cover and premise, but poems were lackluster. not enough poetic devices utilized and language was very basic. only tie together was general shock-disgust. this did not feel curated or polished. a lot of telling and so little showing. particularly offended by the line "her lithe fingers finding his masculine heat where he guided her velvet glove." have yet to find a book of "horror" poetry that isn't taboo fetishism and grossouts in a dust jacket

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

TW apply, please only read "Where the Worm Never Dies" if you're feeling up to it.

I'm sorry to say that this book wasn't for me. It's not that some of the triggering (and disgusting in parts) content was the problem, I honestly felt bored? The poems were often short, often pointless, I felt like the book tried so very hard to shock that it forgot that there's more to the genre than just the same old Gothic stereotypical dark stuff? I'm trying not to be mean here but I had high hopes for this book and it just didn't deliver.

1.5 stars because it was well crafted language-wise

I think this book can really go either way. That’s what poetry tends to do to its audience. A part of me enjoyed quite a few of these, especially Breaking the Cycle. But some of them fell flat. I wouldn’t say they were bad just not for me!

“…the only thing left holding his soul down is the weight of a lifetime of a multitude of sin, his reservoir of flesh stinks, it’s saturated with it this sin mixed with flesh hardens into a tomb.”

Quinn Hernandez’s collection is an unsettling round up of monsters and the unknown. Each poem uniquely describes the darker side of human nature. It explicitly describes the lengths to which one would go. Even those they feel they may not be capable of.

The author does great work in vividly describing how depraved ones thoughts in their most difficult times must be yet to have them portrayed so viscerally makes these poems uncomfortable to read.

Several of these had me pausing for a moment to really take in what had happened. Each one has that power to leave a lasting impression.

This collection may be a bit much for some readers as it does address the darkest and depraved parts of human existence. By looking into the hidden areas and voicing thoughts one could not fathom, it may unnerve some and for the same reason keep you wanting to read more.

A unique horror collection I really enjoyed.

I was very intrigued by the idea of horror themed poetry. As I wanted to read a bit more poetry this year, this seemed like a match when I first signed up for NetGalley. That being said, the collection isn't... bad. It just left me wanting. Many of the prose poems would have been better off as full stories. Or, maybe, I would have been happier if the poet had played a little more with punctuation or formatting to pack more of an emotional punch. There were, however, two poems that stood out for me as highlights.

Full Moon Limericks: these were really creative and fun, especially for those who are horror movie fans.

Pawn: Loved the whole sympathy for the devil vibe of this one, really making the reader question perception... I just didn't feel like it belonged in this collection.

I read other reviews and I think they tainted my reading experience. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed many of the stories/poems, but I didn't realize that I was about to read a book of short stories and poems. Not Just Anybody" was a delightfully unique. Experiencing someone else's darkest sins after they have died is just a crazy concept. I thoroughly enjoyed it. "Pawn" makes you think about one of Christianity's core villians in a new light. I appreciated the nods given to classic horror and would really like to read a longer version of any of the "Three Examples of Why Clowns Ain't Funny". This collection was a quick read and the author had a fresh take on horror.

Great, thought-provoking pieces. All of the poems are dark and unsettling, to various degrees. And many had profound revelations that really made me pause and think. Deep and intelligent writing that isn't overly esoteric.

i wanted to like this so much based on the synopsis but i was really let down. first of all, there were so many moments where i couldn't tell if this was satire or edgelord nonsense, which i feel is a huge loss for this collection. if it played more into the humor, i feel i may have received this better. the horror is not revolutionary or transgressive to me in any way, even though the blurb referred to this as an uncanny odyssey of terror. i was not scared! like, clowns? sexual assault? weird religious metaphors? cheap and overdone in the genre in my opinion. "desire" was probably the most unique and abject piece for me. it may just be that for me, someone who regularly consumes extreme horror, i felt like this was nothing new and didn't live up to what it promised. additionally, typos and grammatical errors abound, which i am assuming will be fixed in post, but errors like "gentile" instead of "genteel," "it's" instead of "its" and "peace" instead of "piece" end up glaring on an already sparse page.

This was definitely written by a fellow horror nerd and I see you dude. Very fun, still had a few edge lord moments but I have a feeling those may have been put in there on purpose to make people laugh.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review!

3 stars!

First off I loved the random Dario Argento poem! I enjoyed these. Very different, and held lots of raw emotions and dark themes within them. I also really liked the poem Hypocrite.

Obviously not for everyone but I'm glad I came across this as now it has put Quinn Hernandez on my radar!

Spoilers.

Received free for honest review.

This poem book was...different. People only read this if you can handle horror: murder, rape, necromancy, etc.

Some of these poems really spoke to me, like Breaking the Cycle. Which was about a man being tied to a chair by his son's because of the traits he passed on to them.

Or

The Power of Grief, which was about a man capturing death to delay his wife's inevitable death from cancer, but his son frees death.

But some of these poems really had me questioning if I was reading was a big metaphor or if I should take it literally. Poems are supposed to be interpreted by the reader, but I was having a hard time doing that. I could tell these poems were written by the heart of the person but the poems near the end started to dry up. And wasn't making me think as much or discuss with myself.

The three poems I disliked the most was Three Examples of Why Clowns Ain't Funny. Basically a spinoff of killer clowns from outer space and felt like the poems didn't fit well in the book.

Overall I give it a good three stars cause the book did make me think. But it also slightly disappointed with some poems.