I AM THE SWARM is a story full of beautiful verse, visuals, and emotions. However, the balance of flowery language and strong sense of plot is missing the mark here, with the story seeming to flutter around without much direction.

This story was heartbreakingly beautiful, dark and filled with so many raw emotions. I adore poetry but don't often find myself reading novels in-verse but I'm so incredibly glad that I read this one. This story revolves around a teen girl dealing with heavy topics like mental health issues, self-harm, sexual abuse, and parental neglect...and dealing with all of the emotions that go along with that. It's an allegory of mental health issues hidden behind magical realism and I loved the way the author executed it.

It's a story of Nell Strand who, like every woman in her family at 15, gets some kind of magic. Ouma (her grandmother) feels everything and anything that goes on within the building she's in, so she sticks to smaller locations and mostly stays home. Mamma's age changes every day, sometimes she's 15 (the age she first got her magic) and sometimes she's 42 (her actual age), but too often she's 15. Mora (Nell's older sister) has music in her blood and harms herself to let it out. Then there's Nell, who conjures up insects that are connected to her emotions (black beetles for shame, wasps for anger, dragonflies for hope, etc.) Nell struggles with her emotions throughout the story, wanting to suppress them, preferring to be numb rather than let the wasps out.

In a young adult magical realism told in poetry, as our female protagonist turns 15, it is time to get her magic. An intense and emotional telling, the magic of 15 felt like a coming of age magic. That 15 was the main character hitting puberty or something similar, representing her change growing into something older.

A lot of descriptions will be related to music and as the author is a songwriter herself, I enjoyed those details as it felt as part of the author. Like tapping into her strengths. The poetry gives lots of depth and references to the traumas at times for being a teenage girl. Including her sister’s mental health and the obvious fear her mother has of aging. I loved how the mother’s age seemed to reflect an accurate age when she was actually acting and wanting to be a mom.

Lots of magical realism, like the insects representing her emotions. But the idea of the women being magical, having gifts, is very light. So take the concept of magic very subtly and look more at the poetry being emotional and tense teenage coming of age. And please check trigger warnings. The ending does feel mostly open which is likely the point. That your family trauma cannot be solved over night. Every day is just existing in it.

This is a beautifully dark and emotional YA novel written in verse enriched with magical realism. It’s a story of growing up while dealing with mental health issues, sexual abuse, self-harm, parental neglect.

Nell comes from a family where at 15 women get magical powers. But all of their powers seem more like a curse than a blessing. Nell’s powers manifest through insects which are connected to her emotional state. Her sister Mora literally bleeds music while struggling with suicidal tendencies and self harm. Her mother’s age changes every day, making her a neglectful parent because for most of the story she is a teenager or young adult. This is not just a story about Nell, this Is a story about all the women in the Strand family.

Throughout the story Nell struggles with expressing herself, she’s trying to suppress her emotions, hide them from everyone around her including her family. But as we go along, we see how much she wants to the able to release it all - the love, the fear, and especially the rage she feels.

I haven’t read a book written in verse since I left school and I’ll be honest it was a bit hard for me to get into, but once I hit about 40%, I couldn’t put it down. Nell’s emotions completely consumed me and it felt like I lived through it all with her.

This story was so raw and so powerful, I can’t wait to read more of the author’s work.

Thank you NetGalley and Viking books for a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was excruciating.

The concept sounded cool, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I've been reading a lot of novels in verse lately, and I like the form when it's done well. This book read
like the author
had written prose
sentences and then
just
hit
space
at random and to little effect.
Also,
Repeating the same line twice in a row does not make it deeper.
Repeating. The same line. Twice. In a row. Does not make it deeper.

IMO, a lot of this was lazy writing. Sometimes I would reread a scene two or three times and still not know what happened. I found it hard to picture a lot of the magic, and there was almost no sensory description to be found in these pages. The ending didn't feel earned, either, in part because there were so many things that weren't described clearly. As far as the plot, the sparse and inelegant language made it feel like this was a cliffnotes version of the story, so there was little to distinguish the characters from basic tropes.

Obviously this one wasn't for me. I do love some good feminist rage, but this one didn't work for me at all. Shoutout to the one really good line, though, about the types of guys who think all the voices they hear should be men's voices. Very true.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really liked this book. The characters were inspiring and is was an easy and very plesant read. My 12 year old daughter i believe would also really like this book.

I was first interested in this book because the summary reminded me of a Katrina Leno book that I love. The idea of a family with magic that also represents trauma and personalities. However, I feel like this book being written in verse didn’t helped the story. It was harder to connect with the characters and their struggles because it read superficial.

It was okay. It wasn’t my favorite but don’t mean other people won’t enjoy it. I hope all the success of this author. And best wishes

Wow. What a powerful novel in verse. If you've ever tried to stay safe by ignoring your feelings and making yourself small, I have a feeling you'll find yourself connecting with this story. With magical realism and wrestling with real trauma, this novel deeply connected with my heart and treated the sensitive topics carefully (thanks to the author for the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book.) This wasn't necessarily a feel-good story, but it was a real one and I'm grateful to have gotten to read it.

This was incredible. Examining the emotions of a teen girl and how they are represented by the magic of her family, this was a terrifying and exciting tale.

I really wanted to like this book better than I did. I absolutely love the premise, and I am always looking fro YA books in verse. However, how it was written and/or formatted it was hard to sometimes understand what was happening, especially when it came to the dialogue. I think the topics covered are extremely important and there were moments of beautiful poignancy, but I kept being pulled out of the story due to having to reread several sections in order to understand what was happening.

I am the Swarm was absolutely fantastic! The author wrote a story that was so well written I found myself flying through the pages, unable to put the book down, pondering what would happen next. My favorite piece of this entire story was how believable the characters were.

The writing is clear and clean, and very immersive. The book hums along at a good clip, but the pacing makes sure we're given time to breathe between plot-intensifying moments. The story was absolutely engaging and the work that went into the settings was noticeable and superb. I felt absolutely transported and I'm so incredibly glad I was able to read an arc of this story.

First of all, I absolutely loved this book. It is a great book to showcase mental health and mental health awareness. Though it is dark in nature, it is a really moving and compelling novel.

I Am the Swarm is a beautifully written story in verse form. The book is filled with symbolism and addresses several topics such as abuse, neglect, self harm, and mental health. Chewin uses magic realism to bring Nell's, the main character, emotions to life. The little insects of emotion fill the story. These creatures give readers insight to Nell and the various events in her life, primarily those of trauma and moments of self discovery.

While the verse is very poetic, It took some time for me to grasp the plot of the book. For me, the book's message built over the entirety of the story with little glimpses flittering in and out of the narrative. I believe for that reason, the book would work wonderfully for text analysis with older teens and up.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read, "I Am the Swarm", by Hayley Chewins. Unforunately, I do not think I was able to pick up on the message of this book. The poetic writing was beautiful. I may give this one another try once it is on the shelves.

Y’all already know how I’m going to start this lol Me an novels in verse do not always pair well. I got this one to offer to my co-workers as a pick for our program, Tournament of Books. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for it much.

Ok so the novels in verse are always a hit or miss for me. It’s only because I always feel like there’s chunks of stuff missing from each story. And this one was just like this. At one point she was upset and making bugs. The next she was telling us about the scumbag who was teaching her. And it went so fast. I felt like there were bits and pieces that we were missing.

I did like the message and the prose. It was amazing. I do want to know why it was bugs tho lol I was terrified there would be roaches or something and y’all know I don’t care for bugs in the first place. So yeah, I was not amused. But I think it gave the message that was intended. Like bugs are gross and so are these gross feelings that these people have given to me.

I know I’m not actually the target audience for novels in verse, but I always love to experience new books and new formats. And even though this one had some missing spots, it was all still good. And I still want to read more from this author as well.

This magic-realist novel in verse is brutal and beautiful and excellently written. The women of Nell Strand's family get strange, terrible magic when they turn 15. Her mother can't stay one age, a teenager with her daughters as often as she's a real grown-up. Nell's sister Mora is full of music and the only way to let it out is to cut her skin open. And Nell's cloudy emotions come through as bugs spewing from her mouth. But more than the magic, this is a story about messy families and mental health struggles. It's about first loves and about sexual abuse. It's about trying to find your voice, your emotions, your anger, even when you feel silent and invisible.
Like I said, it's really good. It's really hard. It takes on these terrible things with grace and beauty.

What a freaking amazing premise! It's unique, fun, and so easy to read. I was engrossed from the start! I hope more books are written for this series.

I first encountered Hayley Chewins's gorgeous prose in The Turnaway Girls; I thoroughly fell in love with it while reading The Sisters of Straygarden Place. Chewins is that rare writer whose prose possesses the rhythmic, uncanny quality of dark fantasy poetry, and so when I learned she was coming out with a novel in verse, I knew immediately that I had to read it. I Am the Swarm was every bit the evocative, powerful, razor-sharp story I hoped it would be.

Chewins's command of language and rhythm is impeccable. Every line break, every turn of phrase, every evocative word, feels chosen by some unseeable algorithm that blends into something truly remarkable. Nell’s character is impeccable, as wild and relatable as the creatures she conjures, and her emotions leap out from the page as fiercely as any butterfly.

Although set within the confines of the real world, I Am the Swarm contains some of the most unique magic I’ve ever read. I can’t recall a secondary-world fantasy that was more original and uncanny than the magic contained by the Strand family. Insects, music contained inside one’s body, age ephemerality…every beat of this story, every character, and every word thrums with individuality, authenticity, and mystery. I truly can’t recommend I Am the Swarm enough!

I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins is a beautifully crafted and thought provoking story.
A magical YA story that caught me by surprise and held me captive till the very end.