BOOK REVIEW: [Dis]Connected

[Dis]Connected: Poems and Stories of Connection and Otherwise

 Publication Date: October 1, 2018

This collection is actually the reason I signed up for NetGalley. I saw one of the authors tweet about it being up on the site, so I joined. Months later, the publisher graciously “granted my wish” of this title. It was a great moment. 

This is a collection of short stories using poems as prompts. It features work by many popular poets. I was interested in this collection specifically because Amanda Lovelace is my favorite poet and she has a piece in this (it was odd seeing her use capital letters). Plus, I am a fan of modern poetry and thought this would be a good way to see poems by other poets.  

Going into this, I thought it was just a collection of poems and short stories, I did not realize that there was any rhyme or reason to this. But there is an overarching theme, which makes this collection unique. Basically one of the poets wrote a poem and then another one would write a story based on that poem. The central theme is the connections or lack of connections that humans share. 

WHAT I LIKED:

• I loved RH Swaney’s collection Lovely Seeds and his pieces in [Dis]Connected were my favorite. I don’t know what it is about his words, but I really connect to them
• The theme linking the entire work together, without it the stories and poems would not be as meaningful
• Michelle Halket’s introduction was beautiful and honestly one of my favorite parts of the collection
• How creative the different authors were in incorporating elements of their “poem prompt”
• There is so much vivid imagery and intricate metaphors
  • Even though they are writing short stories you can tell these writers are poets at heart. Their writing is immersive and makes you feel all the feels
  • The writing is overall gorgeous

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:

• Some of the stories were not to my liking, even if I did like the writing. I could not connect with some, which is expected with an anthology
• Since the stories are heavily laden with descriptions, they are slow and at times  hard to relate/care about the characters
• That some of the stories contained magical elements and others did not. I know this is a little petty, but it took me out of the stories for a bit while I was trying to figure out the parameters of the world

Overall, I enjoyed most of the stories and loved the writing quality, but the poems were my favorite part of this collection. I am not a huge fan of anthologies and enjoyed this more than the average anthology, but it still wasn’t the same as a collection by one of these poets. However, I do have more poets to check out and support which is great (even though my TBR is crying). 

xoxo, Tree 

*Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

Goodreads: [Dis]Connected