Andrea Gibson has done it again. This is such an incredibly raw and powerful collection of poems. Gibson has a way with words and I want to read every poem they have ever and will ever write. I don't read much poetry, mostly because I worry that I won't understand or connect with it, but I don't have that problem with Gibson's poems. I just wish there were other poets I felt a connection with in this way. Some of these poems brought me close to tears and really made me feel things, they're extremely relevant and thought-provoking. The only other book I've read by Gibson is 'Pansy', but after reading 'Lord of the Butterflies' I want their entire collection. Absolutely outstanding.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an earc copy of this book.

I enjoyed this collection of poetry. I connected to some of it and they made me feel things but even some I didn’t connect with made me feel things too. If you enjoy poetry I would recommend you to pick this up. I gave this a 3.75 out of 5 stars.

"what i want most is to live the rest of my life desperately wanting to live it."

tw mentions of shootings and homophobia

Andrea Gibson writes achingly beautiful poetry. When I say aching I mean I genuinely felt something, solid and real, in my chest as I read through their collection of poems.

To be fair, Andrea Gibson can do very little wrong in my eyes. I've been watching their poems on Youtube for years, all the way back to my messy college days, and I absolutely credit them for helping me come out. Once I saw them live in San Francisco, after driving four hours to be there, and afterwards they gave me a hug. I'm sure I was sweaty and weird about it. I went into this book fully expecting to adore it, and to no one's surprise, I did.

I read their love poems out loud to my girlfriend. I teared up as I read their account on Orlando, and remembered the way I choked on my own guilt and sorrow on June 12th, 2016. I thought about the drills I run with my own students, only kindergarteners, and felt a deep kinship as they mentioned their friend hiding 7 year olds away in case of a shooting.

This collection has so much to offer, but it's not something to read lightly. The topics Andrea discusses are real, and they are incredibly heavy, but please, if you can: read these poems.

4 🌟

"You're going to kill your own god
so you can fall in love for the first time."


I first got interested in this book because of poetry from queer perspective but Gibson touches upon many other subjects, mainly -- politics, trump administration (they didn't capitalise his name so I won't do that as well), faith, family, disability, mental health, and suicide.

With so many subjects I would expect this not even 100 pages long work to be all over the place but it never felt like Gibson was jumping from one subject to another and the transition was so smooth I only now realised how many things they managed to include here.

I'm having trouble choosing quotes to put here - I highlighted so many. Many of those poems, or even verses, made me cry, made me rage, made me smile. But between them, there were a few that felt like they described emotions more than evoke them -- and since I read poetry to feel things -- this is the reason I'm not 5-staring this work.

"It's true
what they say about the gays
being so fashionable—
our ghosts never go
out of style"

"I'm fascinated with this idea
of getting high on life. I imagine people
on their backs in lilac fields snorting the lines
the planes leave in the sky, walking
with honeymoons in their bloodstreams."

"When she's down I want to give her my best
pick-up lines. What's your sign?
My sign has historically been STOP
but since meeting you I've changed it

to MERGE."

“You are the brst thing that has ever happened to you.”

Poetry Collections are usually a hit or miss from me. I’m always scared when I pick up a collection that I’ve been dying to read and I’ll end up disliking it.

That is not what happened with this collection. From start to finish I was laughing, crying and feeling everything Andrea wanted me to feel. As a member of the Queer community many of her poems about identity and sexuality spoke to me, and there’s no feeling like finally beng recognized and having someone else understand the thing that makes you different.

The poems were raw and unaplogetic and so full of emotion. This is what I love about modern peotry. The honesty of it all nomatter how much it hurts to write down or to re-live.

I would reccomend this to anyone who is a fan of raw modern poetry, and in the mood for a gut wrenching cry.

Poetry is perhaps one of the most significant forms of writing that I read.  Stories, for me, usually take time to develop and by the end, I usually have gotten the main point.  Why I love reading poetry collections is similar but more concise; poetry delivers a direct idea and then leaves me thinking about it more after I'm finished.  While stories are nice to read and a break from reality, poetry allows me to connect with something more directly.  For me, I know its good poetry when I read it and it makes something in me click and I can't stop thinking about it.

I had never heard of Andrea Gibson before I found this title on NetGalley.  It is due to be released November 27, 2018, and I cannot wait!  I will most definitely buy a physical copy of this and start recommending it to everyone I know.

Andrea Gibson's words were so true and raw and packed with emotion for me.  It's amazing to connect with a collection of poetry so much.  While reading it, I was so taken with them and the stories they crafts through their poetry that I immediately found them and Instagram and started following.  At times, some of the poems just create such a surge of emotion and pure feelings that I had to re-read them to make sure I didn't miss anything.  And sometimes, a poem just left me reeling at how close to home it seems and how affected by a written word that I could be.  Their work is so beautiful.

This collection of poetry delves artfully into relevant topics such as gender, identity, loss, and family issues.  Each poem is beautifully written and draws attention to these topics in ways that are so touching and personal.  I honestly cannot say enough about how perfect this collection is.  It's a five-star book, hands down.

I thought this was simply gonna be a book of love and suffering, and mostly about being queer, I guess I imagined something average, but god, this was something powerful!

It was both strong and sweet, it touched a lot of important subjects besides the life and situation of LGBTQIA+ people, like gun violence, war, racism, the way America (and the world) is heading, and more, and every word made me feel something. Every word had it's own purpose, the wording was no more complicated or simpler than it should be. The poetry was music to my ears (yes, inner hearing is a thing), and the meanings were deep and resonated with me, the figures of speech worked well, yet it wasn't pretentious and didn't try to seem more than it is. It's not something anybody could write, yet it's something universally understandable. This is poetry to my liking!

The sentiments in the poems felt all natural, and even when the author spoke of things I have never experienced, I somehow felt a strong connection and I could strongly relate. Reading their poetry I had the general experience of how universal feelings are, even though we are all different.

What.A.Stunning.Book. I got the Lord of the Butterflies from Netgallery because I'd seen it all over the Button poetry page and my goodness what a book! I loved each and every piece in it! This collection of poems is not for people who like direct work, it is for those who enjoy thinking and feeling and being uncomfortable and a bit unsure and yet are thoroughly prepared to be surprised. I loved how every line was used to deliver an impact, how every poem packed a punch.
I will revisit this book multiple times and go ahead and buy a copy too. It's amazing! READ IT!

I teach middle school so some of the poems in this collection might be a little too much for some of my students, but I do plan on using a few of these in my lessons when we get to spoken word. These poems were fantastic and they sounded even better when said aloud. This was the first poem collection I've read from Andrea and they are just fantastic at what they do. I initially wanted to read this because the cover is very striking, and Lord of the Flies is one of my favorites to teach, but when I read the synopsis I knew this was something I needed to read anyway.

Now, I'm definitely not one who loves poetry (I know, weird for a Language Arts teacher) because I do find it difficult sometimes to comprehend what I'm reading and it can get very frustrating. This collection, however, is all spoken word so I powered through this pretty easily. The subject matter is one that is important to me and all the poems fit flawlessly within the LGBTQ+ and gender topics. I wish there wasn't politics involved in some of the poems because I generally try to stay away from that in my reading, but the poems on those topics were tasteful and well-done.

This was my first introduction to Andrea's work, and definitely won't be my last. Their powerful and haunting poems will stay with me for a long, long time and I can't wait to see what else they come out with. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to review this!

I love discovering new poets and I was so excited to read Lord of the Butterflies, but when I started reading this book, it didn’t grab my attention at all. I couldn’t connect to the first few poems and that’s why I decided not to continue reading this book. I have a big TBR and life is too short to waste on books that don’t grab my attention.

While some of the pieces were long and dense for my taste,there some lines and feelings that took my breath away. I laughed out loud at parts and choked back tears other times. Beautiful poetry.

I liked this book! It contains many vulnerable and honest poems about tough topics like gun violence, being queer, leaving the church, love, and heatache.


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

ARC, received in exchange for a honest review.


This collection of poems had a variation of themes within it, gun violence, white supremacy, and homophobia. Most of the poems focused on Gibson's past relationships (the good and the bad) and her sister who apparently had a drug problem at some point in her life. A lot of the poems are written in long hand, which works well for the "stream of conscientiousness" style she goes for especially because Gibson is a well known for her slam poetry. Though Amanda Loveless will probably still be more well known, deserved or not.

A few of Gibson's poems were thought provoking, especially ones that focused on depression. She had some sections that were tapered with little "definitions" so to speak that were assuming and heartfelt, I'm by no chance the authority on what makes writing good (that's selective anyway) but I feel they worked as cues to what the next part would be about. The book is well paced and is a quick read, I enjoyed it over all but felt some parts lagged while others felt like opt eds more than poetry. But hey at least it's not just hitting the space bar + enter and calling it a day

So glad I picked this book. Just what I needed to read. Excellent choice of topics and what a variety! Splendid read.

Andrea Gibson introduced me to the power of poetry.

I thought verse was all flowers and love and a bunch of other crap that, not only could I not relate to, I also couldn't give one single solitary f#ck about.

YouTube is where my love affair with Andrea began. After inadvertently coming across a spoken word video (I was most likely watching pimple popping videos at the time) my view on poetry changed.

I changed.

I became educated on the LGBTQ community in a way that was relatable and tangible. I had gay friends, isn't that what every heterosexual person says? I realized they weren't really friends because I didn't know them as intimately as I did my straight friends. I naively thought I knew the life that they had and continued to endure because I watched that one movie that one time that had a gay guy in it. I watched Queer Eye and The L Word and considered myself enlightened.

My level of ignorance was shameful at best.

After devouring every video I could find, I then ordered the book The Madness Vase. My very first poetry purchase.

Next, I drove four hours to go and witness these words that I had fallen in love with spoken by their architect.

Words had never had such an effect on me before that live spoken word performance. I was gutted and resuscitated, my heart injured and then revived. I was a mass of emotions and then I realized I was crying. Out of embarrassment, I glanced around to see if anybody was looking at me only to discover that the entire audience was in tears.

I'm going to see my second live performance by Andrea on April 9, 2019. I'm bringing tissues this time.

This new book is beyond words, it is simply something that you must experience for yourself. It is now available in paper and ebook form.

As someone that has suffered with panic disorder for 23 years, ODE TO A PANIC ATTACK resounds with me on a level I never thought possible, giving me words to describe the indescribable.
_________________________________________________

A very small excerpt from
ODE TO A PANIC ATTACK

If you've never had a panic attack,
there's a good chance that you've
been an ass to someone who has.
JUST RELAX
and CALM DOWN
always seem like helpful things
to scream if oxygen
has never been over your head,
if your body has never been it's own corset.
______________________________________________

Thank you, Andrea, for sharing your words with the world and for being you.



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

Lovely and heartfelt poetry collection with a gorgeous cover. Read as the description said it was LGBTQIA and this was delivered, very happy to see more poetry like this being published.

Andrea Gibson's Lord of the Butterflies is a collection of poems that will pull at ankles and lift hearts up to shatter them like fireworks against dark skies.

With a focus on LGBTQ struggles, mental health, and family, Gibson built a door to welcome pain, loss, and love that will reform the lives of readers. This book is powerful and it matters.

I am not one for poetry, but I found that this one was a lot better than I expected. It touches on a lot of different aspects regarding LGBTQ life and experiences that not a lot of people understand. My favorite was the one about Orlando (Pulse Night Club shooting). They were far away from when it happened, but the author illustrated a little bit of the connectedness that spreads across people as people.

Some of the others I didn't quite feel connected to, but it was enough so that I left with a positive feel of this work.

God, I adore Andrea Gibson. They’re poetry is just so amazing and powerful, and always makes my heart feel so full. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read ORLANDO without wanting to curl up and cry. DEAR TRUMP VOTER, is a super important piece and it hurt to read. On the other hand, FIGHT FOR LOVE is a wonderful love poem and I loved all the “definition” pieces for their shortness yet intense impact.

Definitely a recommend!

An extraordinary exploration of self, of gender, of intimacy, of love, and of loss. As a queer person I saw parts of myself looking back, vulnerable, and yet for this reason Gibson's poetry worked to knit me together just as tears fell, knowing this: I am not alone.