Lovely poems! Highly recommend this collection.

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

I was surprised to find that when I reached the end of the book that this is Juniper's third volume of poetry.

While there are a few interesting poems, despite what the summary says, really most of the content focuses on scraps of reflections about love. Other issues, fleetingly, have to do with body issues and mental illness. There is some. But a LOT of the poems are barely a sentence. They are the opening to a poem, or a conclusion to a poem... not poems in themselves.

And that is frustrating, because if this is her third book, then she could have begun honing her craft and really focused this volume on what she said it was about at the onset. As is, I feel like it blends into the woodwork with a lot of volumes lately that fixate on vague feelings and events rather than digging into the meat of what poetry can really do.

TL;DR: I was looking for more, what was on the cover, but it didn't deliver. 2.5

I received a free galley of this volumefrom Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful book that contains beautiful language. It makes you rethink the world and I would highly recommend this!

Dieser Gedichtband ist in 5 Kapitel gegliedert und enthält sowohl sehr kurze, als auch sehr lange Gedichte. Viele von ihnen handeln vom Umgang mit einer psychischen Erkrankung (OCD), von schlechten Gefühlen oder von Liebe. Teilweise bestehen die Gedichte auch nur aus zwei Sätzen und sind eher Gedanken oder Lebensweisheiten, welche die Autorin dem Leser mitgeben will. Manche Gedichte sind tiefgründig und regen zum Nachdenken an, andere sind sehr simpel, aber deshalb nicht weniger wahr.

„Maybe the castles you build keep crumbling down because you're looking for a prince(ss) when you should be looking for yourself.“ - Emily Juniper

Insgesamt hat mir dieser Gedichtband gut gefallen. Einige Gedichte konnten mich tief berühren, haben mich innehalten lassen und sich nachhaltig eingeprägt. Andere wiederum konnte ich leider nicht so gut nachempfinden. Ich hätte mir noch ein paar mehr längere Texte gewünscht. Daher gibt es von mir empfehlenswerte 4 Sterne.


In English:

This book of poems is divided into 5 chapters and contains both very short and very long poems. Many of them are about dealing with a mental illness (OCD), bad feelings or love. Sometimes the poems consist of only two sentences and are more thoughts or wisdoms that the author wants to give along to the reader. Some poems are profound and thought-provoking, others are very simple, but therefore no less true.

Overall, I really liked this volume of poetry. Some poems could touch me deeply, made me pause and made a lasting impression. Unfortunately, I couldn't empathize others so well. I would have liked a few more longer texts. Therefore, I recommend 4 stars.

"And there she was, like the night sky, just inviting me to be inspired."

Words cannot express how much I loved this book. I had to restrain myself from quoting every single page instantly, because I loved the poems so much. The language is so simple and yet so incredible, the whole book like a warm hug or a truly beautiful spring day. This is definitely a book I want to come back to again and again, whether to flick through it or read the entire book in one sitting by accident.

This book is perfect if you love Courtney Peppernell's or Wilder's poetry books, or if you recently discovered your love for poetry and are looking for a place to start. It is heartbreaking and hopeful, and above all, beautiful. I could not recommend it more!

This missed the mark for me. The best part of the collection for me was the forward where Juniper explained the meaning behind the title, her battle with OCD, and the desire to destigmatize mental illness. A majority of the poems focus on love and loss. They are raw and personal, but they aren’t what I was expecting. I thought Juniper would primarily explore mental illness. I felt a disconnect between the mission of the poems as written in her foreword and the theme woven throughout the collection. Nothing is inherently bad about her writing, but I felt a little...bamboozled. I came for a a view into the world of mental illness but left with only a glimpse. There is nothing in here that is profoundly different than any other poetry collection that centers around heartache. Thank you to Emily Juniper, Central Avenue Publishing, and Net Galley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Central Avenue Publishing and Netgalley!

A Strangely Wrapped Gift is a poetry collection about mental illness, heartbreak, empowerment and many more topics.

When I started reading this poetry collection, I really liked that Emily Juniper immediately explained the title, her OCD was called a strangely wrapped gift. I think it’s nice when you get to know why an author chose his/her/their title because sometimes I just don’t know why they chose a specific title. But besides that, I also really liked the poetry collection in general.

A Strangely Wrapped Gift is divided into 5 chapters: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring and Leap Year. I don’t have a favourite chapter, because I really liked all the poems. They were so relatable and I could connect to a few of them on a really personal level. I sometimes have this feeling that poets can describe your feelings better than you can yourself, and I really had that with this collection.

I think that Emily Juniper did an amazing job with A Strangely Wrapped Gift. This was my first poetry collection by Emily Juniper, and I cannot wait to read more of her work! I think that her poetry is really beautiful and I loved that this collection talked about some different topics.

Favourite poems:
The Possibility of Forever
1 A.M.
Conditions
Fissures
An Open Letter to My Parents
Good Drugs
Drone
Listen
Rising
Heads and Hearts
Pieces
Soft
Insult
Recovery Is Not Linear
Autumn
OCD II
Turn You Into Art
Could You Love Someone Like Me
Chances
On Mental Illness
Wisdom
How To Love Me
Men I’ve Known
29
What The Dandelion Taught Me

A unique collection of poetries in mind blown and amazed. Poetry to one is unique and this one Home couple of times with me

A nice collection of modern poetry which advertises the theme of mental illness and specifically OCD, but I rarely saw glimpses of these in the words which was a shame. I can appreciate many of the poems and enjoyed them a lot, though I definitely see some as purely Instagram captions than anything deeply meaningful.

Here’s to the kids
getting high off music
and drunk off books.
Sometimes,
these good drugs
are the only thing
keeping them alive.

Many poems in this book resonated with me, many did not. I found that since I don’t suffer from OCD it was a little hard to connect with a lot of these poems. I read poetry to get that connection and I like them to be beautifully relatable. I will say that there are a lot of beautifully written poems in this collection and I’m sure that most people will find something that they relate to and really speaks to them.

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

I’d never heard of the poet before. I tend to read most poetry collection released by the publisher and usually find them to be of a high standard. This was no exception. The poems explore universal themes and issues such as mental illness, sexuality and coming of age but in a very intense and personal way. I felt a real connection to the poet and her work, like she was sharing her innermost thoughts & feelings and somehow had access to mine as well. This is an impressive collection and I will read more by the poet.

"A Strangely Wrapped Gift" is an okay poetry is an enjoyable, introspective read. I how the poems were sectioned into four parts named after each season. My favorite poems were the pieces about mental illness. Unfortunately, many of the poems contained weak, simplistic language, though there were lines I enjoyed. I liked the sentiments and messages expressed.
Fans of Rupi Kaur will enjoy this poetry volume.

If you like Instagram poetry this is definitely for you. If you prefer more poems that require you to think of read between the lines this isn't for you. The collection is good and is executed well, but just not something I would read again.

3.5 stars - This was a beautifully written collection of poetry that would be beneficial to anyone going through a variety of hardships.

Going into this book, I thought the focus was going to be on mental health but found it discussed heartbreak much more frequently. There were also a few seemingly random poems that didn't seem to fit into the collection at all.

Aside from those minor issues, I was not only able to connect with the poetry but also felt inspired while reading it. Overall, I'm really happy the author wrote this and chose to share it with the world.

A Strangely Wrapped Gift caught my eye as it’s a modern day poetry book concerned with mental health and in particular OCD. It’s splits into 5 sections, each of the Seasons and then Leap Year.

This collection does some things brilliantly, especially in the Winter season I found I could resonate with some of the poems however I like collections to have a narrative and I felt too many of the poems in this collection are just empty words for filler. Not as many of them as I hoped actually discussed the topic of mental health or OCD, but the ones that do are very powerful. Much of it is coming of age and slips into the ‘Milk and Honey’ type of poetry.

Poetry is incredibly subjective however, just because I couldn’t see some poems for beauty doesn’t mean you won’t. I really wanted to love this collection but it fell short in too many ways for me.

Disclaimer - I received a free digital download of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As an avid reader of poetry I really enjoyed A Strangely Wrapped Gift. I found many of the poems to be very uplifting and encouraging, something very much needed in a world rife with negativity, particularly against the feminine form.

That’s not to say that the book didn’t have its dark and heartbreaking moments, a lot of which I wish I couldn’t relate to but unfortunately I can. I really enjoyed the authors style of writing and ability to capture emotions in her poems.

Full of emotion and heart, this is an extremely readable and accessible collection. The author's discussion of OCD is especially poignant.

The author invites us into her world through sparse sentences, well-crafted metaphors, and beautiful verses. Some are simply a sentence or two, while others are lists and paragraphs, but all of them give us insight into the author, and in some cases, ourselves.

I did not make it through the whole book but liked bits and pieces of it. I'm not a huge poetry fan but decided to switch it up and read something else. I know that I will revisit the book at another time.

The 2020 edition of A Strangely Wrapped Gift is actually a re-working of a previously self-published collection, but with revised edits and new content. I haven’t read the previous version and was given this in exchange for an honest review.

First and foremost, I’m disappointed. I love reading poetry – especially modern poetry, so I was truly hoping this would join my list of favourites. Sadly, it just didn’t quite do enough for me.

When reading poetry I really want to be spoken to by the poems. I want something to resonate, or an emotion to hit me, or just anything. It doesn’t have to be something I completely connect to, or something I have had a personal experience with, but just to have some kind of emotional connection. And with this collection, there wasn’t any. There were a few quotes that I liked, but no more than maybe 3 or 4. Even then, I’m not sure they are quotes that I would remember or have that urge to plaster everywhere.

The poems felt lacklustre. Either a short statement of a sentence or a mash of random imagery that wasn’t quite tied together well enough. Whilst it sounded nice, it didn’t quite make any sense. I couldn’t quite understand what Emily was trying to say. It got lost in these bizarre metaphors that weren’t linked together. There’d be salt tears, rabbit heart, and nothing to tie the two together.

It also felt like Emily Juniper had some incredibly ideas but I didn’t get enough out of them. One poem begins to list injustices and things wrong with the world, the things we ignore, the things that we need more attention on, just for her to turn around and say, “I could continue with this list, but I’ve run out of paper and I’m bored” (Okay, maybe not exactly that, but that’s how it came across.) That instead of truly making a point or any kind of social commentary she just left it there so she wouldn’t have to deal with such a statement or idea.

" Cry for Syria. Cry for FGM in Somalia that will never make the news. Cry for veal calves and bullfights and elephants and bees. Cry for girls who think their worth is measured by the size of the gap between their thighs.
I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of paper and tears "

The layout of the collection was interesting, but felt like there could have been more of a distinction. It’s separated into five sections; Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring & Leap Year. Out of the bunch, leap year was my favourite. This was the place where a load of ideas finally start to spring out and they were all different and interesting. If Leap Year could have carried on throughout the rest of the collection it would’ve been rated higher. Otherwise, there was not much of a distinction between the sections for it to have really been worth it.

Some themes explored within the collection is depression and anxiety, as well as OCD and LGBTQ+ which helped to add unique ideas into the mix. However, there were limited poems in slight reference to each, so if you are looking for poetry that specifically explores either of the two, I wouldn’t say that this collection exclusively offers that. Possibly easier to look elsewhere.

Overall, I’m just incredibly disappointed. I feel like there was so much potential. There were so many incredible ideas within these poems, but were always cut short as soon as it felt like it was really starting to say something. I would be interested in reading more from Emily Juniper to see how she as a poet progresses, and of course – this is poetry, it’s entirely subjective. The best way is to read it and just see where you stand.