I really enjoyed reading this! A very emotional collection of poems that tugged your heart. I especially enjoyed the chaotic way in which the poems were presented. They felt more like thoughts in the way that they came and went, some repeating in some way just like individuals personal narrative in their heads. This was so beautiful and i defintely want to check out Emily Junipers other work.
[I received this arc on NetGalley for an honest review]

I have never read a story written in poetry and to be honest I’m not sure this works. I understand the mental health issues and struggling with sexuality but I feel it could have been written a bit deeper.

This was a beautiful read. I received a copy from NetGalley for a honest review. This collection of poetry was written about heartbreak, longing, mental health with self-discovery at the center. For me the pieces written about the author’s battle with OCD stood at attention above the rest. It was refreshing, heartbreaking, yet relatable.

This poetry collection was not bad by any means. And there were quite a few poems I loved and felt really connected to. I wasn’t a huge fan of the format that the ARC was in, and I think that's what made this hard to read. The ARC’s format placed each poem right after eachother, there wasn’t any spacing in between them for you to think and reflect. Even though I took my time reading this collection it was still hard for me to digest each individual poem. Aside from the formatting being different for me personally, I found a majority of the poems to be similar to other collections I’ve read. And didn’t feel like anything new was really brought to the table. I did however love the poems that revolved about mental health, and related to those the most. Reading those were the highlights for me. I would definitely recommend this collection to someone who’s thinking about getting into the poetry genre, it’s a good leeway into the genre.

Emily Juniper’s writing is poetry for the social media setting, and this collection showcases this format, providing a free-flow of short poems, snippets and one-liners that are perfect for pairing with a beautiful backdrop and sharing with your friends.

There is a running theme of mental health, specifically in relation to OCD and depression, but the subject matter ranges widely across love, loss, politics, the world around us and the worlds within us.

Whilst the style and language are quite simple and straightforward, the poet doesn’t shy away from complex and emotional topics and presents her thoughts in a format that is direct, honest and intimate. The reader feels that they have been invited to witness the inner workings of the author’s busy mind; that the purpose of the writing is connection, rather than self-conscious cleverness.

This collection really resonated with me. The thoughts and feelings felt familiar, and the overall message of hope, strength and optimism left me feeling understood and uplifted. Responses to poetry tend to be deeply personal, but if you are interested in any of the themes explored here and enjoy short, inspirational (quotable) poetry then you are likely to find poems here that resonate with you.



Sometimes gifts look questionable until unwrapped. Sometimes bad things happen and good things spring from them. Sometimes gifts are as strange as they are beautiful.

– Emily Juniper, from the author’s foreword in A Strangely-Wrapped Gift

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this poetry collection in exchange for an honest review.

I decided to review this ARC since it promised to reflect on mental illness and I strongly believe that poetry is a fantastic medium to do this. The author’s foreword was beautiful and I felt extremely connected to her. I liked the idea to split this collection by seasons (summer, autumn, winter, and spring) and looked forward to seeing seasonal growth if you will.

Unfortunately, this didn’t shine through as much as I had expected. The poems are incredibly personal; there are love and loss, there is profound sadness, there is encouragement, there are struggles and understanding, but what there’ isn’t is a feeling of change. I was rooting for the author and her prose described movement in her life but it just didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel something was actually changing. And honestly, maybe that is the point. Maybe sometimes we don’t grow even if we’d hoped we would.

Another frustration I felt was reading this book came from the lack of pervasiveness of mental illness in the collection. Mental illness is still wildly underdiagnosed and the stigma society puts on people suffering from it is a real issue. I was expecting the poems to echo this. Instead, while a few of the poems dealt with this in an honest way, the overwhelming majority didn’t mention it at all. I wished for more. I don’t mean to say Emily Byrnes (Juniper) is not talented because she is (more on that in the paragraph below) … I just think she missed an opportunity here.

The present collection features poems of various lengths ranging from a few lines, almost a signature of modern poetry, to more complex ones. In my opinion, her shorter poems too little punch, grit, or darkness that is needed to really hit home for me. Yet, the lengthier ones highlighted Byrnes’s craft and her expertise. She wonderfully played with metaphors and allegories. Her sentence structure was intriguing and evoked emotion. Her word choices were unusual and kept me engaged. Indeed, I would have loved to see a collection in that style. Overall though, despite the lower rating of this book, I am looking forward to reading more of her work in the future, and I hope that she raises her voice even further to bring awareness to mental health through this genre.

A Strangely Wrapped Gift is a modern poetry collection centred around themes of love, mental health and loss.

I was initially interested in the collection because of the mental health and OCD themes, as it seemed reminiscent of one of my favourite poetry books 'Captive: A Poetry Collection on OCD, Psychosis, and Brain Inflammation' However, there were probably about six poems total around the subject, and the rest were majorly about love and heartbreak.

I prefer my poetry to have grit, darkness and a subtle message to it. Because of that, I liked the section 'winter' the most but even then I felt like some of the ideas were underdeveloped and stilted.

I tend to evaluate my overall feelings about poetry by the amount of passages I highlighted. In this one, it was around 15 pages or so out of almost 200. While that doesn't seem like that impressive a number, I think I have just read so many bad modern poetry collections that this improved in comparison. I felt like quite a few poems were filler, and didn't serve any purpose except to elongate the book. For example:

"she plants
her feet
and
mountains
rise
for her"

(why are
there
so
many
irrelevant
line breaks?)

or

"You didn't have to break me, just to prove that you are whole"

Some examples of poems I really liked are:

"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."

and

"they will try to make their ignorance louder than your love.
They will try to make their fear louder than your cries for justice.
They will try to make their comfort zone louder than your safety.
They try to make it about the constitution or bathrooms or god,
but there is nothing godly about hate"

Overall, I think this was a solid collection, but not life changing. I liked how it tried to stray outside typical modern poetry themes by including political commentary, but I wish it went a little further. Poetry is very personal and subjective, so if the themes interest you I would recommend picking it up when it releases!

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing for this ARC

Release Date: 10 March 2020

A Strangely Wrapped Gift by Emily Juniper is proof that when it comes to poetry, sometimes less is more. This short yet impeccably curated collection touches on love, heartbreak, redemption , mental health issues and recovery, which seems like a lot of ground to cover in such a small book, but Juniper is able to concisely convey her experiences in the most beautifully simple manner. Some poems are more like phrases than complete works, and none are longer than a single page, yet I found something moving about almost all of them, and can see how they relate to so many universal experiences.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the Publisher, all opinions are my own.

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

Don’t let anyone
treat you like a secret
when you know
damn well
you’re a revelation.

Wow.

This collection of poems was everything I didn’t know I needed. I wanted to quote and share every single one of them. I devoured them within an hour. I am officially a fan and I cannot wait to read more of her work.

The poems were so relatable and powerful. She’s challenging the stigmas associated with mental health. They are fast-paced; quickly moving from metaphor to hard truths.

This collection is about mental health and self-love and it resembles the styles of Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace. Emily captures the way we feel in specific situations in a raw and authentic way.

I adored this collection, and I am so glad to have been granted a copy to review. I highly recommend this. It serves as a reminder that you are not alone.

Five things to know:
You have been loved.
You are loved.
You will be loved again.
You will get through it, no matter what it is.
You are not alone, even when you feel the heavy weight of loneliness.

Trigger warnings: Mental health, OCD, Depression, Suicide, homophobia, eating disorders, body image issues.

Wow.

There were so many poems in this collection that I wanted to save/quote/print/share. They were so relatable and so powerful.

Speaking about love, loss, self love, and mental illness, Juniper successes in speaking to her audience effectively and meaningfully.

I loved this collection of poems a lot.

This is a poetry collection about mental health and self-love which I highly recommend to anyone who likes Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace. Emily Byrnes captures extremely well the way we all feel towards specific situations and gives us the brightest poems. It is such a sincere and relatable poetry collection.

This is a book of poems to help people who is going through mental illnesses. The authors OCD was always said to be a strangely wrapped gift. Although she doesn't like romanticizing mental illnesses, she uses that as a way to motivate others and to tell them that things will get better even if it isn't at the present moment.

I thought it was great that there is more people standing up and speaking on mental illnesses because I think we often try to push it aside like its not important so I was so here for the book.

I'm giving this book 4/5 stars. It was relatable, motivational and gave a boost of confidence but the reason why it's not getting a 5 star rating is because it lacks a good amount of emotion. The book was filled with free verse poetry that you can read and really be motivated by but not much of the poems really touch the core of your heart your soul.

I think this book might be a help if you're going through mental illness like OCD and depression because it was written to promote confidence and to help with your struggles.

AStrangelyWrappedGift #NetGalley

4/5

One of the best poetry collection I’ve read in a awhile that kept me entertained through all the poems. Absolutely beautiful!!

Most definitely recommend

It's so difficult for me to review poetry, it's so personal to the author, and even if I don't connect with it, it doesn't mean someone else won't. I loved the themes of this collection. Love, loss, mental health, recovery, and LGBTQ+.
The style was unique and even though it wasn't a style I prefer, I liked that it was unique. I also liked the consistency through out the book, there's wasn't any noticeable filler poems. Because of the style, I couldn’t really connect deeply with the entire book but I could relate to the themes and I appreciated the consistency.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. There are never enough books on mental illness so I think it was great that Juniper could find the strength to write this book and put herself out there like she did. And the format of poetry!? Genius! I absolutely loved this book. Def recommend.

I devoured this poetry collection! It felt like just minutes before I had the entire thing read. It was absolutely wonderful. I am officially a fan of Emily Juniper and I can't wait to read more of her work.

Someday I’ll have a daughter, and I hope the earth trembles a little beneath her feet, and that Cassiopeia watches over her as she sleeps, and that the greatest love she ever knows is in herself.

I read that poem as my daughter slept snuggled into me and I thought wow, yes! It literally brought tears to my eyes. As a parent I found that to be such a powerful passage and I'll never ever forget it.

I'm on the fence about this one. To me, poetry is very personal and it's hard to "judge" something so intimate. There were certain poems in this collection that didn't move me at all. At all. There were poems that literally made no sense (to me). However, I'm sure with context from the author, it would have come together. As a reader with no experience with this author, though, I don't have that. My biggest issues with this collection are 1) some of the poems seem underdeveloped, as if it was more for the author than the reader, and 2) most of these poems were about romantic love. That's totally fine, but not really what the synopsis described. That said, I highlighted quite a few poems that really resonated with me. While this is not a collection I would purchase or add to my library, it was a decent read.

[triggers at the end of review]
A Strangely Wrapped Gift is a modern poetry collection that i felt shined a light on a different aspect of mental health and loneliness that hasn't been done much before. the representation of mental illness, heartbreak, queerness, and sexual harassment were takes that have not been explored much, a breath of fresh air was given to the genre with this collection.

i particularly found myself enthralled by the description of the author's feelings and heartbreak, how visual all of it was made to be. with the realistic depiction of mental health issues such as OCD and depression, i could sense the empathy and relatability towards a topic such as those.

all in all, Emily Byrnes showed us poetry readers a take on modern poetry that is easily accessible as well as expressing points that could be hard to swallow.

trigger warnings: mental health issues, mental illness, OCD, depression, suicidality and suicidal thoughts, sexual harassment, internalized homophobia, outward homophobia, body image issues, eating disorders.

Don't let anyone
treat you like a secret
when you know
damn well
you're a revelation.

'A Strangely Wrapped Gift' contains so many poems that pulled and affected my emotions. This might have been the strongest one for me: if only I had read it and listened to it when I was younger ...

One of the most amazing poetry I’ve read. It resigned with me so much. The whole time I just thought she gets me and we should be friends.