I so related to this collection of poems that dissected topics like loss and grief, pain and trauma, and what it's like to be a woman in this world. Twohy's writing is just stunning and you can almost feel the emotions that were swirling around inside her as she wrote it, even if you never had a similar experience. I loved how she used references of nature and wove them into her words. This felt like a complete and well-plotted poetry collection. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This book is INSANE. I absolutely love reading poetry. The descriptive words and phrases had me turning page after page. I could not get enough and was devastated when it ended. This is not just another poetry book regarding abuse. It focuses on recovery. Beauty. Pain. Emotion. So eloquently written.

I really, really enjoyed Twohy's interpretation of some very dark aspects of life. Assault, early love, lust, etc. are all aspects of the poems she presents here.

The language is sharp and insightful, and matched with her hilarious poem titles it was a win-win all around.

Probably a bit too much language for a high school classroom, but a library could surely include it for both YA and adult readers.

Highly recommended read for poetry.

A beautiful book of poetry. She has some very profound things to say about grief. She has a 3 or 4 line poem on forgiveness that completely captures the essence of what is meant by the word in current context. I really admire this young woman.

I really loved this collection. it was unique and not exactly what I expected but it surprised me in a good way.

I got really caught up in the story. I followed her words like a movie, almost seeing images in my mind of what she was describing. I could relate on a lot of topics, which helps to understand and be touched, I guess.

Beautiful words, really loved the rythm. Great poetry books. Thanks for letting me read this!

"Swallowtail" is the first collection I've read from Brenna Twohy, though I'm familiar with her poetry from social media. Twohy is predominantly a spoken word poet - for me, this sometimes means that the poems don't work as well on the page as they rely heavily on the physical delivery, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that these poems worked as page-poems also. 

Twohy explores such tricky subjects as femininity, suicide and abusive relationships with a  firm yet delicate hand, and the book left me wanting more, which can never be a bad thing!

An accomplished poet with a deft touch - I look forward to seeing what Brenna Twohy does next. 

Thank you to NetGalley, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first poem is what drew me into the collection. I remember thinking, "this is beautiful and heart-breaking" and falling in love with the prose. It made me think about similar experiences in my own life, and I loved the raw honesty I found in the collection.There are themes of nature, feminism, rape, relationships -- so many things related to womanhood, really, and I enjoyed many of the poems, which were personal, thoughtful, but also open...as if they could be the stories of anymore. For these reasons, I deeply enjoyed Swallowtail.

I do, however, have two complaints. The first is...some of the poems are a bit repetitive. Given the core themes of the collection, this isn't really a big deal, but it did give me the feeling, as I progressed, that I had already been here, read that. So it lost a little bit of shine with me for this reason. My second complaint is about certain poems within the story...most notably the Harry Potter poems. To be honest, these felt out of place within the collection. Sometimes the titles were....I'm not sure how to put this. They came off rather sexualized to me, which isn't necessarily a problem for the poems themselves but again, this felt out of place within the collection. Not to mention the tone switch was jarring. For the most part, though, I just didn't like these poems...which is weird because I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I just think these were too out of place and jarring for me.

This said, I would still recommend this collection. It's important to talk about these experiences, and Swallowtail does it fiercely.

I initially selected this book based on the cover. I am a horrible cliche, and absolutely judge books by their cover when initially deciding to give them a try. I don't normally read poetry books, preferring to read a few individual poems here and there, but Brenna Twohy grabbed me and held me for an hour straight as I read, no devoured, her work. It was incredible. After I finished reading, I had this immense sense of guilt that I had read it too fast. My inner-self telling me poetry is to be savored, so I went back to page 1 and started again, planning to read it slower this time. I did not, I turned each page and again devoured her words in no time at all.

Her poetry flowed through a common thread of loss and pain—connecting her pain from the men in her life and her own experiences, like an entomologist collects butterflies. Each butterfly perfectly placed and pinned, just as each word, phrase, stanza was crafted. Her words spoke to me in more ways than just seeing another person's loss. In some cases, it was like staring into a mirror—particularly, when it came to her pieces about her romantic life. More than once I caught myself swallowing a lump in my throat when my own memories crashed into being after reading Brenna's own memories.

Absolutely, a recommended read for readers who are looking to engage in some poetry, deep emotions, and know what loss is, and what it is like to break a little.

I enjoyed reading this very much. As a poetry lover, this one definitely makes modern poetry just as enjoyable to read as classics.

This collection of poetry is shows a lot of pain. A very dark collection with hope at the end. The words are beautifully crafted together. Some longer poems are almost like letters.

T/W: Sexual Assault, Suicide, Anxiety, Loss of a Loved One, Abuse, Grief

I really enjoyed Swallowtail. I like the poet's story, her style and her openness. Through this poetry collection I was really able to feel how much the Towhy had revealed herself to her readers/listeners. Each poem packs a real punch and I can see why she has won spoken-word competitions in the past.

I found that some of the pop-culture references were a bit too gaudy for my personal taste but I thought it was interesting how the poet used them. The sudden use of explicit language seemed a little out of place amongst the rest of her carefully chosen words in the poems. I thought some of it was unneeded.

Towhy's poems aren't pretty but they are very clever and I admire her ingenious use of metaphors and large vocabulary to express feelings that must be very hard to share and even harder to express.

My favourite poems were found on pages 12, 17, 20, 41, 49, 53, 58, 63 and 66. Swallowtail is my favourite poetry collection that I have read this year and one of the most moving that I have ever read.

Thank you so much to Button Poetry and NetGalley for granting me this e-ARC.

Oh god, this was beautiful. It was heartbreaking and enchanting and simply beautiful.

I loved all of the poems and I'm not sure if I can pick a favourite because they were all so good. How do you pick a favourite when each and every one of the pieces seem better than the others?

"there is a man

I can only talk about in metaphor,
the way his tattoos make

an avalanche of my mouth"

There's very few (if not none) of Button Poetry's books that aren't about some kind of excruciating life experience or another, but that's what makes the medium so compelling as an outlet. Abusive relationships, grief and suicide were laid out in both the usual classic/tired metaphors as well as more contemporary ones (ie Harry Potter, Survivor, Disney). A bit hard to get into at first, but it eventually pulls you in. I won't go as far as to call it riveting from cover to cover; some of the pieces started sounding the same and I skimmed over it thinking I might have already read that page. Loved the one addressing audience members who are tired of hearing yet another rape poem.

Thank you Button Poetry and NetGalley for this eARC.

Swallowtail is a poetry collection filled to bursting with feeling – heartbreak, abuse, trauma and grief, all transformed into words and breathed on the pages. The writing is unlike anything I have ever encountered in previous poetry collections – Brenna Twohy starts telling the story in the form of a short story, like a memory written in prose, until suddenly the style changes into contemporary short-form poetry. The stories seem happy and precious until – bang! – with one line a beautiful memory shatters like a snow globe by hurt. So much hurt.

The collection has loads of substance to it but after having reached the mid-point, some of the poems started to ring as repetitive. The painful events were inspected with a different air, but still from the same perspective with very similar thoughts and ideas. I wish that the emotions were shown from multiple perspectives or over a long period of time; I wanted to see more, feel more, understand these heartbreaking emotions in that deeply abstract way that poems make you understand things. Instead, I feel like I received a sorrowful but short message on repeat.

First and foremost, this poetry collection is not for the faint of heart. It tackles a number of difficult subjects that may be hard for some people to stomach, but that's part of the reason I really enjoy it. Poetry is such a great medium when it comes to expressing pain and trauma, it allows the words and emotions to come through in a raw way.

I really felt that Brenna Twohy attacked these subjects well and the collection in a way is a type of catharsis. While it will probably be difficult for many to read, I feel it will resonate with many people. Keep in mind we have trigger warnings for abuse, rape, grief, anxiety, death of a sibling, mental illness and more.

This book of poetry was very touching to read! Coming from a domestic violence survivor myself who went through some of the stuff the narrator of the poetry went through I felt like I was walking every step of the way with them. It’s definitely worth the read if you are able to handle such a tough topic!

Right from the very first poem you read, Swallowtail packs an emotional punch that is hard to forget. A powerful poetry collection about survival and grief, I have never read a collection that was able to put into words things that are inexplicable. It is beautiful and devastating all at once.

In this poetry collection mental health, grief and trauma are explored in ways in ways I've never read before. What makes 'Swallowtail' so unique is how honest and raw Twohy's poems are. These poems are powerful and blunt, straight to the point.

"& as long as you're there/in the back of the room,/I am going to be here,/voice made from smoulder,/because this is my story/and you cannot take this/from me."

Trigger warnings: suicide, abuse, grief, anxiety.
[I received a copy on NetGalley for a honest review]

To love me
is to love a haunted house.
It's fun to visit once a year,
but no one wants to live there.

It was very hard to connect with the poems in the beginning but thankfully that quickly changed and she started to be "more real" which made me instantly connect. I really wish she had kept that pace through the entire book.