As a professor who teaches Shelley every year and thus has had to do extensive research into her life/times/those surrounding her, I felt incredibly moved by this volume and absolutely had to pick up my own copy. I think everyone should do the same .

This ARC was set to me from Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review

I was looking forward to this book because I love the classic Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley. I thought this would be about her process or maybe her life. This book was nothing like that, it was so confusing and it read like it was supposed to be written in an older time and I didn’t appreciate that cuz it made it hard to understand. I appreciate that the author tried but it was so hard to comprehend what was happening half the time.

I think this poetry collection just went over my head. I requested it because I love Mary Shelley but it seems that I cannot find her essence in these pages/poems. They seem boring and confusing. I also noticed after reading this, that it is written by a man. I think that is where the disconnect happened. A man cannot possibly understand a woman and her feelings for her husband or her own body.

Was given the arc through NetGalley for an honest review

I want to start this by saying that Mary Shelley is one of my all-time favourites writers. So when a book tells me "poems in the voice of Mary Shelley" I'm naturally going to jump for it.

Unfortunately for me, I set the bar to high with that hook.

The poems in this book didn't jump out of the book for me or make me feel anyway which way, which is odd when it comes to stuff like this.

I will praise the gothic style, which shined through this the whole way and the strong female voice. But that's all I got.

I really wanted to like this.

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.

Honestly, this collection wasn't very memorable. As I'm trying to write this review a few weeks after finishing the book, I'm having a hard time recollecting any specific poems ... .

Ok, after skimming through my copy, I do have a few thoughts! I'm a huge Mary Shelley fan and her voice shone through in this collection. The poems have a very strong feminist and Gothic feel. There is darkness but also romance, there is despair but also lightness, there is seclusion but also adventure. I feel the poems would lend themselves really well for oral recitation. They are a total mood and I am here for it!

To be frank, though, this is where the praise stops. I couldn't really tell a progression in the collection. Yes, the content changed and so did Mary but as a reader, I just didn't feel that. I didn't grow along with her. I didn't contemplate my own thoughts and beliefs. I didn't walk in her shoes. These types of emotions are to me what makes poetry such a powerful medium and this collection clearly lacked that. On top of that, the formatting of this ARC was terribly inconvenient and made reading unnecessarily difficult. It is possible that this prevented me to have an emotional connection but I somehow doubt that.

So, all in all, this poetry collection wasn't for me. It didn't challenge me enough and it didn't hit me deep in the feels like other collections have done in the past.

I was looking forward to reading this book because I'm fascinated by Mary Shelley. Nevertheless, this poetry book wasn't what I expected and I found the poems hard to keep up with.

I was disappointed in this book. I am a fan of Mary Shelley and this is suppose to be written in her but these writings are not something I felt good about and the illustrations either. I can't recommend this book! I don't feel comfortable about anything in this book really. This is a collection I wasn't expecting. The subject matter is of womanhood and I found this book rough to follow even though it is designed to reflect her voice and life. I do not like this inspired work assuming what she would think or feel, while others might I don't recommend this book of poetry. The illustrations and poetry are all around awkward and too dark for me. I could have gone without reading this one. I am not alone as other reviewers found it disappointing too.

While reading Squall: Poems in the Voice of Mary Shelley, I found myself in an other-world of course. Not one where fairies live, or maybe but not the kind of fae I am familiar with. Perhaps it is a world where monsters are made and then living in regret. This world created with these raw, erotic and exotic words (and images) certainly has a surreal fealing. There is a darkness and haunting tone, sometimes sexy, sometimes depressing. The telling is rich, strange and captivating.

Words to describe this poetry: Chilling, sexy, erotic, strange, macabre, dreamy, hellish, terror, haunting, dark, depressing, sad, sensual…

This will be the last Netgalley I review. The format on my kindle is terrible. I read this to fulfill my promise. I had borrowed 2 books and both had a problem with the format for my kindle. It was extremely difficult for me to read but it is well written and deserves high marks for its content.

I was able to listen to an excerpt on Netgalley. The listening was incredible and I was under the impression it would be offered as an audible. As far as I know at this moment it will not be offered as an audible and I was disappointed that I was not reviewing an audible.

Squall is mature reading with images and definitely has a dark genre or flavor. Not everyone will connect with this style of writing. Poetry is one of those creative edges and not everyone will agree with how I feel when reading this work.

I had a hard time getting into this book of poetry. The writing style and content just weren't compatible with my personal tastes. I love poetry, because it is so subjective. I may not have loved this one, but I do think there is an audience out there that would enjoy it a lot more.

This is an interesting collection of poetry. Not quite for me, but I know people that would really love this idea.

As a fan of Mary Shelley's work, I enjoyed how the author, Chad Norman, conceptualized how she would think and feel given the topics covered.

Chad Norman’s use of imagery all throughout is gorgeous. Squall is a weird, poignant little collection of poems inspired by Mary Shelley, and Lord, does it really embrace the Mary Shelley aesthetic. The language is incredibly powerful, particularly in the pieces that focus on womanhood and childbirth. Accompanying the language are striking art pieces that are peppered throughout. Bizarre but effective, the actual images and the verses themselves work well together and really complement each other.

The actual download of this galley on my Kindle app was not great, though. Terribly confusing formatting, which I understand is not the author’s fault but rather the fault of whoever is in charge of digitizing these and getting them prepared to be read. Very difficult to follow along.

Not good. The premise was interesting, but that is about it. The drawings are awkward and off-putting, and the poetry is just strange.

I was sent this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Unfortunately I couldn't read this book as the pdf advanced reader copy I received was full of blank pages which I am extremely disappointed in as I was really looking forward to reading this!