I received an eARC copy from Andrews McMeel Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because of the pretty cover.

From the blurb:

"A poetic meditation on identity, loss, and loneliness from the bestselling poet and visual artist"

The author opened up to us, the readers, in a raw and honest way. The poetess sensitively and expressively discusses the family issues and memories, her heritage and culture. Some of them resonated with me more, some less, but they left their marks deep down.

[A List of Words That Are Shapeshifters]

Home / means the warm seat of your father's old car / means a
room with sunlight and no furniture / means everything has ended

Love / means to be forgiven, forgiven and forgiven / means your
favorite color is remembered / means you left but didn't really

Name / means you were brought to life / means there is a chance
/ means you reminded someone of daylight

[A List of Words That Are Shapeshifters: Part II]

Failure / means a body moved before crashing / means a tiny
prayer lost its abode / means whoever carried it-is now tired

Distance / means you're here / means another way to spell your
name / means I lost you to it

Memory / means nothing ever dies / means my grandmother is
still alive here / means everything I left behind is still breathing

However, not many poems stood out, and not many varied; most of the poems looked similar with tiny variations. Some poems talked about a heavy feeling, such as loss, but lacked depth in the description; a very mild execution.

It is perfectly acceptable to leave words unsaid and thoughts unfinished; it feels like too much of our own imagery and too many symbols create an opposite effect, leaving the poems expressionless.

Noor Unnahar it’s not you it’s this collection :/ Visually very pleasing but just seemed so.... sloppy? This felt at least a couple drafts away from the final edit, and the words still so constrained—the themes are so repetitive that you don’t get to appreciate the beautiful motifs. The poems that I loved, I loved a lot (Stuck in History, An Okay Family, Name Your Loneliness, Winters Named after My Mother, A List of Words That Are Shapeshifters, In Line of Duty) but overall I was tired by the end of this, and not in a good way. Still, I adore the writer, the #desirepresentation of course, and would not recommend anyone against reading her work for this is simply a judgement on an edition whose style I could not appreciate.

A collection of poems on identity, loss, and loneliness. This collection was raw & honest & though it did not live up to my expectations, it was still worth the read. I also love the mixed media portraits & sketches.

I just can't relate to the poet's feelings and what she's trying to convey.

Amazing, loved this book, full of relatable feelings and jus tthoroughly enjoyed. Some poems hit home and others made me think of past experiences.

This poet clearly has a knack for beautiful words, but there was just something I couldn't connect with. It was just one step too far removed for me to really be able to understand what she was talking about, what her experiences were. I personally need a better balance of vague and beautiful use of words and I just couldn't determine or connect with what the poems were conveying.

I finished this in only 45 minutes and thank you to Net Galley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

it’s been a long time since i read poetry book. This poetry collection talks about loss, loneliness, grief, family, losing and finding yourself. It’s a really good one. I found it a little bit relatable with myself. They were beautiful written.

I especially enjoyed the poems “ an invitation “ and “ reverse “. These two is one of my favs.

The only thing i don’t quite enjoyed is the image with and without words. I don’t sure are they related or what. Just a lil bit confused. But overall it’s good.

Poetry for me has always been like a balm for the soul. And this collection is no different. Deeply personal I am not shocked at all by how much this collection moved me. The publisher is the same one that publishes all of Amanda Lovelace’s poetry (which I adore) so I had high expectations of the collection and I was not disappointed.

This collection felt like I was following the author through different phases of her life. And interspersed with the poems are deeply moving black and white images that go along with each poem. They add so much to the collection as they are not everywhere, but they are a nice transition between sections.

3.5/5

New Names for Lost Things by Noor Unnahar is a Beautiful collection of poems and visual art. Noor’s poems tackle issues such as identity, loss, memories and family.

I unfortunately couldn’t relate to lots of Noor’s insights within this poetry collection. Not saying that it was bad though. The poems that I did relate to and could fully understand were absolutely beautiful and insightful. I believe this book could easily relate to many girls in many different ways, and that it’ll be different for everyone, which is what I believe poetry should be.

Noor has a very implicit way of portraying emotions end memories from her life. Because I don’t know a lot about Noor, I had trouble keeping up with lots of her imagery. But again, that’s just my perspective and I still did enjoy the book quite a lot.

Because I read an electronic version, I’m not sure if the visual art will have color. If it does have colour I think I would like it more, but it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t.

I’m really glad that Noor was able to portray very specific instances of her being through this collection. I sometimes felt I was too unintelligent to understand some things though. I felt like I really had to work hard to understand some poems. Maybe the point was I wasn’t supposed to understand some of them? I don’t know. So from my experience, I feel like it’s not completely accessible to amateur poetry readers like myself. But if you like abstract and open-ended interpretation style of poems, but this is definitely for you.

This is my first poem collection by Noor Unnahar, I haven't come across her poetry before unfortunately, and I was so drawn by this compelling cover. It's so beautiful and raw, like her poetry.

Personally, I read poetry in a different way, I don't obsess myself too much about poetic figures or something like that, I just dive in it and try to immerse myself in the poet's world feeling the emotions they tried to transcend. For me, this collection was between 3.5 and 4, I decided to give it a higher star mostly because of the cover. I love she combined photos and her poems to maker her point stronger.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC.

This is a truly beautiful collection of poetry through mixed media. I adored the pages showcasing the authors art. It added something magical to the reading experience. Though mainly focusing on grief, I would argue that anyone would gain something from reading this.

I bookmarked multiple pages to later reread.

Super thought provoking verses that are both mind-opening and beautiful. The visual aspect of the poetry is stunning. It’s too much to simply explain as I believe this one should be seen/read by everyone.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

I have recently developed a passion for poetry (within the past two years or so). Since this is new to me, I’m trying to find styles and poets that I really enjoy, so take this with a grain of salt.

I did find it difficult for me to connect with the majority of the poems, but they were by no means badly written. I just feel like many of the poems were the exact same with minor variations. I’m used to poetry books that might contain a certain theme, like loneliness, but they describe how the feeling of loneliness affects different aspects of their life or how it looks different when looking at the feeling through the eyes of a certain relationship. (I hope that made sense.) However, maybe I just feel loneliness in a completely different way than the author and that’s okay.

I did enjoy and connect with some of the poems though. These are of my personal favorites from the book: “Promises in Making”, “A Personal Tragedy”, “Dawning”, “A Tired Confession”, “Remembering the Daughters”, “A List of Words That Are Shapeshifters”, “Athena”, “Stargazing”, “A Dialogue with Death”, and “A Non-Worldly Sketch of My Room”.

I enjoyed the photos and art that was sprinkled throughout. (I imagine they are gorgeous in color too.)

I must say that I did not like every poem from this collection, but I am still such a newbie when it comes to poetry, so for you might be the best book you ever read and that is okay.

I liked how much emotion the author put into these poems. Raw emotions combined with such aesthetically pleasing fonts and illustrations.

Easy to read. I would highly recommend this one for those who are really in love with poetry.

"ma, it means I have a home address that breathes" -my mother asks about love

This is a poetry collection meant for people who have a firm grasp on poetry, unfortunately, that is not me. I wanted to give it a shot because the visual aspects of this collection are beautiful and compelling but the actual written words went straight over my head. This felt like a poetry collection meant for the poet and the people she knows intimately because they're likely the only people that would understand it. I won't say whether this poetry collection is good or bad, only that I did not understand what I was reading; everything went over my head. I have no doubt that there are beautiful reflections of loss, inheritance, and what is left behind on the nonlinear path to becoming who you are meant to be as the back cover suggests but I think a lot of the poems get caught up in imagery and symbolism when sometimes simple straight forward statements would do.

I was not the audience for this collection and that's okay. I think this will resonate with others. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to give this collection a try.

I loved the combination of poetry and the collages, they added a nice touch to the book. the poetry was easy to understand and also quite relatable.

Rating: 3.25 🌟
First and foremost, I'd like to express my gratitude to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this copy.

Disclaimer: This review is solely based on my own opinion.

Loneliness, bereavement, and connection are all addressed in this collection of poems. Reading about it with the explanatory graphics in between was both magnificent and tragic at the same time. However, I couldn't seem to be drawn to it as much as I usually am while reading poetry.

Thank you to Noor Unnahar, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and Netgalley for this free arc of <I>New Names for Lost Things</I> for a free review.

After falling hard in <I>yesterday i was the moon</I>, which was gifted to me by a friend who knew I would find it impossible to resist, I absolutely couldn't hesitate when I saw another Unnahar volume was being released. I'm so glad to say that having gotten my hands on this early, the whole volume is gorgeous.

I love every single poem in this and found myself wanting to write notes in the sides again. The white and black art that scatters through specific spaces between sets of poems offsets and parallels the messages of the words perfectly.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC on this collection of poems by Noor Unnahar.

As stated in the summary, this is a collection of poems on identity, loss, and loneliness. I had an interesting experience reading this book because of the visual arts that caught my eyes. I was lost in them, and can't stop admiring the talent. The poems are elegiac, the choice of words and rhythm so melodious. Sadly I can only relate to a few of them. Nevertheless, I am glad to have given this book a read.

My favorite poem from this collection is [Ms. Loneliness].

This is an illustrated collection of poetry. I think young adult readers will enjoy this one. The poems are well written.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.


This was my first time reading something by this author and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this collection. What caught my attention was the cover and the title of this book but I didnt love it or hate it. I didnt really connect with a lot of the poems in this and some of them just seem to be the same over and over again. I also really liked how some of them were written. It was really different to how most poets write today anyway. I really liked the themes that these poems touched on in this collection but it just didnt do it for me. I did really love the visual art and the hand written pages in this book. I do think it is beautifully written and this collection will most likely have a lot of fans.