I am rubbish at reviewing poetry. So I will tell anyone who reads my review (1) The author was inspired by Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and (2) She wrote her poetry while her struggle with post-partum depression was ongoing.

Expect a lot of emotionally heavy gothic tones.

Thanks to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.


Publication Date 21/09/23
Goodreads review published 01/02/25
#OntheSubjectofBlackberries #NetGalley

Dark poetry is like a comfort blanket for me, I just love to smother myself in the words. And although I was initially pulled into this collection from the introduction and the first poems, I soon found myself disconnecting. In the initial poems you could feel the anxiety; it was palpable, but as one poems flowed into the next I found myself lost - and not in a way that i like! The final few poems, however, drew it all together for me and I found myself reconnecting to the words again and the feelings being evoked, hence the good rating.
Thank you to Netgalley for the e Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Please note this is a 3.5!

This is a really beautiful concept for a series of poems. There is a certain quality in the subject matter covered by this book that I have to commend, and while it's not quite something that hit the mark for me, it is definitely a collection worth the time and attention.

This book collects a series of poems about love, loss, mental health, childbirth, and much more. I really love the form of the poems - they are definitely in a style that I admire, and they had some really beautiful moments. I do think, however, that this collection is a bit too short. It felt like there were almost pieces missing in the stream of consciousness, and some of the stanzas felt unfinished and like they were hanging in midair.

The themes of the poems were really lovely, but I did struggle somewhat with the way this whole piece of work was structured. I really wanted to love this one more than I did, and it is clearly very personal and very beautiful in a way, but it just did not completely click for me.

Esperaba un poco más de esto. Más horror, más detalles, más emociones. Si quisiera pura descripción, leería una novela. Muchas de estas poesías carecían de enfoque para mí o no tenían una imagen o mensaje lo suficientemente preciso. Palabras bonitas, pero sin sustancia. Además, muchas daban la sensación de que se cortaban justo cuando empezaban a encontrar su enfoque. Hay algunas líneas e imágenes bonitas aquí, pero no llevan a ninguna parte.

The book has numerous of poems that flies through a handful of emotions within a fantasy setting. I just wished there was more to each poem that could stick with the reader

A love letter to “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” mixed with coping with postpartum depression.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

Incredible poetry: raw, haunting, digging like nails under your skin so that the ache lingers hours after the redness fades. Another reviewer described it quite aptly as feral, which is apt when thinking about Merricat Blackwood of We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Wytovich's mentor text as she tells us, in the introduction to the collection, while in the grips of PPD). I slid phrases into my mouth and felt the blackberry sweetness of them even as the poison-bitterness urged me to spit them back out. I will definitely be revisiting this.

I gave up about 30% of this book the description sounded better than the book actually was. This was more edgy than being emotional like the synopsis had explained.

This book was very off-brand for me but it was interesting and within my favorite genre. I am definitely not converted into a poetry lover for this one (probably more so confirmed that I’m not a poetry lover) but I enjoyed the ambience. Gave me the Bell Jar vibes and I’m not mad about it.

This is a beautiful collection of poetry with vivid, soul touching imagery. It will definitely be a re-read

Thank you so much to Stephanie M. Wytovich, RDS Publishing, Raw Dog Screaming Press, and NetGalley for providing this free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

For me, poetry is truly the toughest piece of writing to rate, since it is so personal to the author and can resonate differently from person to person. Wytovich's subject matter and the way she excecuted this work was unique in any poetry that I have read, in that it created an eerie emotional kind of horror that I have trouble describing. Overall, I recommend this quick read to any looking for a collection of poems that want to bring out your inner female rage to bring catharsis to oneself.

A beautiful and harrowing collection of poems that I have carried with me for a long time after reading. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am a massive fan of Shirley Jackson, so I was so excited to receive this. It beautifully transforms and evokes Jackson’s “we have always lived in the castle” fearful, romantic, and lonely atmosphere.

The poems themselves are wonderful and dark and draw on Merricat’s casual sense of the macabre, but I felt like they could have used a bit more structure to separate them from one another. The poems without titles give the collections an intriguing ambiguity at first, but I felt the poems blended in a way that made it hard for stand-out passages to emerge from the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝑜𝒻 𝓊𝓈, 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹. ℬ𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀𝒷𝑒𝓇𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝓊𝑔𝒶𝓇. 𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝑜𝒾𝓈𝑜𝓃.”

The author’s note in the beginning was the only thing I appreciated about this book. It was emotional and touching so I thought the poetry itself would be just as beautiful but I was so wrong.

I felt the poems out of place for what they were supposed to be, like the introduction were written for a different story. I just couldn’t understand the meaning behind the words. The author mentioned in the introduction We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I’m not sure if I would have read that one then this could’ve been a better experience or not but at the moment I didn’t enjoyed this read at all.

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous magazines and anthologies such as Weird Tales, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others. Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. Her newest poetry collection is On the Subject of Blackberries.

On the Subject of Blackberries is a collection of poems that the author describes as “meditations on female rage, postpartum depression, compulsion, and intrusive thoughts. They pull from periods of sleep deprivation, soul exhaustion, and nightmarish delusions, and each is left untitled, a nod to the stream-of-conscious mind of a new mother.” This is a collection of horror poetry, therefore, grounded in the reality of a new mother, but through a lens of myth. Using found poetry techniques and bibliomancy, Wytovich created a collection layered in images. The poems here read as spells, incantations almost, but dark and surreal.

Into an air of change, I lay
like fog refusing the clouds
underneath my boots, my hand
held against the thin things
with splintered hair,
their watchful gaze
a sliced shadow on creeping walls,
a crooked ocean waving
to a doll with your face.

These are nightmares illustrated, dreams that one begs to wake from. The confusion and grief is palpable in these lines, found in the shadows that Wytovich explores with her language.

As if Wytovich’s poetry weren’t worth the price of admission itself, the presentation of this book is really quite something to behold. It’s a hardcover text with Victorian illustrations, but filled with poems of magic and rage, steeped in darkness. The whole aesthetic of the book makes for an experience for the reader, almost like they were prying into the grimoire of some haunted witch.

Stephanie M. Wytovich is a name that every horror reader should be familiar with. They are an outstanding author and editor with too many accomplishments and awards to list. It should be no surprise that On the Subject of Blackberries is a solid collection of poetry because Wytovich is a solid poet. However, this book is so different than previous collections, in ways both intimately personal and deeply magical, that it’s almost like discovering a completely new poet. If you know Wytovich’s work, then you are in for a dark surprise that is gripping and haunting and elegiacally beautiful.

If you have not read a book by Stephanie M. Wytovich, this is the book to correct that mistake with, because this book needs to be on the shelf of every horror reader.

This wasn't what I expected and didn't remind me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle unfortunately! The cover is pretty intriguing though.

This was a major disappointment for me, unfortunately. I was expecting much more based on the description but it felt uninspired and dry. Poetry isn't usually my thing, but when I do choose to pick it up I expect something profound and thought provoking and this just did not fit the bill.

Beautiful, darkly enjoyable and showing impressive craft. I wasn't sure what to expect, but thos was a wonderful book of poetry, full of gothic horror and emotional healing. A feral and cathartic collection.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this collection of poems.

I am just now trying to get into modern poetry, so my rating is more indicative of my exposure to poetry vs the quality of the poems. The author does an excellent job creating an immersive, dark, and gothic-inspired collection of poems. I am not familiar with the inspiration work (so that's on me) but most of the poems were hit or miss for me and went right over my head. Here are a few of the quotes I liked:

"I am the ghost responsible for all that fell apart, a blank page, the smashed table, scattered splintered"

"I laugh in red, the first symptom of violence."

"There are worse things than burning alive, our generation trama-soaked, blind eager to thank the match."

My first poetry collection for 2024 didn’t leave me feeling moved. I picked this collection because of the title (and blackberries are delicious) but the content wasn’t great. Too many of the pieces were literal – showing and not telling. This was a personal collection but I couldn’t find any pieces to connect with. The style was off and I couldn’t find a steady flow.