This one went COMPLETELY over my head I think. I'm sure it's great for other people, but it wasn't for me. REALLY didn't like it. Before reading this I was interesting in a few long novels from Percival Everett, but I didn't enjoy this so much so that I've since very much lost interest in anything by this author.

Thank you to Percival Everett, Red Hen Press, and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of "Sonnets for a Missing Key: and some others" for an honest review.

I had to pick this up when I saw that it was a book of poetry by the illustrious author of "James," which has stolen hearts and mind across the world the last year. Sadly, even as an aficionado of his novel and poetry books, this wasn't my cup of tea. (I think some of my disconnection with this work might be the way the formatting seemed all messed up inside my kindle file, too. Just as a logical aside, given that poetry is often a visual medium as well, given this tells you its visual form in the title and yet everything was very disjointed in layout for my read.)

I do think it might appeal to people who read and play music more.

As a first-time reader of Percival Everett's poetry I was wowed by this collection of sonnets, but maybe I shouldn't have been considering how incredible his novels are. Sonnets for a Missing Key works its way through the musical scale, a sonnet for each note. These sonnets have a beautiful cadence that lends itself easily to being read out loud. The sound pops off the page and the imagery places the reader inside the poem. Themes explored in Sonnets for a Missing Key include relationships, spirituality, and meditation on place and in the moment.

I'd recommend Sonnets for a Missing Key to all readers of poetry or fans of Everett's work. This was my first collection of his poetry but I read that it was his sixth published, so I will absolutely be reading those books too.

I planned on reading Percival Everett's fiction, so wanted to give his poetry a try, too.
Unfortunately, this was not for me.

I wanted to feel it and I wanted to like it, but couldn't.
The first half is written in a sonnet form if one can say that. They are fourteen-line poems, but everything else is very experimental.
Some of these really resonated with me, but I don't think that a few good poems make a good book.
But still, in that first part, there were many themes that I did like.

The second part was worse, in my opinion. It felt to me like someone vomited a bunch of words on the paper. There was zero resonance.
Again, maybe I am just not the right audience for this, but this is my rating, after all.

I appreciate the author's reputation and will try to read some of his fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

Sonnets for a Missing Key by Percival Everett is a brilliant and deeply moving collection that showcases the poet's extraordinary ability to weave complexity into simplicity. Each sonnet feels like a small, intricate puzzle, rich with layers of meaning and emotional depth. Everett’s command of language is masterful, and the themes he explores — loss, identity, memory, and the search for meaning — resonate long after the book is closed.

What stands out most is Everett’s ability to evoke a sense of intimacy and universality simultaneously. Whether he's reflecting on personal experiences or engaging with larger philosophical questions, his voice is both profoundly human and strikingly original. The collection is thought-provoking and often poignant, offering moments of quiet beauty and sudden insight.

This is a book for anyone who appreciates poetry that challenges the mind while touching the heart. Sonnets for a Missing Key is a stunning achievement — a collection that rewards careful reading and reflection. An easy 5-star recommendation.

I'm a big fan of Percival Everett and was hoping to love this poetry collection but ultimately it fell flat. These poems were fine but nothing stuck out and the entire collection blends together in my mind. I think readers of Everett's novels should probably skip reading this poetry collection.

I read "James" by Percival Everett earlier this year and it was phenomenal! Loved it! I was excited to download this arc when I saw that it was available. Some of the poems in "Sonnets for a Missing Key" made me ponder while with others I just read and nodded to myself. That is unfortunate to me. This work feels important and being an unseasoned poetry reader and not being acquainted to the Preludes of Chopin was not at all beneficial to my understanding of Everett's pieces. I truly think I will need to revisit this one in the future.

Thanks NetGalley for this arc!

After reading James, I was very excited to read Sonnets for a Missing Key. Percival Everett does not disappoint. He is such a powerful writer, and this work is a great example of his talent. I highly recommend reading this book.

I love Percival Everett's novels, but this poetry collection was really really hard for me to follow, probably because I'm not as familiar with poetry and musical terms. Maybe this one just wasn't for me.

I thought it might be interesting to try and read the poems alongside Chopin's piano pieces, but I found the rhythm and meter never quite matched the melody of Everett's writing enough, so I returned to reading alone. Even then, though, I never quite felt in tune with Everett's verses, as though I needed the further guidance of time signatures or ledger lines, dynamics or articulation marks. Overall, I simply must say I did not know about the collecting of these poems if they found commonality in each other beyond the names that gave them order. I've enjoyed Everett's prose that I've read, but his poetry eludes me in a way that seems more due to his writing than my misunderstanding.

Wow! Absolutely loved the poetry collection. It is quite heart touching and something that I have read after ages. Absolutely recommend and not a surprise given Percival's past work.

Thank you Red Hen Press and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

Publishing date: 20.08.2024
Thank you to Netgalley and Red Hen Press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

I expected: A musical collection of poems about loss
I got: Sonnet style poems about loss and identity
The book left me: Wanting to write a sonnet for my darling

Poetry style:
Poems are written like sonnets, but a little more experimentally

Amount of poems: 23 poems in the first section, 24 in the second

Features:
Two sections with very different poems, themes of loss, identity, creativity, meanings of things, uncertainty, and denial

Final ranking and star rating?
3 stars, B tier. This is a beautifully written collection of poems. The style is wildly different than what I had read earlier. Sadly this style was a little harder to read for me (in terms of speed). I found the themes relatable and well written into the poems.

Favorite poems:
A Major
E Major
F# Major
15 Sostenuto
4 Largo

Did I "get" this? Not sure. But there were quite a few poems that really moved me or made me think. I will read anything Percival Everett wants to write for me! It. sounds like a project that he was really into so I'm glad he has it out in the world!

short, sweet, and stunningly beautiful. percival everett has a true talent for conveying deep emotion and profound human experiences in just a few words. 

thank you netgalley for the e-arc.

I really enjoyed *Sonnets for a Missing Key*. The language is so inventive, and the way Everett weaves in musical influences from Chopin and Art Tatum makes the collection feel dynamic. I found myself reading it twice, and I’m sure I missed a lot that I'll catch on future re-reads. The sonnets explore some deep themes—relationships, spirituality, and the stories we tell ourselves—while still being accessible. This is one of those collections I can see myself coming back to again and again to uncover more layers.

(Highly recommend Chopin playing in the background while you read)

As much as I tried to, I couldn’t connect to this collection. Its poetry might be masterful in form, but the form kept overpowering the content, the poems flowed like music one to the other and, at the end, I couldn’t tell what it was all about and, unfortunately, couldn’t be moved by it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the E-ARC

I'm sorry, I am not sure that I know enough about poetry in general, about sonnets in particular, or about Chopin to properly give a review but I did find this to be a quick and pleasant read.

Favourite lines:

"When they told me you were dead I didn’t believe them, and I didn’t and I didn’t and I didn’t
I did when you told me. When you told me you were dead I believed you. Even then I had my doubts."

Decided to read because it's Percival Everett, but realized that I'm not trained to understand the meaning of sonnets (have the same issue with poetry). However, I enjoyed it for what it was and I'm itching to read more from him.

This book of poetry is ekphrasis at its finest! The collection is short, efficient, and structured like the art forms that inspired it: Italian sonnets, Art Tatum's jazz piano solos, and Chopin's famous Preludes. The slim 62-page book contains 47 poems. No poem is longer than a page. The first half of the book is sonnets, specifically Petrarchan sonnets. The second half is short couplet-based poems that end up forming quintets or sestets. All of the poems tie in with one of Chopin’s 24 preludes via their title. Like Chopin's Preludes, the poems are a little discordant—touching on really sad stuff then switching up quickly to something that feels more playful and high energy.

I like the second half of the collection a lot. The poems read like jazz, and I think this is the section that is mostly closely linked to Art Tatum’s piano solos. The quintets and sestets are very stream of consciousness and fast paced. They have nice repetition and are pretty to read out loud.

One of the most surprising things about this collection was the repeated allusions to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. I delighted in these unexpected references. Everett always has a surprise up his sleeve.

Thanks Red Hen Press and NetGalley for the gifted DRC book.

I finished reading SONNETS FOR A MISSING KEY and immediately read it a second time. I find it difficult to write about poetry. I enjoyed this collection as it moved from sonnets to pieces of different structure. There were some very memorable lines. At some point, I’d love to devote time to studying poetry in an academic sense. For now, I have to stick with these simple thoughts.