Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for providing me this ARC!

An intricate, beautiful story with prose that takes place in the future. I enjoyed exploring this world so much and felt so connected to the characters. Some of these pieces made me cry and I love how Mahalia has this characters connect to the outside world.

This was a quick read, and really great for anyone who likes science fiction and poetry!

Brief but powerful collection of narrative poetry.

Severe climate devastation in a farming town brings a large corporation with promises of restoring the land. Corporate overreach leads to unexpected consequences (or success - depending on whose side you’re on).

"We are all the things we’ve ever been.
A lineage of becoming and unbecoming."

Mahaila Smith writes beautiful poetry, touching on real-world issues in a way I’ve not experienced before. A queer and femme commentary of climate change and late-stage capitalism. Plus, it has robots, oligarchs, community, nature — all wrapped into one story.

There's poetry collections with a coherent theme and then there's Seed Bettle, which uses each poem to fill in a missing puzzle piece of a story about the suffering of nature and humans under greenwashed cooperate greed. The foreword is the key element of this collection and ignited my excitement for what I was about to experience. I also loved the notes section mentioning all of the works inspiring the author to write this book. This one is for the found footage enthusiasts.

This collection of poetry was such a great surprise! The way it touched on climate in such a poetic beautiful way kept me wanting to read through this collection as quickly as I could!

In this really interesting take on speculative fiction, the author uses poetry to explore unique, futuristic voices, while critiquing capitalism and technology.

I thought this was bite sized and approachable generally, maybe a little too sci-fi-esque for my specific taste. Would be nice for someone trying to get into poetry!

3.25/5

Thank you to Stelliform Press and #NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Esto no fue para mí. No entendí mucho, siendo justa/o... Creo que podría ser un libro de poesía increíble. Pero no me sentí conectada/o con la mayoría de estos. ¡Y está bien! Cada quien tiene gustos diferentes.

Arc review.

This was not it for me.
I did not understand much, if I'm fair..
I think it could be an amazing poetry book.
But I did not feel connected to most of these.
Which is okay! Everyone's taste is different.

Please give this a try.

Thank you to everyone involved for the arc!

A collection of poetry exploring a climate- changed future and the dangers of destructive industrialisation.
I enjoyed how the poems linked together to form a narrative of sorts, and they were beautifully written.
In the author's notes they mentioned that they were inspired by the future that Octavia E Butler imagines in the excellent Parable of the Sower, and I could definitely see its influence here.
All in all, this was a welcome surprise.

Seed Beetle by Mahailia Smith is a captivating and thought-provoking work that combines rich world-building with an intriguing storyline. The premise is unique, offering a fresh take on themes of nature, survival, and the consequences of human intervention. Smith does an excellent job of creating a vivid world that feels both strange and familiar, drawing you into its complexities.

While there were a few moments where I felt the plot could have been explored more deeply, overall, Seed Beetle is a strong, thought-provoking read. It’s a great choice for fans of speculative fiction who enjoy stories that challenge the status quo. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what Mahailia Smith does next

Thanks to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC.

So incredible. Loved everything about this. I'm speechless.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

A poetry collection set in a dystopian future, where ecological collapse, corrupt corporations, and neurochip implants make life miserable. But there is hope: robot beetles that nourish flowers and forests, scientists who dream of eels and mermaids, and communities who return to the land.

These poems are beautiful, crisp, and lyrical while taking on the load of telling a cohesive sci-fi narrative. I couldn't put it down—I kept being reminded of the stories of Simon Stålenhag. But these poems are much more beautiful, sapphic, and journey from dystopian to solarpunk.

Cheers to Mahaila Smith, Netgalley, and Stelliform Press for the ARC Copy. Publication day is May 15 2025 🐛🪲

This book is both beautiful and scary. Poetry that tells the story of a dystopian future, but a future where hope and resistance still live. I really appreciated this book and will be recommended it.

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in May. I didn't always get it but the writing style was captivating. It was definitely a queer critique on climate change and capitalism that was very interesting.

Mahalia Smith’s Seed Beetle toes the line between poetry, academia, and novella in verse. Crafting a unique – but not that far from our own – future of climate devastation, Smith’s characters work through forgotten history, corporate overreach, and uninhabitable lands through community, family, and, yes, poetry.

I thoroughly enjoyed stepping into this strange world and was intentionally unsettled by its parallels to our own. The foreword does an excellent job setting the stage of both this dystopia and its characters. Framed chronologically as the lifetime experiences of one particular activist, it covers a range of social and personal events and their resolutions. The tone of the poems changes appropriately throughout these phases too, each section bearing its own particular flavor and style.

The seed beetles, their concept, and their personification were one of my favorite parts of this book, as was the first section about one of Nebula’s mother’s experiences working with the beetles. I have a fondness for sci-fi poetry, and this collection blends a cool idea with a positive message of hope, humanity, and restoration.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.