A review by howlinglibraries
Monstrum Poetica by Jezzy Wolfe

5.0

We are not meant to know
how it is to look upon ourselves—
The moment of meeting our own eyes
and seeing what is, or isn't, in their depths;
That moment when we know
the evil within,
the us outside,
is the evil that chases us through
the nightmares we wave away come dawn...

I love poetry, I love horror, and I love stories of urban legends, long-remembered beasties and folklore that carries down through generations. Monstrum Poetica contains all three of those elements and executes each one with terrifying, wicked brilliance.

This collection highlights seventeen separate creatures, from the brutal aswang to the ambiguous Mothman to the shambling zombie, with a few short poems dedicated to each. Each section begins with a very short introduction to the lore behind those beasties, where it's made evident that Jezzy Wolfe has a true passion for the subject and absolutely did her research. I loved those snippets tremendously as they were not only informative and enjoyable, but the bits of prose also broke up the poems in a way that made each piece stand clearly apart from the next one.

I literally couldn't put this collection down and ended up tearing through the entire thing in one go. There aren't many poetry books I re-read, but I know this will be one of them, because it's only been two days and I'm already itching to re-visit these little horrors!

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

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