Reviews

Where the Worm Never Dies by Quinn Hernandez

mercykill's review

4.0

* received an ARC via netgalley
True horror poetry! Each poem creating a raw blistering image. Each was a joy to read as a fan of the genre. It pulled from tropes (lovingly) and established unique ideas in turn. Splattering viscera and rotting flesh, like a cult classic film.

maaariaaah's review

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

seherina's review

dark fast-paced

3.5

Thank you NetGalley and Swann + Bedlam for the chance to read and review "Where the Worm Never Dies" by Quinn Hernandez! 

I'm not a horror girly, but I am a poetry girly which is why I was pretty excited to read this. But to sum, horror > poetry when it comes to this book. As poetry, it's fairly standard modern poetry, but the horror made me flinch and quite uncomfortable, which is not to say that it wasn't interesting. Poems like "Breaking the Cycle", "Pawn" and "Not Just Anybody" are really interesting explorations on religion and inherited anger.

daria_nedelcu19's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

4.25

magenta_menace's review

0.75

thanks to netgalley for an arc of this title in exchange for an honest review. i wanted to like this so much based on the synopsis but i was really let down. first of all, there were so many moments where i couldn't tell if this was satire or edgelord nonsense, which i feel is a huge loss for this collection. if it played more into the humor, i feel i may have received this better. the horror is not revolutionary or transgressive to me in any way, even though the blurb referred to this as an uncanny odyssey of terror. i was not scared! like, clowns? sexual assault? weird religious metaphors? cheap and overdone in the genre in my opinion. "desire" was probably the most unique and abject piece for me. it may just be that for me, someone who regularly consumes extreme horror, i felt like this was nothing new and didn't live up to what it promised. additionally, typos and grammatical errors abound, which i am assuming will be fixed in post, but errors like "gentile" instead of "genteel," "it's" instead of "its" and "peace" instead of "piece" end up glaring on an already sparse page.

mistressviolet's review

dark reflective medium-paced

5.0

 

Great, thought-provoking pieces. All of the poems are dark and unsettling, to various degrees. And many had profound revelations that really made me pause and think. Deep and intelligent writing that isn't overly esoteric.