Come dear reader, take my hand and follow me into the woods. No need to bring your shoes, leave them there and feel the warmth of nature between your toes. Close your eyes and take a breath…do you feel it? The wind knows all our secrets, listen and they will tell you all you need to know. Come, into the woods, let’s go.
Today I am on the blog tour for To Feed My Woodland Bones [A Changeling’s Tale] (Published September 1, 2019) By Kate Garrett. A big thank you to the author and the publishers Animal Heart Press for sending me a copy to review. Also for the invite to take part in this wonderful blog tour. Thank you.
About The Author
Kate Garrett is a writer, mum, editor, witch, horror fan, history buff, and amateur folklorist, among other things, who changes her hair colour more often than some people change their underpants…
Her poetry and flash fiction have been widely published online and in print, and she is the author of several books. Her recent poetry pamphlets include You’ve never seen a doomsday like it (Indigo Dreams Publishing, June 2017), Losing interest in the sound of petrichor (The Black Light Engine Room Press, January 2018), and Land and Sea and Turning (CWP Collective/Dark Particle Press, August 2018).
Her first full-length poetry collection, The saint of milk and flames, was published by Rhythm & Bones Press in April 2019. And her seventh chapbook To Feed My Woodland Bones [A Changeling’s Tale] will be published in September 2019 by Animal Heart Press.
Kate has a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing (first class honours) from Sheffield Hallam University, and plans to do an MA in history or heritage (and possibly a PhD in folklore studies) once her babies are a little older.
Kate’s poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and The Density of Salt was long-listed for best pamphlet in the Saboteur Awards 2016. She is the founding editor of several journals +/or presses.
She is a married mother of five human children and one cat-child, and lives in Sheffield, where she walks the winding rivers and always inhabits a between place in her heart.
To Feed My Woodland Bones
Kate Garrett’s poetry chapbook takes us on a magical journey of self doubt, rejection, and uncertainty, through darkness and ultimately to a place where she takes back her agency and the mastery of her own fate.
My Review
Be prepared dear reader to be dazzled by pixie dust. Garrett writes poetry with a magical flare. You quickly enter a dreamlike state, hazy and blurred from the spell she deliciously casts upon you. It’s hypnotising to be entangled in, I couldn’t get enough.
Garrett’s poetry deals with sensitive themes such as eating disorders, the effects of giving birth and a lost childhood that shows the reader they are not alone in their struggles against the world. Although I highly suspect that Garrett is an elf, she writes the human emotions with a rare exposure that people are quick to conceal at present. You can feel the hurt, the struggle, self doubt flowing off the page. She encourages the reader to be true to themselves, to not be afraid and own who they truly are.
my disordered eating is put on backwards
[she makes it known
I am not allowed to be hungry, so
I learned to make a bag of pretzels last three days
I shapeshift, deerlike in so many ways-
licking salt to feed my woodland bones]
There is a lot of inner strength and bravery in Garrett’s poetry. She is overcoming her past, facing it head on so she can break the chains and free herself. It was empowering to read as she was taking back control. Very courageous writing. We all have our ghosts and demons lurking in the darkness that we dare not approach as that fear instilled leaves a bad taste on the tongue. But Garrett walks boldly into that creepy looking wood with the taunting trees and screeching crows. She pushes the overhanging branches aside as you watch in astonishment, they fall in slow motion to the ground, making no sound and clear the path for her. She is a creature of the woods and you desperately follow, hoping to learn her secrets of the forest.
she laughs as tentacle-waves twitch against her unsteady feet
welcome her home // she was always meant to be here, among
razor clams and hagstones // her cheeks anointed with saltwater
goddess-holy and blessed by spheres that existed before us
Garrett’s voice is gentle to the ear, like raindrops falling on the leaves. She bewitches you with her use of breathtaking imagery, I was in complete awe, I love, LOVE when writers know how to entwine imagery within their words. Not going overboard or barely showing, but just the right balance. It was extremely indulgent to read and did wonders for my imagination. Truly remarkable that I wish I could paint what I see when reading Garrett’s poems. Alas dear reader my skills with a paint brush are not as accustomed as they are to the mighty pen.
by the time I was ten years in this world
I’d been to more funerals than playgrounds
I’d tasted more of cemetery rain, grown-ups’
graveside tears than cotton candy, marshmallows
To Feed My Woodland Bones [A Changeling’s Tale] By Kate Garrett a Four out of Five paw rating.
A much needed retreat to our woodland home, this collection of poems will release your inner elf and have you walking barefoot among the trees as the birds accompany you with a charming song before you reach the end. The path may be uneven ahead, and a stone or two will threaten to stub your toe. But once you reach the clearing and take in that view, you know honestly and truly, it was worth it.
Don’t forget to follow the rest of the blog tour, dates below. Enjoy!
Links
Preorder a copy
https://www.animalheartpress.net/
http://www.kategarrettwrites.co.uk
@mskateybelle
@mskateybelle
Hop hop wiggle wiggle
Bunny’s Pause 