Bestial Mouths by Brenda S. Tolian REVIEW

★Thank you to NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for providing me with a copy of this book to review★

Bestial Mouths by Brenda S. Tolian is a poetry collection which revolves around themes of trauma, exploitation and power.

When I first saw it, I was immediately drawn to the name of the collection and, to some extent, the cover. However, unfortunately, I did not have the best time with this. Initially, what struck me was the odd and often annoying formatting of these poems. Most of them are centred, which is fine, but a lot of the poems have large portions where there is only one or two words per line. Rather than having a certain effect, it just made the poem annoying to read, and it took several rereads to understand the content rather than focusing on the structure.

In addition to this, I found that the poems were at times incoherent. There was a surprising mix of extremes within them, as, on the one hand, there were some poems that were blunt and very on the nose with the meaning, yet there were also poems that were overly-confusing and difficult to decipher.

Despite this, it is clear throughout every poem the amount of emotion that the author has put into her work. It is a collection that feels extremely personal, and that is admirable. It is not necessarily a collection that I would revisit, but I do think that there are some powerful and sickening images that come from it. I think that the Tolian is brilliant at creating strong and grotesque imagery. There are certainly a few hard hitters from this collection, and there were a few poems that I particularly enjoyed including: Eros Root, Johnathan Fry, Melancholy, Apple, Child and Opio-Cordyceps.

This collection will be upsetting to some, so please check the content warnings before reading.

I have kept this review intentionally short, as I don't feel that it is productive to linger on the negatives, particularly when there were other reviews that did not encounter the same issues that I did. However, it is also important to express my honest opinion of this collection. That being said, I would definitely like to read more from this writer, and will be looking into them further. I don't want to let one collection reflect completely on the writer's work, especially as there were poems within it that I thought were well-written and eerie.

Overall, Bestial Mouths is a poetry collection that is dividing. On the one hand, it was hard to keep track of, at times blunt, and the formatting was definitely something I would reconsider. On the other hand, there were some really good, grotesque moments. I was a huge fan of the eco horror elements of Bestial Mouths, and I think that if Tolian played more into the physical horror rather than explicitly stating the meaning, it would have been a better collection for me. With this in mind, I gave the collection: ★★

I hope you found this review insightful.

Happy reading,

All the best,

Talia