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The Apple of Their Throat: Poems
Not yet published
Expected 26 May 26
The Apple of Their Throat
is a love story, and a testament to the quiet, defiant resilience it takes to build a life when the world says you don’t belong.
This is an intimate and unflinching journey through self-discovery, first love, heartbreak, and the faith we lose and find on the way to becoming. Told in three powerful movements—Pollination, Fertilization, and Ripening—this memoir-in-verse begins with the breathless urgency of early desire and the ache of wanting to be by God, by family, by love. It weaves through grief, guilt, and rupture, arriving at a reclamation of self that is healed, scarred, and still tender. It is both a prayer and a battle cry, laying bare emotions in all their contradiction—divine, flawed, and achingly real.
With language that is both accessible and precise, these poems capture the ache of longing, the quiet fractures of faith, and the fragile bloom of first love. This is a collection that interrogates religion, asking what holiness looks like for those cast out and it pulses with honesty, restraint, and the kind of intimacy that feels like being handed a secret.
This is an intimate and unflinching journey through self-discovery, first love, heartbreak, and the faith we lose and find on the way to becoming. Told in three powerful movements—Pollination, Fertilization, and Ripening—this memoir-in-verse begins with the breathless urgency of early desire and the ache of wanting to be by God, by family, by love. It weaves through grief, guilt, and rupture, arriving at a reclamation of self that is healed, scarred, and still tender. It is both a prayer and a battle cry, laying bare emotions in all their contradiction—divine, flawed, and achingly real.
With language that is both accessible and precise, these poems capture the ache of longing, the quiet fractures of faith, and the fragile bloom of first love. This is a collection that interrogates religion, asking what holiness looks like for those cast out and it pulses with honesty, restraint, and the kind of intimacy that feels like being handed a secret.
128 pages, Paperback
Expected publication May 26, 2026
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 21, 2025
This collection is told through vivid clips of experience—raw moments of life, love, and loss that together form a beautiful journey. Though it’s a book of poems, it reads with the clarity and momentum of a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s accessible but not simplified, and deeply emotional without being abstract or difficult to decipher.
It’s exploration of tension between religion and identity. As someone who isn’t religious, I was surprised by how deeply I felt the narrator’s struggle—growing up loving something, taught that it’s right, only to wonder why it doesn’t accept who you fundamentally are. The book captures the painful contradiction of trying to belong in spaces that weren’t built to hold you, and the way that longing can convince you to shrink or fit yourself in their mold for acceptance.
This story is also a moving reflection on growing up while feeling compelled to hide the most important parts of yourself. There’s a grief that comes with realizing you missed out on moments you deserved—those small, essential rites of passage in youth that shape who we become, and that you can never quite redo in a way that feels fair. The book holds that sadness gently, honoring both what was lost and the person who emerges from it.
I’m pretty sure this is the first poetry collection I’ve ever read cover to cover, and I credit that entirely to how seamlessly it carries its narrative. It’s beautifully written, emotionally generous, and deeply human.
5/5 stars.
**I received an ARC, and this is my honest review**
It’s exploration of tension between religion and identity. As someone who isn’t religious, I was surprised by how deeply I felt the narrator’s struggle—growing up loving something, taught that it’s right, only to wonder why it doesn’t accept who you fundamentally are. The book captures the painful contradiction of trying to belong in spaces that weren’t built to hold you, and the way that longing can convince you to shrink or fit yourself in their mold for acceptance.
This story is also a moving reflection on growing up while feeling compelled to hide the most important parts of yourself. There’s a grief that comes with realizing you missed out on moments you deserved—those small, essential rites of passage in youth that shape who we become, and that you can never quite redo in a way that feels fair. The book holds that sadness gently, honoring both what was lost and the person who emerges from it.
I’m pretty sure this is the first poetry collection I’ve ever read cover to cover, and I credit that entirely to how seamlessly it carries its narrative. It’s beautifully written, emotionally generous, and deeply human.
5/5 stars.
**I received an ARC, and this is my honest review**
November 27, 2025
“Love will always be
right no matter how
many times we get it
wrong”
Thank you to the author for sending me this eARC.
This poetry collection dives into what it is like to grow up queer. It delves into discovery, coming out, the doubts, the religious trauma, the heartbreak, and finally finding your person. The poems are a beautiful mix of sad and hopeful. Some of them ring crystal clear whilst others take a little while to settle. The collection took me on a journey through a life filled with so much sadness, joy, and discovery.
This poetry collection will be out May 2026, so add it to your TBR if it sounds like something you’d enjoy.
right no matter how
many times we get it
wrong”
Thank you to the author for sending me this eARC.
This poetry collection dives into what it is like to grow up queer. It delves into discovery, coming out, the doubts, the religious trauma, the heartbreak, and finally finding your person. The poems are a beautiful mix of sad and hopeful. Some of them ring crystal clear whilst others take a little while to settle. The collection took me on a journey through a life filled with so much sadness, joy, and discovery.
This poetry collection will be out May 2026, so add it to your TBR if it sounds like something you’d enjoy.
November 12, 2025
Dear Reader,
This book has been a lifetime in the making. It came about the way all things do: from the choices we make and the picture those choices start to paint along the way. What I mean is that this book was never planned, because it was something I had to discover from living. At its heart, this book is about love.
When you grow up queer, you spend a lifetime trying to belong in a world that wasn’t made for you. You cast yourself in religion and roles that don’t quite fit because the desire to belong convinces you it is worth the sacrifice. And in doing so, you mute the colors bursting inside yourself. You learn to search for love in the dark, and something that is meant to feel so beautiful and free is anchored down by shame and guilt. But this book is about unlearning all of that, and it is a testament to how real love can be found in the very places you were taught to never look.
This is not just another coming-out story. This is not a tragedy. This is a life turned scripture, and a scripture rewritten to fit a life. This is a creation story. And like all good creation stories, it involves a forbidden fruit, and the world that one bite will open up for you.
Kevin
This book has been a lifetime in the making. It came about the way all things do: from the choices we make and the picture those choices start to paint along the way. What I mean is that this book was never planned, because it was something I had to discover from living. At its heart, this book is about love.
When you grow up queer, you spend a lifetime trying to belong in a world that wasn’t made for you. You cast yourself in religion and roles that don’t quite fit because the desire to belong convinces you it is worth the sacrifice. And in doing so, you mute the colors bursting inside yourself. You learn to search for love in the dark, and something that is meant to feel so beautiful and free is anchored down by shame and guilt. But this book is about unlearning all of that, and it is a testament to how real love can be found in the very places you were taught to never look.
This is not just another coming-out story. This is not a tragedy. This is a life turned scripture, and a scripture rewritten to fit a life. This is a creation story. And like all good creation stories, it involves a forbidden fruit, and the world that one bite will open up for you.
Kevin
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews