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A Collection of Nightmares
Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s A Collection of Nightmares is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars.
These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb.
Dream carefully.
You’ve already made your bed.
The nightmares you have now will not be kind.
And you have no one to blame but yourself.
These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb.
Dream carefully.
You’ve already made your bed.
The nightmares you have now will not be kind.
And you have no one to blame but yourself.
92 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2017
13 people are currently reading
505 people want to read
About the author
Christina Sng
102 books56 followersChristina Sng is a poet, writer and artist. Her work has received honourable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and nominations for the Dwarf Stars and Rhysling Awards. She is the author of several chapbooks, including Dark Dreams (2011) and A Constellation of Songs (2016). Her first two full-length poetry collections from Alban Lake Publishing and Raw Dog Screaming Press were published in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
February 19, 2020
This collection of poetry by Christina Sng is meant to be read by candlelight in a dark, creepy room. While some poetry collections follow a theme or message, this collection captures the essence of the title perfectly,
"A Collection of Nightmares"
Any of these bite-sized terrors could find themselves slipping into your memory; making a return appearance while you sleep...a nugget of nightmare fuel.
Example:
"Mirror to the Other Side"
Through the mirror
I see him, translucent
In the forest,
Tiny form bent
Over a dying fawn,
Bringing it back to life.
"So what do you think of
Our Mirror to the Other Side?"
The saleslady asks.
I nod and smile, never
Taking my eyes off my boy.
"I'll take it."
Wow! See what I mean? I could think of these words for the rest of the day. And this book is full of insidious, little treasures just like that one.
I especially loved:
THEY DO NOT SLEEP
CRAWLSPACE
INSIDE
SUCCUBUS
If you haven’t yet experienced the allure of dark poetry such as this, let Christina Sng’s smartly spoken words work their magic on you. I promise, once you start collecting poetry like this, you'll never want to stop enjoying it.
"A Collection of Nightmares"
Any of these bite-sized terrors could find themselves slipping into your memory; making a return appearance while you sleep...a nugget of nightmare fuel.
Example:
"Mirror to the Other Side"
Through the mirror
I see him, translucent
In the forest,
Tiny form bent
Over a dying fawn,
Bringing it back to life.
"So what do you think of
Our Mirror to the Other Side?"
The saleslady asks.
I nod and smile, never
Taking my eyes off my boy.
"I'll take it."
Wow! See what I mean? I could think of these words for the rest of the day. And this book is full of insidious, little treasures just like that one.
I especially loved:
THEY DO NOT SLEEP
CRAWLSPACE
INSIDE
SUCCUBUS
If you haven’t yet experienced the allure of dark poetry such as this, let Christina Sng’s smartly spoken words work their magic on you. I promise, once you start collecting poetry like this, you'll never want to stop enjoying it.
February 19, 2019
"Lounge on the couch / Of your twisted mind / Dive into your obsessions / Scouring dark tales / From your grapevine."
A Collection of Nightmares is a book of about 40 poems by Christina Sng. I was introduced to her work in the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. 5. Her poem was one of my favorites, so I had to pick up this collection.
Christina Sng writes beautifully, and she has put her heart into these poems. There was a little less horror than I expected based on the title and cover, but it was still great to read. Many of the poems went in a sci-fi direction, which was surprising to me (apparently I should not have been surprised since I learned later that Christina has other sci-fi poetry collections). I had not read any sci-fi poetry before, but I think it was really well done. They had depth and emotion, and they were so descriptive. Many of the narrators of the poems seemed to be women, and it was easy to find things to relate to in this collection.
My top 5 poems were Just As Papa Said, Inside, D-Day, Twenty Years, and The Fall. I really enjoyed the more gruesome poems like Just As Papa Said, but there's such an intriguing variety in Christina's poetry that it was all enjoyable. I think that A Collection of Nightmares would be a great introduction to someone who wants to try out horror poetry, but maybe doesn't want to get into super gory material just yet. This book is definitely dark, but it's not as bleak as some others I have read. There's still some hope in these poems even though they are focused on nightmares. A Collection of Nightmares is a great book, and I would love to read more from Christina Sng!
A Collection of Nightmares is a book of about 40 poems by Christina Sng. I was introduced to her work in the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. 5. Her poem was one of my favorites, so I had to pick up this collection.
Christina Sng writes beautifully, and she has put her heart into these poems. There was a little less horror than I expected based on the title and cover, but it was still great to read. Many of the poems went in a sci-fi direction, which was surprising to me (apparently I should not have been surprised since I learned later that Christina has other sci-fi poetry collections). I had not read any sci-fi poetry before, but I think it was really well done. They had depth and emotion, and they were so descriptive. Many of the narrators of the poems seemed to be women, and it was easy to find things to relate to in this collection.
My top 5 poems were Just As Papa Said, Inside, D-Day, Twenty Years, and The Fall. I really enjoyed the more gruesome poems like Just As Papa Said, but there's such an intriguing variety in Christina's poetry that it was all enjoyable. I think that A Collection of Nightmares would be a great introduction to someone who wants to try out horror poetry, but maybe doesn't want to get into super gory material just yet. This book is definitely dark, but it's not as bleak as some others I have read. There's still some hope in these poems even though they are focused on nightmares. A Collection of Nightmares is a great book, and I would love to read more from Christina Sng!
April 28, 2018
The word ‘nightmare’ is used so often from one day to the next, it’s become almost clichéd: “that meeting was an absolute nightmare,” or “I had a nightmare my account balance was zero, then woke up to find I’d fallen asleep with my online banking app open, and it was no dream.” But if you revisit the actual definition of ‘nightmare,’ you’ll be reminded that the dreaming individual experiences feelings of helplessness, extreme anxiety, and sorrow, and that the word was formerly used to connote a monster or evil spirit believed to oppress persons during sleep. Christina Sng’s Bram Stoker Award-winning collection could therefore not be more aptly named. Sng’s work elicits the same hypnagogic surreality you’ve felt infusing your prone and vulnerable sleeping form during a particularly terrifying omnibus of nightmares. And I, for one, enjoyed the eeriest and most gruesome poems of her collection the most.
“The Bone Carver,” “They Do Not Sleep,” and “That Evening,” butter you up with vivid prose (“...Bob is humming a tune, / Something our mother sang, many years past / When she sculpted megaliths out of / clay and bone / Before she too was gone.”) and alluring rhymes (“I stroke your soft black hair / And sing you Marlborough Fair.”), before dropping something as intricate and impressive as a velvety-legged and elaborately-patterned black widow spider into your lap (“I rise from the old sunken couch / In my stiff slow lazy crouch, / Letting your head roll from the lace / And into the screaming fireplace.” or “The hammering finally stops. / Bob places the bone doll into an airtight box / As we patiently wait for the news: / The boy fallen dead, asphyxiated on the spot.”). My husband asked me what I was reading upon finishing “That Evening” with an appreciative chuckle, and I said, “oh, honey, let me read it to you, it’s a lovely little poem about a lover and her darling sweet fireball of lumber...” That’s Sng’s work for you; it’s haunting and darkly humorous and begging to be shared.
Sng doesn’t just tease visceral reactions from her readers, but effectively guts you where you sit, moving you to the point of tears in but a few lines. “The Marvel of Flight” manages to send the reader along on a freefall from the top of a skyscraper to the earth below, but before you hit the pavement with the protagonist, this woman who’s dreamed of flying since she was a child, Sng issues a twist that extends those feelings of unease and weightlessness long after the poem’s final line.
The second half of Sng’s collection is rife with apocalyptic poems of several different themes and styles, but the piece that really moved me was “Twenty Years.” I should have known not to trust the direction this piece was going in; Sng had given me fair warning with the changing perspectives (alien vs. human; invader vs. invaded; gods vs. denizens) of the poems preceding this one. Without spoiling anything, let me just say that this poem affected me in sixteen stanzas the way some novels can’t do in 100,000 words.
Possible favorite stanza from “A Collection of Nightmares” (note, this is one of about thirty that I highlighted while reading the collection):
“Blood-filled icicles
Grow from my neck
Like wet giant fangs
After a kill.”
- “Visitation by Lady Death”
While a few select lines in no way do justice to “A Collection of Nightmares,” it should at least make it easy to discern the sheer talent with which Christina Sng is working. Head over to Raw Dog Screaming Press and experience her work for yourself, but don’t come crying to me if, as a result, you have the most terrible, and the most beautiful, of nightmares.
“The Bone Carver,” “They Do Not Sleep,” and “That Evening,” butter you up with vivid prose (“...Bob is humming a tune, / Something our mother sang, many years past / When she sculpted megaliths out of / clay and bone / Before she too was gone.”) and alluring rhymes (“I stroke your soft black hair / And sing you Marlborough Fair.”), before dropping something as intricate and impressive as a velvety-legged and elaborately-patterned black widow spider into your lap (“I rise from the old sunken couch / In my stiff slow lazy crouch, / Letting your head roll from the lace / And into the screaming fireplace.” or “The hammering finally stops. / Bob places the bone doll into an airtight box / As we patiently wait for the news: / The boy fallen dead, asphyxiated on the spot.”). My husband asked me what I was reading upon finishing “That Evening” with an appreciative chuckle, and I said, “oh, honey, let me read it to you, it’s a lovely little poem about a lover and her darling sweet fireball of lumber...” That’s Sng’s work for you; it’s haunting and darkly humorous and begging to be shared.
Sng doesn’t just tease visceral reactions from her readers, but effectively guts you where you sit, moving you to the point of tears in but a few lines. “The Marvel of Flight” manages to send the reader along on a freefall from the top of a skyscraper to the earth below, but before you hit the pavement with the protagonist, this woman who’s dreamed of flying since she was a child, Sng issues a twist that extends those feelings of unease and weightlessness long after the poem’s final line.
The second half of Sng’s collection is rife with apocalyptic poems of several different themes and styles, but the piece that really moved me was “Twenty Years.” I should have known not to trust the direction this piece was going in; Sng had given me fair warning with the changing perspectives (alien vs. human; invader vs. invaded; gods vs. denizens) of the poems preceding this one. Without spoiling anything, let me just say that this poem affected me in sixteen stanzas the way some novels can’t do in 100,000 words.
Possible favorite stanza from “A Collection of Nightmares” (note, this is one of about thirty that I highlighted while reading the collection):
“Blood-filled icicles
Grow from my neck
Like wet giant fangs
After a kill.”
- “Visitation by Lady Death”
While a few select lines in no way do justice to “A Collection of Nightmares,” it should at least make it easy to discern the sheer talent with which Christina Sng is working. Head over to Raw Dog Screaming Press and experience her work for yourself, but don’t come crying to me if, as a result, you have the most terrible, and the most beautiful, of nightmares.
January 30, 2018
Beautiful, dark, and lyrical. Sng paints each poem with detailed brushstrokes, creating evocative images that drip together to create a wonderfully, wicked story. Many pieces reminded me of an anti-fairytale, where we are given the opportunity to glance into the not so happy-ever-after endings. A stunning collection overall.
September 14, 2017
My work has often appeared in publications with Christina Sng’s poetry. We each realized this at some point, and then realized that we had emerged into the speculative poetry scene at roughly the same time. In Christina’s case, this came after a decade long hiatus. That span seems to have been geminating time because she has burst out with oodles of topnotch poetry. It has been an honor to share tables of contents with her.
This publication is no exception. I am a layout nut, so one of my first concerns when opening a book is how it looks. I do judge books by their covers. And, yikes, this is a fitting one. The image of an almost submerged face, by Steven Archer, sets the tone well. The cover is beautiful and colorful, but all the more chilling because of that.
These 73 pages of poetry differ from much of what I have come to expect from Sng. Her collection, Astropoetry, from earlier this year focuses on the stars from hard science to speculative, and her fantastic sci-fi work appears regularly in Star*Line, Scifaikuest, and other publications that feature my poetry too.
This collection is dark. Beautifully dark.
Take the first lines from the first two poems, Exquisite and Seasonal Creatures
You’re exquisite
Stony-white and frozen
and
We swim in the rivers of blood
There are fairy tale references that go dark (as if the originals weren’t already dark), dismemberment, confusion, fear, the apocalypse, and, of course, death. The darkness is sometimes more effective because of Sng’s gentle touch, like a kiss of death that sends our boat drifting into Lethe, quietly forgetting it all.
The Path
We walk the path alone,
My child and I in this dark night
Where the only light
Emanates from stars we will not
Visit in our lifetime…
This quiet scene is emblematic of Sng’s ability to conjure compelling stories, reflecting the beauty in darkness – darkness because we maintain illusions that transience is our primary constant. We will ultimately lose everything. This is the skull in a monk’s cell. This is why we get up in the morning filled with purpose. This is why we find life meaningless. Or the battle between these feelings is what makes life to frustratingly awesome.
Elsewhere, the poems are grisly, still with a graceful touch, but then with a bump – heads rolling, limbs flying, knives, suicide, blood. Toward the end of the book the poems shift toward visions of the apocalypse, with two of my familiar favorites – Twenty Years and The Dissection. The final poem, The World’s Edge is a poignant finale. I won’t give away the end of the poem, but these lines are characteristic of the last portion of the book.
…At dusk, the seas whisper to me,
The end of days has come.
But I ignore them.
We live outside of time,
Far beyond society’s reach.
It was my choice: my family.
Alice is reading an ancient novel,
Jack playing with a ball of wool,
Ava and Jade are curled up by the window,
Dreaming of prey they’d caught
In their yesteryear while I stand
On the porch watching the world go by…
These little touches on parenthood really hit home for me because of my own role as a parent, but under Sng’s direction they are more than reflections on parenthood, but commentary on human relationships and valuing the connections between us.
A Collection of Nightmares is a book that left me bloodthirsty for more.
This publication is no exception. I am a layout nut, so one of my first concerns when opening a book is how it looks. I do judge books by their covers. And, yikes, this is a fitting one. The image of an almost submerged face, by Steven Archer, sets the tone well. The cover is beautiful and colorful, but all the more chilling because of that.
These 73 pages of poetry differ from much of what I have come to expect from Sng. Her collection, Astropoetry, from earlier this year focuses on the stars from hard science to speculative, and her fantastic sci-fi work appears regularly in Star*Line, Scifaikuest, and other publications that feature my poetry too.
This collection is dark. Beautifully dark.
Take the first lines from the first two poems, Exquisite and Seasonal Creatures
You’re exquisite
Stony-white and frozen
and
We swim in the rivers of blood
There are fairy tale references that go dark (as if the originals weren’t already dark), dismemberment, confusion, fear, the apocalypse, and, of course, death. The darkness is sometimes more effective because of Sng’s gentle touch, like a kiss of death that sends our boat drifting into Lethe, quietly forgetting it all.
The Path
We walk the path alone,
My child and I in this dark night
Where the only light
Emanates from stars we will not
Visit in our lifetime…
This quiet scene is emblematic of Sng’s ability to conjure compelling stories, reflecting the beauty in darkness – darkness because we maintain illusions that transience is our primary constant. We will ultimately lose everything. This is the skull in a monk’s cell. This is why we get up in the morning filled with purpose. This is why we find life meaningless. Or the battle between these feelings is what makes life to frustratingly awesome.
Elsewhere, the poems are grisly, still with a graceful touch, but then with a bump – heads rolling, limbs flying, knives, suicide, blood. Toward the end of the book the poems shift toward visions of the apocalypse, with two of my familiar favorites – Twenty Years and The Dissection. The final poem, The World’s Edge is a poignant finale. I won’t give away the end of the poem, but these lines are characteristic of the last portion of the book.
…At dusk, the seas whisper to me,
The end of days has come.
But I ignore them.
We live outside of time,
Far beyond society’s reach.
It was my choice: my family.
Alice is reading an ancient novel,
Jack playing with a ball of wool,
Ava and Jade are curled up by the window,
Dreaming of prey they’d caught
In their yesteryear while I stand
On the porch watching the world go by…
These little touches on parenthood really hit home for me because of my own role as a parent, but under Sng’s direction they are more than reflections on parenthood, but commentary on human relationships and valuing the connections between us.
A Collection of Nightmares is a book that left me bloodthirsty for more.
May 10, 2018
Christina Sng’s A Collection of Nightmares is a poetry book containing forty seven dark and apocalyptic poems. The book won the 2018 Bram Stoker Award of Best Poetry Collection, and rightly so: the first half of the collection contains wonderfully executed horror poetry while the final half is devoted to apocalyptic subjects that convey a sense of excitement as the world ends in disastrous ways.
The beginning of A Collection of Nightmares focuses on non-gothic horror poems. Much of these poems deal with nature and animals (“Seasonal Creatures,” “A Mosquito’s Tale”), and fiendish folks capable of malevolent acts (“Confession,” “Snow Tomb”). Starting with “The Fall” on page 53, the rest of A Collection of Nightmares is devoted to post-apocalyptic narratives, including asteroids crashing into Earth (“The Journey”), alien invasions (“The Dissection”), zombies (“Children in the Apocalypse”), and contagions, floods (“Underwater”) and so on. Civilization does not fare well on most of these poems, though a few, such as “Children in the Apocalypse” end with hints of optimism.
Throughout Sng’s poems, there’s a few common themes. Cats are prominent, whether they are the plushy variety that calm children, of the protagonist of the story who survives the apocalypse while munching on his owner. Children are also a focal point as many poems involve the protection of them from the nightmarish forces present in many of them. There’s a few references to Peter Pan and other fairy tales. There’s also a few instances of black humour in Sng’s work, such as the poem “The Atomizer and the Matchbox” devoted to an atomizer that allows folks to shrink their enemies down and nets its inventor a Noble Peace Prize. Over all, the entire collection is cohesive with its selection of poems, some are adventurous and others tragic, but all are expertly crafted and easily visualized when read.
The beginning of A Collection of Nightmares focuses on non-gothic horror poems. Much of these poems deal with nature and animals (“Seasonal Creatures,” “A Mosquito’s Tale”), and fiendish folks capable of malevolent acts (“Confession,” “Snow Tomb”). Starting with “The Fall” on page 53, the rest of A Collection of Nightmares is devoted to post-apocalyptic narratives, including asteroids crashing into Earth (“The Journey”), alien invasions (“The Dissection”), zombies (“Children in the Apocalypse”), and contagions, floods (“Underwater”) and so on. Civilization does not fare well on most of these poems, though a few, such as “Children in the Apocalypse” end with hints of optimism.
Throughout Sng’s poems, there’s a few common themes. Cats are prominent, whether they are the plushy variety that calm children, of the protagonist of the story who survives the apocalypse while munching on his owner. Children are also a focal point as many poems involve the protection of them from the nightmarish forces present in many of them. There’s a few references to Peter Pan and other fairy tales. There’s also a few instances of black humour in Sng’s work, such as the poem “The Atomizer and the Matchbox” devoted to an atomizer that allows folks to shrink their enemies down and nets its inventor a Noble Peace Prize. Over all, the entire collection is cohesive with its selection of poems, some are adventurous and others tragic, but all are expertly crafted and easily visualized when read.
May 2, 2018
If you like your poetry dark--but also like it with a heart and soul--this is a great collection. I love how Christine Sng blends creepiness with human interaction. So many of the stories involve the links between family members, especially mothers and children. It captures, with remarkable emotional effect, the desire to protect in terrifying moments and the fear that only loving someone can bring to us.
December 4, 2020
Review to follow...
July 14, 2017
My official blurb for the book:
“Christina Sng’s poetry gives me the same feeling as observing a Kandinsky painting or hearing a Nine Inch Nails song: something immediate, deeply complex and intensely profound. It is, in short, a wonder.”
“Christina Sng’s poetry gives me the same feeling as observing a Kandinsky painting or hearing a Nine Inch Nails song: something immediate, deeply complex and intensely profound. It is, in short, a wonder.”
May 23, 2022
other than the 1 that I really enjoyed, these all read like the bad 2 sentence horror stories on reddit
September 3, 2024
I had pretty high hopes for this poetry collection because I’ve heard a lot of great things and the cover is just bloody fantastic. But it just kind of left me feeling indifferent. There’s a couple good poems but the majority just didn’t do it for me sadly!
February 18, 2019
I am new to reading poetry, so I feel a bit less comfortable with rating this type of collection instead of a novel, but I'll do my best to articulate my thoughts.
This is a beautifully written collection of poems, exploring several themes. Many of the poems discuss darkness, loss, family bonds, inner demons, and the end of the world. I love how the author blends beauty and horror together in a seamless manner. With poetry or short story collections, I like to list my Top 5 favorites. My favorite poems in this collection are:
-Twenty Years
-Succubus
-That Evening
-They Do Not Sleep
-Resurrection Dreams
I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author, whether it's poetry or prose!
Many thanks to Raw Dog Screaming Press for sending me a copy of this collection, in exchange for an honest review.
This is a beautifully written collection of poems, exploring several themes. Many of the poems discuss darkness, loss, family bonds, inner demons, and the end of the world. I love how the author blends beauty and horror together in a seamless manner. With poetry or short story collections, I like to list my Top 5 favorites. My favorite poems in this collection are:
-Twenty Years
-Succubus
-That Evening
-They Do Not Sleep
-Resurrection Dreams
I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author, whether it's poetry or prose!
Many thanks to Raw Dog Screaming Press for sending me a copy of this collection, in exchange for an honest review.
May 10, 2022
This is my second book of poetry by Christina Sng, and it absolutely will not be my last: she has this haunting, ethereal way of describing things in her poems that makes each read so mysterious and comforting at the same time. Although some of the themes in the poems are quite dark, this isn't an overly gory or "extreme" type of poetry collection. More like dark, sci-fi fairy tales - and I loved it!
November 23, 2017
Excellent collection of work. Glad I read it.
March 14, 2019
*I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.*
A Collection of Nightmares is a compilation of speculative poetry by Christina Sng. The cover itself is a warning/ or foreshadowing of what awaits you. Something beautiful and morbid. You are never quite sure which. Is the woman in the water just floating in a dreamlike state, or is she about to go under, being pulled by a nightmare, her body sinking to the depths. Do not assume where Ms. Sng's poems are going. Let her lead you through her nightmares, ones you cannot wake up from. Because you are already awake.
A Collection of Nightmares consists of 40 poems written by Christina Sng. This collection resides more in the Science Fiction sub genre of Horror, but it is Horror nonetheless. These poems envelop the true definition of nightmares -surrealism, vulnerability, helplessness, and sorrow. All while looking through the lens of a science fiction perspective.
This was my first introduction to science fiction poetry. And though I'm not a huge fan of this particular sub genre, I was delightfully surprised with how much I enjoyed it!
The poetry itself was beautifully written, with depth and emotion. I loved and appreciated the fact that many of the poems were told from a woman's point of view.
Now, even though I said these poems were beautifully written, make no mistake, they do not tell beautiful stories. These poems are haunting, and dark, with a hint of humor. Some of my favorites were The Bone Carver, Succubus, and Just as Papa Said. But the one poem that thew me was The Marvel of Flight. It describes a woman's thoughts as she is free falling from the top of a skyscraper. Ok, so this is why this poem was a gut punch. I'm not afraid of heights at all. But ever since I was little, I've had this very detailed, re- occurring dream where I'm at the top of a Ferris wheel. The bucket tips, and I fall from the very top, and just as I'm about to hit the ground- which is cobble stoned- I said it was detailed, I wake up. Just typing this is giving me some anxiety. But when I read this, I almost had a full blown panic attack and had to put this down and come back to it later after I calmed down. Now, this may seem like a bad thing, but I have to applaud anyone that can elicit such a raw, visceral reaction from one poem. That's some pretty damn good writing!
A Collection of Nightmares is an intricate, elaborate, and vivid work of poetry. This was not Christina Sng's first foray into poetry, and her skill shows. This is not hard core Horror poetry, like some I have reviewed in the past, but I would recommend this to anyone, especially someone who wants an introductory into Horror poetry. Christina Sng is a seasoned and imaginative poet, and I can't wait to read more from her in the future.
A Collection of Nightmares is a compilation of speculative poetry by Christina Sng. The cover itself is a warning/ or foreshadowing of what awaits you. Something beautiful and morbid. You are never quite sure which. Is the woman in the water just floating in a dreamlike state, or is she about to go under, being pulled by a nightmare, her body sinking to the depths. Do not assume where Ms. Sng's poems are going. Let her lead you through her nightmares, ones you cannot wake up from. Because you are already awake.
A Collection of Nightmares consists of 40 poems written by Christina Sng. This collection resides more in the Science Fiction sub genre of Horror, but it is Horror nonetheless. These poems envelop the true definition of nightmares -surrealism, vulnerability, helplessness, and sorrow. All while looking through the lens of a science fiction perspective.
This was my first introduction to science fiction poetry. And though I'm not a huge fan of this particular sub genre, I was delightfully surprised with how much I enjoyed it!
The poetry itself was beautifully written, with depth and emotion. I loved and appreciated the fact that many of the poems were told from a woman's point of view.
Now, even though I said these poems were beautifully written, make no mistake, they do not tell beautiful stories. These poems are haunting, and dark, with a hint of humor. Some of my favorites were The Bone Carver, Succubus, and Just as Papa Said. But the one poem that thew me was The Marvel of Flight. It describes a woman's thoughts as she is free falling from the top of a skyscraper. Ok, so this is why this poem was a gut punch. I'm not afraid of heights at all. But ever since I was little, I've had this very detailed, re- occurring dream where I'm at the top of a Ferris wheel. The bucket tips, and I fall from the very top, and just as I'm about to hit the ground- which is cobble stoned- I said it was detailed, I wake up. Just typing this is giving me some anxiety. But when I read this, I almost had a full blown panic attack and had to put this down and come back to it later after I calmed down. Now, this may seem like a bad thing, but I have to applaud anyone that can elicit such a raw, visceral reaction from one poem. That's some pretty damn good writing!
A Collection of Nightmares is an intricate, elaborate, and vivid work of poetry. This was not Christina Sng's first foray into poetry, and her skill shows. This is not hard core Horror poetry, like some I have reviewed in the past, but I would recommend this to anyone, especially someone who wants an introductory into Horror poetry. Christina Sng is a seasoned and imaginative poet, and I can't wait to read more from her in the future.
December 29, 2019
A Collection of Nightmares is a horribly beautiful collection of nightmarish sketches, each word carefully chosen to add another brushstroke to the shadows.
These poems contain such depth that many urged me to read them numerous times to peel back the layers. I could not get over the beauty of each line, perfectly constructed to vividly describe such darkness.
I believe many of these poems would fall into the science fiction sub-genre of horror, which is not normally my preferred horror arena, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this collection.
Some of my favorite poems include:
🥀 Bruises - It was heart wrenching, disturbing, and satisfying all at once.
🥀 The Marvel of Flight- I found this one to so lyrically and elegantly describe something to tragic. Beautifully done!
🥀 That Evening- I got some Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark vibes with this one. The sing-song rhymes and the dark subject intertwined so perfectly.
🥀 Cocoon- This one opened with one of my favorite sets of lines from the collection: “I’d like to stay in my cocoon/ For as long as I can, till/ Hunger crippled me and/ Expels me from my shell.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤/5 = This dark poetry collection would be great for someone dipping their toes into horror poetry; while not overtly gory or horrific, these poems will certainly disturb and haunt you.
**Thank you to @rdspress and @erinalmehairi for this beautiful collection to read and review!
These poems contain such depth that many urged me to read them numerous times to peel back the layers. I could not get over the beauty of each line, perfectly constructed to vividly describe such darkness.
I believe many of these poems would fall into the science fiction sub-genre of horror, which is not normally my preferred horror arena, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this collection.
Some of my favorite poems include:
🥀 Bruises - It was heart wrenching, disturbing, and satisfying all at once.
🥀 The Marvel of Flight- I found this one to so lyrically and elegantly describe something to tragic. Beautifully done!
🥀 That Evening- I got some Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark vibes with this one. The sing-song rhymes and the dark subject intertwined so perfectly.
🥀 Cocoon- This one opened with one of my favorite sets of lines from the collection: “I’d like to stay in my cocoon/ For as long as I can, till/ Hunger crippled me and/ Expels me from my shell.”
🖤🖤🖤🖤/5 = This dark poetry collection would be great for someone dipping their toes into horror poetry; while not overtly gory or horrific, these poems will certainly disturb and haunt you.
**Thank you to @rdspress and @erinalmehairi for this beautiful collection to read and review!
April 30, 2020
Christina Sng scribbles her Nightmares and makes them our vision... nightmares that may trickle onto our pillow and haunt our dreams. From terror to post apocalyptic, the screams do not go unheard... she leads us down the path to the final page.
Favorites:
The Art of Weaving
Resurrection Dreams
Confession
Cocoon
The Skin Carver
Bottled Quiescence
The Fall
D-Day
Favorites:
The Art of Weaving
Resurrection Dreams
Confession
Cocoon
The Skin Carver
Bottled Quiescence
The Fall
D-Day
October 19, 2021
I really enjoyed this collection of dark poetry and it was perfect reading for October. I feel like I can go back and reread these several times. This is my first @christinasng book but definitely won't be my last.🖤
July 25, 2020
3.5. Poetry is not my thing but most of these were real good. Poems about the end of a life, end of civilization, end of the world, end of humanity. Usually crafted with a twist
September 19, 2020
“You have ripped out my tongue; I cannot speak. My hands spoke for me, but then you ripped them out too. Your words churn ice as you speak. Snow drops from your lips. I weep blood, listening to your confession, wishing you had ripped out my eardrums instead.”
A Collection of Nightmares is a poetry collection by Christina Sng that has dark themes of horror and science fiction. I thought that I didn’t really get along with poetry, but I really enjoyed this collection! I think it has to do with the type of poetry I was reading, but horror seemed like a whole new experience and these were so beautifully done that I couldn’t help by loving it. It’s quite short, which I enjoyed, because I read it in one evening and it was just so satisfying to finish. The balance of horror to science fiction was nice too, and I really enjoyed how a lot of the poems, although quite different, felt like connected stories. If you are like me and are hesitant about poetry but want to test out some with darker themes, I fully recommend this one!
A Collection of Nightmares is a poetry collection by Christina Sng that has dark themes of horror and science fiction. I thought that I didn’t really get along with poetry, but I really enjoyed this collection! I think it has to do with the type of poetry I was reading, but horror seemed like a whole new experience and these were so beautifully done that I couldn’t help by loving it. It’s quite short, which I enjoyed, because I read it in one evening and it was just so satisfying to finish. The balance of horror to science fiction was nice too, and I really enjoyed how a lot of the poems, although quite different, felt like connected stories. If you are like me and are hesitant about poetry but want to test out some with darker themes, I fully recommend this one!
December 26, 2021
It’s a no from me dog. The stories were boring & not scary, I can only think of 4 I actually liked. Disappointing.
September 10, 2018
These poems are basically real short horror stories. Some of them make you squirm in disgust, some tugs at your heartstrings. There are quite a few pieces on dystopian themes but overall, I really do love the macabre nature of the poems and how easy it was to be immersed in her nightmares.
May 29, 2018
Was good - but have to admit I preferred the first poems to the last ones. The last few seemed repetitive to me.
May 22, 2019
I spent a decade in graduate school laughing at everyone who pretended to fully comprehend thinkers like Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, and Jacques Derrida. Because I was also forced to deal with their writing, being confused was the last thing I was looking for when turning to fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in my free time. Unfortunately, there are plenty of writers in those genres whose main goal is confusing readers or impressing scholars with the impenetrability of their dense, boring writing. For them, telling a story and making readers feel something are at the bottom of the list. In fact, this behavior is so common, I sometimes take breaks from reading poetry because too many poets are obsessed with imagined depth and completely forget to tell me a story. Well, I’m happy to report that Christina Sng’s is the perfect opposite of that. A Collection of Nightmares is a poetry collection that reads like more like a flash fiction collection and a celebration of economy of language than anything else, and those two things are more than enough to make it a must-read even if poetry is not usually on your plate.
You can read Gabino's entire review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
You can read Gabino's entire review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
March 8, 2021
Here we have some horror poetry for the class. I have read and loved cosmic horror poetry but it's always been old school stuff never anything by modern authors. I've read all of Lovecraft's as well as Clark Ashton Smith's poetry and really loved it. Smith's stuff especially has always been a favorite of mine...it's the type of deliciously dramatic stuff that I can't help but read aloud again and again.
Coming back to this, I really enjoyed it! I liked how the collection progressed from individual horrors to global to cosmic. I felt like it built the tension in the collection really well. The writing was good, the content was my kind of thing and the vibes were vibin. 🤷♀️
Some faves include:
>> The Art of Weaving
Mommy sat daily at her spinning wheel
Weaving reams of human skin
From the dust we slept in...
>> Just As Papa Said
The mist had cleared
Before daybreak
When I stumbled out of
The graveyard in tears.I had raised the dead,
Just as Papa said I would…
>> The Path
We walk the path alone,
My child and I in this dark night
Where the only light
Emanates from stars we will not
Visit in our lifetime...
>>That Evening, Cocoon, Bruises...I'm just going to stop here before I quote the whole book because I have so many more highlights from the collection.
Lovers of weird / cosmic / eldritch / horror poetry come through. This one's for you.
Coming back to this, I really enjoyed it! I liked how the collection progressed from individual horrors to global to cosmic. I felt like it built the tension in the collection really well. The writing was good, the content was my kind of thing and the vibes were vibin. 🤷♀️
Some faves include:
>> The Art of Weaving
Mommy sat daily at her spinning wheel
Weaving reams of human skin
From the dust we slept in...
>> Just As Papa Said
The mist had cleared
Before daybreak
When I stumbled out of
The graveyard in tears.I had raised the dead,
Just as Papa said I would…
>> The Path
We walk the path alone,
My child and I in this dark night
Where the only light
Emanates from stars we will not
Visit in our lifetime...
>>That Evening, Cocoon, Bruises...I'm just going to stop here before I quote the whole book because I have so many more highlights from the collection.
Lovers of weird / cosmic / eldritch / horror poetry come through. This one's for you.
June 22, 2021
What a lovely little gem of a collection. This was a enjoyble read. Atmospheric, dark, and quite sad at time.
'The Marvel of Flight' had me sit in contemplation for a while. This poem about a girl last moment before she jumps of a building to commit suicide, hit harder than I thought... I've dealt with a school mate jumping to her death in my teenage years. As well as dealing with suicidal people through my work as a healthcare worker. So that poem hit a bit close to home.
My two favorite poems in this collection where 'Dreams of Bone" It had so much atmosphere and was beautifully written. And 'The Bone Carver'. Ahhh~ revenge is so sweet~ followed by 'Just As Papa Said', 'That Evening', 'Bottled Quiescence', 'Fed to Her', 'Crimes of Our Youth', and 'The Monolith'.
As I enjoy this little collection, I'm sure to be reading more of Christina Sng's collections in the future.
'The Marvel of Flight' had me sit in contemplation for a while. This poem about a girl last moment before she jumps of a building to commit suicide, hit harder than I thought... I've dealt with a school mate jumping to her death in my teenage years. As well as dealing with suicidal people through my work as a healthcare worker. So that poem hit a bit close to home.
My two favorite poems in this collection where 'Dreams of Bone" It had so much atmosphere and was beautifully written. And 'The Bone Carver'. Ahhh~ revenge is so sweet~ followed by 'Just As Papa Said', 'That Evening', 'Bottled Quiescence', 'Fed to Her', 'Crimes of Our Youth', and 'The Monolith'.
As I enjoy this little collection, I'm sure to be reading more of Christina Sng's collections in the future.
October 30, 2025
I think the collective noun is a ‘Nightherd’.
I was really surprised with the quality of these poems’ rhythm, cadence, and more than anything, vivid imagery and narrative. I find conveying actual story through poetry is really difficult without losing lyricism but Sng does an amazing job of balancing both while evoking both classical and more contemporary horrors. It’s certainly made me a fan of her works and I’ll be checking out more. I usually only like a handful of works from an anthology but the majority of hers read very well. Really cool thematic collection, and that cover art is sick.
3.5 Creepy Stanzas out of 5
💌💌💌.5⬛⬛
I was really surprised with the quality of these poems’ rhythm, cadence, and more than anything, vivid imagery and narrative. I find conveying actual story through poetry is really difficult without losing lyricism but Sng does an amazing job of balancing both while evoking both classical and more contemporary horrors. It’s certainly made me a fan of her works and I’ll be checking out more. I usually only like a handful of works from an anthology but the majority of hers read very well. Really cool thematic collection, and that cover art is sick.
The moon blinks impassively
With its single-pearled eye
As it turns to sleep, indifferent
To the blazing red sky.
3.5 Creepy Stanzas out of 5
💌💌💌.5⬛⬛
May 7, 2020
You can read my full review (and others) at https://mediadrome.wordpress.com/
There’s a surprising amount of range in the poems collected here – both in subject (which pretty much runs the full gamut of horror from monsters to the apocalypse), and in form – some poems rhyme, others don’t; some flow lyrically, while others feel a little bit like jotted down thoughts or even very short but otherwise more traditional stories.
They’re all a little scary, but beautiful too. Even the worst subjects become alluring when Sng writes about them.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for Goodreads
There’s a surprising amount of range in the poems collected here – both in subject (which pretty much runs the full gamut of horror from monsters to the apocalypse), and in form – some poems rhyme, others don’t; some flow lyrically, while others feel a little bit like jotted down thoughts or even very short but otherwise more traditional stories.
They’re all a little scary, but beautiful too. Even the worst subjects become alluring when Sng writes about them.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for Goodreads
September 10, 2022
The poems in Christina Sng's dark collection are full of stunning imagery and sensory details, and are endlessly inventive. I found the latter portion of the collection to be the most moving, as many of the poems focus on the love between family members amid worldwide apocalypse. On a broad scale, this collection is terrifying and heartbreaking, but it's also hopeful as it shows us humanity's enduring ability to love each other as individuals.
January 15, 2021
Dark songs to tide you over...
There are some, the quiet terror, others apocalyptic, but overall well-written, sometimes sad, the dark verses that speak of families desperate for survival, others of plant life that considered humanity a serious liability and drastic measures are considered. Be looking forward for further verses.
There are some, the quiet terror, others apocalyptic, but overall well-written, sometimes sad, the dark verses that speak of families desperate for survival, others of plant life that considered humanity a serious liability and drastic measures are considered. Be looking forward for further verses.
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