Strange Nests

by Jessica McHugh

the secret about dying arrived scrawny. it's growing stronger & fatter though & whispers, "go mad." Beyond ancient gates, among thorny overgrowth and carnivorous blooms, a raven called Death waits tirelessly for its chance to roost within us. Using scraps of love, remorse, anger, and pain, it weaves. With erasure, memory, and discovery, it binds. And from the garden of wounds that grows within our broken hearts, it builds Strange Nests. In the follow-up to her Bram Stoker and Elgin Award nominated collection, A Complex Accident of Life , Jessica McHugh uses poetry, design, and illustration to unearth the horrific, consumptive, and transformative nature of grief from the pages of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden .

Genres: Poetry, Horror, Adult Fiction

116 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2021

About the author

Jessica McHugh is a 3x Bram Stoker Award-nominated poet, a multi-genre novelist, & an internationally-produced playwright who spends her days surrounded by artistic inspiration at a Maryland tattoo shop. She’s had thirty-one books published in sixteen years, including her Elgin Award-nominated blackout poetry collection, “The Quiet Ways I Destroy You,” her sci-fi bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” and her cross-generational horror series, “The Gardening Guidebooks Trilogy.” Explore the growing worlds of Jessica McHugh at McHughniverse.com.

Reviews

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange Nests, the follow-up offering by Bram Stoker nominated author Jessica McHugh, is a new blackout poetry collection based on the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Barnett. The book uses selections from The Secret Garden to create a beautiful meditation on love, loss, pain, memory, and the grieving process. This project came to McHugh shortly after the loss of her brother, which I’m sure is the inspiration for Strange Nests. The results are both heartbreaking and beautiful in equal measure.

This is my first experience reading any of McHugh’s work and my first experience reading blackout poetry. While it takes a bit of getting used to, I really enjoyed the book once my eyes got adjusted to piecing together the words and phrases. I plan to buy physical copies of both Strange Nests and A Complex Accident of Life, in which McHugh used the text of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as inspiration and medium.

I loved reading this book. The artwork by Lynne Hansen fits the theme and feel of the book perfectly. I am already looking forward to reading this again when I get my physical copy.


5/5 Stars
Many thanks to Beverly Bambury Publicity for proving me with an eArc of this book to read and review. All thoughts and opinions on this work are my own.

[Cassie Daley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second collection of blackout poetry by Jessica McHugh, and I am officially OBSESSED with her work - not that I wasn't already, but gosh. It's so cool seeing the things that stand out to the author on each page, and seeing the way they arrange and form the words to create a cohesive whole that has its own meaning & message. I honestly can't get enough, and will be buying & reading every single collection - or book - she puts out moving forward. Don't miss this one!!

[Alex | | findingmontauk1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind. Blown. STRANGE NESTS is the second collection of blackout poetry I've read by Jessica McHugh and I am left speechless, a little heartbroken, and in full awe of her creativity. This collection is set to the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden, and the poems reflect love, pain, loss, grief, and so many powerful emotions. In just a few lines per poem, I found myself going 'Ooooh!' so many times. My favorites, and ones that resonated the most with me, are: "Relations," "Excursions," Evergreen," "Hungry," Dishes & Plates," and "Sudden Weather." It's so impressive to me that McHugh is able to find a page of a chapter of a published book, gather a sampling of words, and put together something so entirely unique, personal, and relatable in her blackout style. Each word is carefully chosen and each page so meticulously decorated.

I absolutely loved this collection.

[BeMandyReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Twitter impulse buy and it did not disappoint! This was my first look at black out poetry. I enjoyed the style and the mood it conveyed. Looking forward to the hard copy.

[Sara Tantlinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another beautiful and moving collection of blackout poetry by Jessica McHugh. I continue to be in awe of her ability to take the words on an already written page and spin them into something completely her own. The raw emotion is felt in every poem, and I especially loved the way the earthy imagery aligned with feelings of transformation, grief, and survival.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another catch up review from January! Strange Nests is the latest blackout poetry book from Jessica McHugh. I loved McHugh's blackout poetry collection A Complex Accident of Life which used pages from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein so I was thrilled to read Strange Nests. Strange Nests uses pages from Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden.

I'm so inspired by Jessica McHugh's blackout poetry. I look forward to reading more.

Source: personal purchase

[Nina The Wandering Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's lots of Alive in dead things
They run wild with wonder
Like a knife breaks a fountain of roses
Out of lifeless roots.
--Strange Nests, "Exclamation", Jessica McHugh

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars, rounding up. The Secret Garden is my all-time favourite book, so when I heard about this blackout collection of found poetry, I knew I had to read it. I'm not sure what, exactly, I expected, but I didn't think that it would be this. I had a vague idea that this was a horror poetry collection, and it is, but I also thought - and this was probably wishful thinking on my part - that it would be a lot closer to the source material. Sort of a horror take on that enclosed garden, and on Mary herself.

It isn't really like that. There are a handful of poems where it's easy to see the novel's influence - the most obvious, and therefore the one I liked best, was "Evergreen" - but ultimately Strange Nests is its own creation. It's not a retelling, and once I got past that I liked it better. The poems themselves are little polished fragments of grief and trauma, but in many ways the more interesting parts of this, for me, were the scribbled over pages of the original. There are doodles and strikethroughs and complex constructed paths through the text, and each (old) page is new and visually interesting.

It's a fascinating idea for a project. I'm glad I read it.

[Brigitte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little fun but I like my poetry with more emotion and less gimmick.

[Lindy Ryan]

Stunning in every way.