making of a soul: a book of poetry and prose about love, loss, identity, pain, and acceptance

by Kari Sherwood, karys sherwood hernandez (Illustrator)

making of a soul is a collection of poems and prose that explores all the difficult parts of living. The collection is separated into four chapters: 1) Arrows (about love and loss), 2) Alien (about identity), 3) Scars (about mental and physical pain), and 4) Layers (about acceptance). making of a soul contains threads of mental health, neurodiversity, and parenthood throughout.

Genres: Poetry

83 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 13, 2022

About the author

kari sherwood is the author of making of a soul, which her daughter, Karys, illustrated. Her current gigs include autism researcher, social worker, and full-time mom. She currently lives in Michigan with her family.

Reviews

[Mandy Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the author for free in exchange for my fair and honest review.

In this collection, Kari Sherwood's poetry is separated into sections: arrows, alien, scars, and layers. My biggest takeaway is that so many of her poems are so very relatable. So many people have been through a bad breakup, or received a diagnosis that made everything make sense, or fallen in love. It was easy to fall back into those feelings while reading this poetry.

I found that I wanted to shake the narrator in the "arrows" section, and scream, "friend, they're not worth this!" but you move towards the end of "alien" and begin to see so much growth. "Scars" and "layers" (Especially layers) were my favorite chapters, as they moved beyond the pain and into optimism and understanding.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this collection!

[Cylee Bevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relatable

I first want to say I don't know the author personally. I am not affiliated with anyone in the making of this book. I'm just an avid reader giving an honest opinion.

I found many of the poems relatable. One that sticks to me is 'Scars'. I feel like this is a well written poetry book.

When I first finished it I was thinking of how many sad poems there were and how some would tug at my heart string. Then I remembered what I've been through and how all those hard times, heart breaks, and hardships helped me to be the strong independent woman I am today.

That, I believe, coincides with the making of a soul in my opinion.

If you like poetry, I recommend. If you want to see that other people have some thoughts that you have, I recommend.
You know what, I just recommend it period. ❤️

[Bethanys_books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making of a soul was a beautiful and touching book of poetry. Kari eloquently put into words the feelings and struggles that many of us face daily in our life as well as wrote about progressing despite these struggles. Even the sections that I can't currently relate to like motherhood were a touching read. I have many favorite poems from this book that I have jotted down that I will refer back to regularly. I highly recommend this book.

[Jaguar · Rating 2 out of 5]

somewhat relatable but repetitive, surface level messages with no real flow, depth, or exploration of the topics.

*I received a copy of this ebook in a Goodreads giveaway.

[Kayla Anfenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was sent a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. I had really high hopes for this book and I was extremely disappointed. I could relate to what she wrote about, but there was so much repetition and no real flow or growth. I only liked 9 out of the 71 poems and I found 3 poems with mistakes in them. It was hard to get through and it only took me less than 20 minutes to read, there was just so much pain and depression and really nothing to lighten it up. Pretty much the whole book was pain and self reflection and I never really found any acceptance or self love. I love reading about these topics and being able to relate and process, but that just didn’t happen for me here. I feel really bad because I really wanted to like it, but it was rough. I hope the author continues to discover herself and grow for herself and her kids, and I hope she finally gets to move on from the man she writes about. She deserves better.

[Amy Rumrill · Rating 1 out of 5]

first poetry book

So I’m not a big poetry person. I only read this because the author had suggested it in my 12 recommendations of books to read this year. While I’m glad she found a good out for her emotions and what she was dealing with, it’s not really for me. Maybe if I was in a not great place, this would be for me. It was a good quick read though, with short poems which is nice (I’m not a big fan of long poems).

[Joy Rosales · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this ebook in a Goodreads giveaway.
I liked some of the emotions and relationship dynamics portrayed in the beginning of this book, but everything was very surface level and obvious, and as the book went on it mentioned several things, mental health, parenthood; but didn’t really explore any of them. There just wasn’t as much depth to this poetry as I would have hoped.

[Bo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I had hoped... would not recommend

[Parker Gibson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still questioning what I read. Don’t waste your time.