How to Unpeel a Monster
How to Unpeel a Monster by Nimue BrownMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A brilliant anthology that deeply resonates with me. I just got this and spent yesterday curled up crying with it for a while because some of the poems here really connected and expressed things I have been trying to get at within myself, and isn’t that what poetry and art is for?
Nimue Brown has a strong, relatable voice with a lot to say that’s worth saying. The anthology goes through facets of life and personality, covering mental health, politics, community, spirituality, relationships and the essence of interpersonal connection, ageing and more. I think this is one I’ll be returning to a lot.
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Take off a skin. Take down a defence.
Take a risk, trust a little.
Soften that hard, uncompromising hide.
Take off the skin that cannot be touched.
Take off what is too scarred to be
Properly human.
Take off the weight of history.
Take off a skin.
~ Extract from ‘How to Unpeel a Monster’ by Nimue Brown
Highlighted/stand out poems in the anthology in the order they appear:
How to Unpeel a Monster
The New Clothes
All Those Heart Metaphors
Butterfly Dance
Family Afternoon Out
I may or may not be melting
Those who are dead to us
Necromancer’s Courtship
No monster left behind
These are my favourites from the first reading but I think the list will change depending on my mood and circumstances. This is a book I’ll be returning to a lot.
Buy the book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08D6RX7Z7
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D6RX7Z7
Add to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54673948-how-to-unpeel-a-monster
Learn more about Nimue Brown:
Twitter: @Nimue_B
Instagram: @nimuebrown
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nimue-Brown/e/B00AZM663S/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
C. M. Rosens 
Thank you hugely!
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Reblogged this on Druid Life and commented:
My hope with any piece of writing is that will touch someone else, help, or lift or encourage them in some way. getting reviews like this is, quite simply, what keeps me creating and feeling there is a point to what I do.
CM Rosens is a fantastic author who writes about monstrosity in a way that I find deeply resonant. There is comfort in not being the only monster, in knowing there are others who are also too much and too difficult and whose scales, teeth and claws are not socially acceptable. So, here is a review of How To Unpeel a Monster, and a recommendation to hop over and look at the blog as a whole, there’s wonderful stuff there.
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