Between You and These Bones

by F.D. Soul

An intimate and lovely reading by the author herself, Between You and These Bones will bring you wonder and peace just by listening.

From celebrated New Zealand poetess F.D. Soul comes her highly anticipated second collection of poetry, prose, illustrations, and wisdom. Her messages grapple with interpersonal relationships, her relationship with herself, and the relationship between poetry and the world. Unchaptered and raw, Between You and These Bones reads much like a memoir or meditation yet maintains all the musicality of poetry. "This book is a garden, a hymn, a forgiveness. A falling back in love. It is all the pieces of light you forgot you held, remembered."
 

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Mental Health, Mental Illness

1 pages, Audio CD

Published June 27, 2023

About the author

Just another stray human searching for the words to describe the 'ugh' I feel between my ribs. You can find me on Instagram (@featherdownsoul), or in the garden picking things with my toes and feeding pumpkin to the caterpillars.

Reviews

[Carlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

F.D. Soul is one of my favorites, partly due to the active Instagram pages that gives me just the dose of poetry and emotions that I need on any given day, and partly due to the topics. Boyfriends, family members, depression, etc. are all topics I can connect with. While I love a good poem that makes me feel like a warrior or a princess, I also like a poem that keeps my feet on earth, my sensible thoughts in my head. F.D. Soul gives beauty to typical moments. I so enjoyed The Land That Wraps Around You and A Love Letter to Today made me take a moment to appreciate the day. The poems in Between You and These Bones aren't all new, but each read somehow new to me. Some made me feel nostalgic, some happy, and some made me think for awhile.

"I like to think I'm someone else's
half-away
dreams softly piled up in their hair
still ..."

Like all poetry books, Between You and These Bones is best read in small doses. Reading poems all in order, page after page, leaves my soul and mind exhausted, and so I flipped through F.D. Soul's latest in a leisurely fashion. I found myself drawn to the artwork, to the varying lengths, to the almost-stories that fill some of the pages. I do, however, wish this book was organized by subject. I am a mood reader when it comes to poems and being able to find a section of poetry about a specific subject is something I really enjoy about many of the poetry books on the market. In this case, I had several favorites and while I can flag them, I just think it would've been nice if those of similar topics, like love, were placed in the novel together.

"Sometimes it is a very sad thing
to be human
and longing
oh,
but if we weren't."

Between You and These Bones is, in my opinion, a solid selection of poems that poetry readers will enjoy.

ARC provided.

[Dana Cristiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would love to thank F.D. Soul, Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beside the beautiful and unique illustrations throughout the book, the poems weren't exactly what I expected them to be.
It was hard for me to understand some of them, and as for the others I was easily distracted by my surroundings as I was reading them.

The author seems nice and artistic and I like her, but the writing is full of "artistic expressions" that I didn't seem to get.

If you love reading poetry, give this book a go. Maybe you will like/love it. But as for me, it was kind of a big dissapointment.

[Sassy Sarah Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between You and These Bones by F.D. Soul

3.5 stars

“There are flowers in my chest again
the kind
that do not lose their bloom.”

Between You and These Bones is a poetry collection filled with soul and the breathtaking grit of poetry. F.D. Soul is an innovative poet compared to most of what scatters the shelves today. Her poems are short at times, but they are also long. She isn’t afraid to have three or four-page poems which is saying something. The art in this collection is absolutely stunning and is cohesive to the poems. As much as the poetry speaks, the images smattering through the pages speak and interweave with each to convey a full message. This collection has a lot of soul and there were poems that I really loved, but there is a lot of lines within this collection that don’t make much sense. My eyes had the tendency to gloss over and have to reread when I got lost. I suspect this collection is very sophisticated and I’m probably not very smart about deciphering it. It’s a good collection and I think it will find a good-sized audience. If you are looking for a collection with more heart and a bit more grit then I think this one will be a good pick.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 3.5

Plotastic Scale: 3.25

Cover Thoughts: This cover is stunning. One of my favorites.

Thank you, Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Kandi Steiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! It's not my favorite, I'm definitely more of a Rupi, Beau, Faudet, and Lang kind of gal, but I read poetry with my mom each morning and we did enjoy this one. It was different and fresh and at times, haunting!

[꧁ ꕥ James ꕥ ꧂ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Insta poetry which lacks any impact or strong vision as a lot of the poems within feel like every other poetry collection. There was nothing which showed who the author is as their voice felt like someone else.

[Brittney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t really think this one was for me. It was just okay.

[Kayli · Rating 1 out of 5]

the 1 star goes to the quote, “I read about a gay Chinese boy who writes poetry about being gay and Chinese” (166).

tanks shadeye 4 the amazhing poetree book 🥺

[Dini - dinipandareads · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

First of all, this cover and the title are simply beautiful. They are what made me pick up this collection in the first place because this is my first encounter with F.D. Soul, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.

I wanted so much to love this poetry collection but I didn't connect with the majority of the work. I'm not a heavy reader of poetry, I dabble here and there, so I don't know if that was the cause of most of the words flying over my head. I did connect to some of them though; there were poems or certain lines in poems that would jump out at me and make me think "wow, this is so beautiful" and then I'd wish that I felt that way about the whole collection. Most of the ones that I connected with related to their experience of discovering love, finding home, and dealing with dark moments and fighting "that battle" (mental health, depression). I wished there was more that I connected to! The illustrations were beautiful and although there weren't that many, I thought they illustrated the poems they were made for so well. While reading I was thinking that I could see these illustrations being made into tattoos because they're not unlike ones I've already seen inked on skin. I could totally see myself getting one!

I don't doubt that there will be many people out there who love these poems and feel connected to many of them. For me, this was a nice introduction to F.D. Soul's work, and although I didn't connect with many of them, I would still be curious to see what else they've made. I'll definitely be checking out their social sites (@featherdownsoul).

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this free copy in exchange for an honest review. Are you a big fan of poetry? This collection comes out 14 May 2019, so be on the lookout if you're curious!

[Morgan Nikola-Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd Time Around: This woman's writing washes over you like a rainstorm!


First Read: Holy wow. I loved this book so much. F.D. Soul's work always feels as though it's growing arms and taking you into an embrace you wish never had to end.

[Ali · Rating 1 out of 5]

These didn't make any sense.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad per se, some poems that resonated with me but mostly I think this was written for someone else.

The writing style was hard to follow (even for poetry lol)

[Erika Sarutobi · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This collection of poems are mostly about depression, love associated with home, and family.

I didn't like this as much as the other poems I read in the same category. It's wasn't too bad but I wasn't a fan of most of the structure of these poems.

There were some poems that didn't make sense because they weren't written in a coherent way (that's the only way I can describe it). I'm aware that the author mentions in the beginning that since she's an author, she can write a jumble of words if she felt like it. But that doesn't mean that any random words (in my opinion at most) could sound and look good.

Let me share an example.

"I think I need to wear a dress for a while. fish
from a river near my father
talk more
to old friends like I know them
still
grass-stain my knees kiss you
swim until my lips blue
hold my breath
sit at the back of the church."

Moreover, some of these poems feel like diary entries rather than poems and some feel like bullet points. The way you get an idea and write down one word in a rush just as a reminder for later when you have time to go back for it however, once you do, you remember nothing.

"Sarah / open cracked dry earth hot wet as a mouth as the West as ink / stained cuffs freckled knees folded edges tucked in collars bottoms of pockets / bookstore promise / kerchief in ironclad helmet sweat breastplate / shells that are kept by the hundreds and never used for anything / ...."

I'm sure you get what I mean.

When it comes to poems, I usually have a lot of favorites but when I comes to this, I only got a few.

"You are an ocean that will perhaps
never stop crashing,
and
what a beautiful thing that is."

Overall, it wasn't too bad and the illustrations are very pretty.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

[Arybo ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, Art was beautiful.

Ok, I'm a classic poetry person, I'm sorry, I didn't find anything interesting or not-boring or super in this collection. The art is beautiful, and I think that the images are really impactul, they are connected with the poems, but the poems didn't have any meaning to me, while the drawings were really good and poems in themself. Maybe it's beacuse I live through images. I don't know what to add, because I can't remember anything about this book and I've just read it. I can remember GOd, rain and neck. Stop. I'm so sorry.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

[Kirsten Tattersall · Rating 5 out of 5]

"good poetry is closing your eyes when you hear my heartbeat
and wonder if it is your own."

I wanted this collection to last forever. The imagery was beautiful, the illustrations as well. The poetry felt good. It wasn't repetitive, and was written in a variety of formats. I'd recommend giving this one a try.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

"You are an ocean that will perhaps never stop crashing, and what a beautiful thing that is."

Most of the time I didn't connect with the poems but sprinkled between I found some quotes that really spoke to me.

[Emma Phelps · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few very beautiful lines in this one!

[Cash · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[mike f. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

this collection is why i love poetry

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

ooo really enjoyed this one!!

[Hanna K. Brojan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75/5⭐️

[kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all the books that I could’ve started the year with, thank god it was this one.

[Imogen]

lol that was fun BAHAHAHAHAHAH
i apologise. i read this and then annotated it for a friend for a bday present and now i’m dead because it took longer than expected

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book pulled me in and wrapped me in a warm embrace that satisfied my soul. I devoured every word of it in a day and was left struck by the raw emotion and beauty of the imagery F.D. Soul's words conjured for me.

[Jemima Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

e-ARC received via Andrews McMeel Publishing & Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
TW: Depression

As a lover and creator of poetry myself, I find it a difficult task when it comes to rating and reviewing other poets' works of art. How should it be up to me to decide whether someone's thoughts and feelings are valid? That is why when I read poetry to rate/review; I do so critically.

F. D. Soul writes well with a certain air that is warm with nostalgia and sets her apart from her fellow "Instagram Poets". Her words bring comfort as well as fresh breath at times and I was happy to get lost in her words. Each poem is of varying length, with some pieces that are perhaps more prose than they are poetry.

The collection is spilt into 3 parts, each with a different focus. I came across my favourite poem of hers on page 12. It is called "Five Loaves And Two Fish". I fell in love with the solace in the words that F.D. Soul chose to describe her grandparent's home. It felt gentle and secure. I found that all the poems that reference her grandparents feel this way and I really enjoyed that common theme.

While I did love a lot of the pieces in this poetry collection, I would say things went downhill from part 2 onwards. I found it difficult for the poems to resonate with me and didn't find myself content within every one of the worlds that the poet created.

My rating for 'Between You and These Bones' isn't bad by any means but at the same time it's not my favourite poetry collection that I have ever read.

[Let · Rating 4 out of 5]

amo amar

[Stefanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so poorly formatted; half the time I couldn't tell if it was the same poem with a paragraph on each page because each poem does have a title, or if not every poem had a title and sometimes they did start on new pages.

She used the phrase "this is love" in practically half the poems, and each use was more eye-roll-inducing than the last.

She used the word mouth more than a dentistry textbook.

This was just beyond insipid.

[Lucy Goodfellow · Rating 2 out of 5]

and so
this book
shall become my confessional

Thanks to NetGalley for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

A promising poetry collection that ultimately let me down. It was bland, generic and lacking any of the emotional intimacy that I expected from a collection labelled 'intimate' by other reviewers.
There were flashes of uniqueness. But the poems I enjoyed were either at the very end like 'Depression is a Park Bench' or they were previously published works like 'This Land is my Church' (first Published in Indigo). Everything else was sadly surface deep bland blank verse.
Some of the topics covered may be triggering to readers to please be mindful of this if you chose to read the collection. (In my opinion, the presentation of these topics could be considered to be problematic).

What saved this book from a One-Star rating was the beautiful art.

I recommend other similar poetry books:
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur- handles similar topics in a more nuanced style.
Lord of the Butterfliesby Andrea Gibson - covering relationships and mental health
and finally Poetry by Patience Agbabi- an insight into the female experience and relationships.

[Pretty Little Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of poems was a welcome break to the otherwise fiction reading that I had been engrossed in for a long time now. The poems were beautiful and spoke on familial love, mental health and healing – and starting to open up about it, as well as about people who help us sope with their kindness and love; human vulnerability of opening up oneself to others; hope, prayer and faith; family and the “weight of generations”; the act of consent/societal pressure and why saying ‘no’ makes us feel guilty; the difference between living and being alive; the strength and power of a mother’s love; the understanding of one’s own qualities and accepting them and subsequently working on them; being human and dealing with loss and breakups and many others. The poet also talks about growing up, falling in love, the beauty in everyday objects, chasing and living your dreams, gratitude, fighting for your life, living one’s life, self-empowerment, memoris, the power of love, the act of giving; about when we want to give up, it is the human body that goes on, and how poetry is the poet’s prayer.
The poet’s writing style is also very novel and experiments with the format of the syntax etc. and complex lines are used. There are many layers to the meanings. Also, I feel that there was also a lot of repetition in the poems. The poet often uses “which is to say” and “but God”/”God!”/:and God”, which makes the words lose their evocative power at times.

This was a pretty good book and I rate it a 3/5 stars.

[є r i ☕ · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thank you to NetGalley for letting me receive an ebook in exchange for an honest review.*

What I enjoyed the most about this book was the atmospheric feel to it. There were illustrations included throughout (including the cover) that were beautiful and added to the atmospheric feel. I wished there had been more included, however, since I was often confused about what the author was writing about and the illustrations helped me understand.

The writing was hard for me to grasp at times. I was not sure when certain lines would end or begin, which the author probably meant to do on purpose, but it did not work for me, unfortunately. I got to the point where I was struggling to understand what was trying to be said and it really hindered my reading experience. There were, however, some sections of the writing that were so beautiful and delicate that they partly made up for the sections that were muddled and tedious.

I flew through the first 50 to 75 pages of this book because I could relate to some of it and even the parts I was unable to relate to I could still understand some of what the author was trying to say. Overall, I did enjoy this, although there were slow parts, and I would read from this author again.

[Laila Tarek · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5*

*Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review*

This is a poetry book that discusses depression, and sensitive love and the warmth of a home. The illustrated cover made me feel some sort of way and I knew I had to read that book. I started it the minute I received it, and have no regrets.

The best way I can put how I felt about this book is a warm blanket in your favorite color and a soft hand caressing your shoulder. This is the feeling this book takes you through and even when the poem is sad, it is still so so gentle that you feel yourself on the verge of breaking apart.

Some days

my prayers dress up as poetry

as if they are not the very same thing.

I had a few problems with some of the poems because they seemed like snippets of her diary. Just scribbles of thoughts written down in a rush, all messy and tangled up. It was not poetry or artistic. A few of them were just her talking to the reader, and there is a poem called “The Sex Appeal of Tall Buildings” and the entire poem has nothing to do with either of those things, which was… interesting.

For the rest of my review, click here: https://booksandsustainability.wordpr...