I loved this first installment of this book. The mix of poetry and essays was perfection. I have read a few other works by a few of the authors in this and they all lived up to the hype in my mind.

This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy work from the Central Avenue group of poets and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

this collection of poetry couldn't keep my interest. I was quite bored and I did not like it at all. I was not a fan

Overall I enjoyed the book but I could see how others may be underwhelmed by the contents. It may not be for everyone but for the person that loves this style of writing, its pretty great.

I thought this book was interesting, but could not find my footing nor was I really engaged. Perhaps it's just a consequence of the time, but I have to DNF this one all the same. Nevertheless, thanks for allowing me to read in advance — I really love the cover!

I hoped to enjoy this collection in which authors get assigned random poets and must write a short story inspired by them, but I ended up being underwhelmed.

I was grabbed by this anthology by the list of names I recognised and had previous loved. Cyrus Parker. Nikita Gill. Iain S. Thomas. But even picking it up, I realised that I had no idea what I was in for here.

The introduction written by Michelle Halket immediately informed me that I was in for a very different kind of anthology to whatever I had been expecting. Each of the poets in this anthology, new and established, would both write a poem, and then write a short story inspired by a poem from one of the other poets in this anthology.

What came out of this was something truly fantastic and something I've never seen before, in poetry or fiction. It was the perfect fusion of both.

Most anthologies, there are a fair mix of stories one will love and also not connect with at all. In this anthology, I loved every single poem and story bar just one by a poet I hadn't heard of before.

For that alone, this anthology deserves a high rating.

But also, it introduced me to other authors I hadn't yet read. Though I've heard of Trista Mateer before, I hadn't gotten around to reading her as yet, and I was stunned by just how much I loved her modern day story on Artemis falling in love with a human girl, and was slightly reminiscent of the gorgeous poetry collection Goddess of the Hunt by one of my all time favourite poets, Shelby Eileen.

R. H. Swaney is another author I'd heard of, even have an anthology from, but haven't yet read. His story and poems may actually be my favourite of the whole collection. He has a way with words that I feel is very similar to Kalianne Faye in Moonrise, in just the lyricism and the way that the words just fall into each other. The pacing comes across as deliberate and evocative and just beautiful. I've already jumped straight into reading his collection because of it.

Reading Cyrus' fiction for the first time almost brought me to tears. He's still my favourite poet, but now I also love his prose as well.

Honestly, I can't speak highly enough of this anthology, and am super glad to know there's already another [Dis]Connected anthology on the way!

A fun experimental book where each author writes one poem and writes a reaction short story from the poem pieces. It creates an interesting dynamic. There are so many directions one can take when you take over someone else's sparse story. While the idea was great, the stories were a little tame.

I wanted to like this more than I did. It felt like the poems were hit and miss and the stories needed more time to cook. I know one of these stories from a previous collection and read all of her poetry. I think some of the stories took a weird turn when they were good on their own. In some ways, as if they didn't trust their own voice.

All of these stories blended so perfectly together. Amazing poets and storytellers. Emotional and beautiful collaborations.

This collection caught my eye because it contains work by a few poets I am familiar with whose work resonates with me. It was nice to see those familiar voices alongside others whom I had not read before. I feel like this book provided a good sampler for me to explore new writers while visiting with some favorites.

When I picked this up I kind of missed that it was a collection of poems AND stories. And so the stories were a pleasant surprise.

I thought this was a great collection, I loved how everything was connected yet not. Each piece stood on its own but as a collection was part of something bigger.

Overall opinion of the book:
This book is a fantastic short read that encompasses both poetry and prose into one book. As the synopses suggests, the book covers a wide variety of themes, such as mental health, feminism, love, relationships, friendships and death. The book discusses some difficult topics that some people may find difficult and possibly triggering to read. It emphasises that whilst we are in a world that's more connected than it's ever been, we've become more disconnected from reality and each other than ever.
There are a brilliant mix of poets and writers that have contributed to this book, such as Amanda Lovelace, Sara Bond and Liam Ryan. There's endless ways in which you can analyse and read into the pictures, poems and short stories in this collection which is what I loved the most. There's nothing better than rereading a piece of writing and finding more meaning and interpretations each time.
Each writer wrote a poem and the poems were swapped and everyone was given someone else's poem. They then had to write a short story based on the poem. This is such an interesting concept and one I've not seen done before. It makes this book a unique read. I loved the way in which each writer chose certain parts of the poems to focus on and reading how they interpreted them. It's an interesting thought that this book could have been so different if the authors had to interpret different poems. It's great that the book offers endless potential in how it could have been written. Everyone's imagination is creative and valid in its own right.

Final thoughts:
If you're looking for a completely different and unique read, this is the book for you. It's interesting and appeals to so many different readers as it covers many different genres. The book is put together well and each story and poem is interesting and captivating.

Excellent collection of short stories and poems from YA's favorite writers! How they are all connecting and intertwined was a beautiful display of intricacy. Adored every page. Thank you for the approval and privilege of reading this collection.

it was interesting how these poets weaved their poems and stories together and build off each others.

I actually didn't mean to read this anthology, but I stumbled upon it and fancied a quicker, easier read! This was certainly a great one to pick too as it was a well executed, unusual creative writing exercise in which each poet wrote three poems and then passed them onto another of them who wrote a short story inspired by one of the three. I really enjoyed them all, and it was fun to see contemporary stories sprinkled with a dash of magic!

Though all were enjoyable, I had a few favourites. 'Parietal Eye' by Nikita Gill, inspired by Canisia Lubrin's 'That Instrument Of Laughter' was a sad yet wonderful short story about grief, loneliness and...dragons? I also liked 'Terra Firma' by Sara Bond, set after the end of the world where a band of travellers look for Utopia and Amanda Lovelace's 'Small Yellow Cottage On The Shore' about witches, selkies and sea magic. Every story was very different and interpreted the theme 'connection' very differently, but I loved that they were all very feminist and diverse!

Of course there were some stories and poems that I enjoyed more than others. That's to be expected in any anthology. Sometimes I felt that they were only very loosely connected to the poems too, and those that decided to include lines from the poems felt a little like they had shoe-horned them in. But this was an experiment, and I would say a very successful one that resulted in an eclectic set of fairy tales laced with all sorts of different types of magic but connected by a central theme. I'm excited to see that a second set is due to be released!

.........................................................................................................................

This book challenged me. I'll admit I didn't fully understand the concept upon requesting it, and that confusion persisted once I downloaded and began reading the book. It did not really catch my interest and I'm still quite unsure what the entire concept is. Thank you for the opportunity to read this title.

I have only recently gotten into reading and enjoying poetry. I think that the premise of this book is excellent, but it was still slightly above my reading level of poetry. I did enjoy the variety of authors and being able to read others ideas.
I feel this book has a specific audience and unfortunately it was not for me. I am rating this book a 3 star.

I was devastated that I couldn’t receive this at bookcom but I was excited to receive in on here! Loved it as much as I thought I would.

‘[Dis]Connected: Poems and Stories of Connection and Otherwise’ is a short story and poetry anthology combined of some of my most popular confessional poets of today, with the likes of Amanda Lovelace, Nikita Gill and Trista Mateer featured in its pages. Exploring the theme of connectivity, isolation and disconnection, the writers each tell tales from a task Michelle Halket (editor) assigns to them, each with beautiful outcomes.

I originally requested this collection from Netgalley for Amanda Lovelace’s and Cyrus Parker’s inputs, their works never failing to disappoint. But, I was pleasantly surprised by the other inclusions, finding multiple new poets to research further into.

The collection as a whole is beautiful, yet uneven, as I expected with an anthology such as this. That being said, there was still a steady flow between the works, one taking something from the previous piece and using it to create something new. The theme itself is fairly broad, meaning there was a lot of mixed topics within the book; however, many seemed to follow the love and loss, rebellion and oppression, route, which were all wonderful to read. The language and imagery in each of the stories was inspiring, it clearly presenting the love and loss of each writer, which made it remarkably easy to connect to. The idea of each writer having to compose stories based of another writer’s work was brilliant, I loved witnessing what ideas flew from the previous works and how each writer personally interpreted the story. It made the anthology more uniquely collaborative, more connected. All the pieces had their own spark, the writers own narrative styles and quirks making them each uniquely beautiful and fun to read. However, the poetry aspect was by far my favourite, them all taking my breath away while reading.

A few pieces that stood out to me most were;
No Turning Back by Cyrus Parker
Things That Aren’t True by Yena Sharma Purmasir
The Way It Works by Iain S. Thomas
Astral Travel by Amanda Lovelace
Erratics by Nikita Gill
A Book and Its Girl by Amanda Lovelace
The Knife by Trista Mateer
Stained Glass Mirror by Cyrus Parker
If My Aunt Was On Twitter @Lovelydurbangirl by Yena Sharma Purmasir
Beauty In The Bones by R.H. Swaney
The Secret Song Everyone Knows by Iain S. Thomas

Overall, I loved this little anthology. It was a wonderfully easy read, completing it in one sitting and experienced so many journeys in that small time frame.