I received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Dis]connected is an anthology of poetry and short stories paired together. Each writer was assigned a poem by another writer, and tasked to write a short story based on that poem.

Overall, this collection was pretty decent. As always with short story collections, there will always be some works you enjoy more than others, but the quality was fairly consistent throughout. It does show, I feel, that some of these writers aren’t really used to writing prose, but short stories are a difficult medium to pull off even if you’re used to writing fiction. I also had the feeling that a lot of the stories, to me, didn’t entirely seem to line up with the poetry prompts. I had a hard time drawing parallels between some of the poems and the story that followed it; there seemed, ironically, to be a disconnect, as if the writers had read the poems and then gone off and written their own story that seemed to bear little relation to the poem that was supposed to have inspired it, other than a quote from the poem or a throwaway scene. There were several stories in particular which stood out to me in this collection, which I’ll briefly discuss here.

Where the Sea Meets the Sky (Cyrus Parker) (sexual assault tw)

I didn’t know how to take this story at all. It’s about a couple who meet, fall in love and have a great relationship, which falls apart for reasons that our main character – Lee – can’t understand. His girlfriend Annabel is acting strange and distant, and spending a lot of time with her friends.

I can't say too much more without spoilers (for more in-depth thoughts, see my Goodreads review) but I think this is a subject that requires extremely sensitive handling and something about the story made me very uneasy. I’m sure the author’s intentions were good, but I found that the ambiguity of it was highly uncomfortable and I wasn’t sure what to make of it at all. This was also one of the stories which, to me, seemed to bear little relation to the poem it was paired with; Cyrus even mentions in an afterword that this work draws as much, if not more, inspiration from the poem ‘Annabel Lee’ than from the poem he was given to work with. However, this obviously is something that’s down to personal interpretation.

Small Yellow Cottage on the Shore (Amanda Lovelace)

Amanda Lovelace has long been associated with fairytales, and she continues that legacy in this story. It’s a sweet, mystical tale about selkies and witches and magic. Both the setting and description are fantastic, giving a really cosy vibe throughout. The story itself was sweet enough, if a little cheesy in places, but I think Amanda’s attention to detail made it a great self-indulgent pleasure read.

Driving with Strangers (Iain S Thomas)

This story stood apart from all the others because it was one of the few tales in this collection that wasn’t about love. It’s about a girl who hitches a lift from a mysterious stranger, which is all I’ll say about it. I feel that it was one of the most well-written stories in the book and also the one which felt the most like a short story, if that makes sense. I could see this story in a literary magazine or short story competition, which wasn’t a sense I really got from most of the others. It definitely had echoes of flash fiction, with its unanswered questions and mysterious airs, so I thought this was a great addition to the collection.

Ultra (Yena Sharma Purmasir)

This was a strange but emotional story about a woman whose mother had a strange paranoia about photographs. Perhaps taking to heart the old adage about cameras capturing your soul, the woman’s mother never allowed her to be photographed – and when our main character loses the scan photo of her unborn baby, she fears this will cause her to have a miscarriage.

This was one of the strongest stories in the collection, in my opinion. It was well-written, compelling and emotive, and although as a reader we know that the main character’s superstition is unfounded, the stakes are still high. I think this was a really great story and it definitely stood apart from the others.

Overall, I thought that [Dis]connected was a really great idea for a short story anthology. It does a great job of incorporating some lesser-known poets alongside big names, and I definitely have an interest in checking out the works of some of these smaller writers soon. Although I didn’t personally love the book, it did have its high points and I found it an interesting read.

[Dis]Connected is a surprisingly pleasant project of poetry and short fiction. Halket takes a dozen young poets and assigns them a task. First, they each contribute three poems. Second, they will be put into a random order and asked to choose one poem from the poet that they are paired with and write a short fiction influenced by that poem. The short fiction should contain a line or two from the poem but also be creative and not just a prose retelling of the poem.

Yena Sharma Purmasir writes the poem "Things That Aren't True" and tells of her life in things that are not true about it. Ian S. Thomas takes the poem and weaves an eerie story about hitchhiking and paying what is owed. The poets do a wonderful job in their own poetry and an amazing job in the short fiction. The stories all have fine threads that tie it back to the poem. This becomes an amazing treat for the reader. Not only is the reader contemplating a poem but also discovering its relationship to a short story. At times it seems like solving a mystery when the reader's mind clicks and sees a connection.

Halket presents an excellent selection of poets and offers much more diversity than usually seen in anthologies. Although she does praise social media for helping poetry, most lovers of poetry will be happy to know that there are no "Instagram sensations" and writers of platitudes in this selection. Here are real poets who also do a fantastic job at writing prose. [Dis]Connected is probably the most ambitious and impressive project I have read this year.

I usually thoroughly enjoy great, emotive and inspirational poetry, so I absolutely loved this wonderful anthology including prose by some of the biggest names in the poetry game right now. It's a collection of short stories and poetry whereby a poet is handed a poem written by another contributor and told to write a poem or short story based on said poem, therefore connecting all of the contributions to one another. As always there are some poems that are stronger and more powerful than others, but ultimately if you enjoy any of the poets' previous works you will likely appreciate this collection. The central theme that runs through every one of these pieces is that we are more disconnected than ever before due to our obsession with technology.

This is a great anthology to pick up if you're just getting into reading poetry as it gives you a taster of some of the most popular wordsmiths out there today. There certainly is something here for everyone, and many of the stories/poems are exquisitely written and capture not just your attention but your heart. Powerful, memorable and beautiful - what a fantastic collection!

Many thanks to Central Avenue Publishing for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

2.5 stars

I was pretty excited about the release of [Dis]Connected when it was first announced. What's not to like about a poetry anthology?

I spoke too soon.

The idea to this anthology is that each author submits three poems that adhere to the overall theme. The poems are assigned randomly to another author who has to write a short story based on one of the poems. For example, Cyrus Parker draws Nikita Gill's name which means he has to write a short story based on one of her poems, then another author draws Parker's name and has to write his story, and so forth.

According to the editor, Michelle Halket, [Dis]Connected centers around the idea of being connected: «We seem to live in a hyper connected world, yet we increasingly hear stories of loneliness, isolation and disconnect.»
However, upon reading this anthology I sensed a disconnect between the short stories and the theme.

I enjoyed the overall idea of writing a short story based on a poem and then reading them together. However, I enjoyed the poetry aspect more in comparison to the prose. I think the poems fit the theme better than their counterparts, and I wish the anthology had just focused on the poetry.
The final section to the anthology contains the poems that were not picked and I admit I enjoyed that section even less.

My favorite poems were "The Blessing and The Curse" by Pierre Alex Jeanty; "No Turning Back" by Cyrus Parker; "Impermanence" by Sara Bond; "Astral Travel" by Amanda Lovelace; "Crowded" by Sara Bond.

Here are my individual ratings to the short stories:
Parietal Eye by Nikita Gill - 2 stars
Where the Sea Meets the Sky by Cyrus Parker - 1.5 stars
Terra Firma by Sara Bond - 2 stars
Ultra by Yena Sharma Purmasir - 4 stars
Driving with Strangers by Iain S. Thomas - 3.5 stars
Small Yellow Cottage on the Shore by Amanda Lovelace - 2.5 stars
A Way to Leave by R. H. Swaney - 1 star
The Unholy Wild by Trista Mateer - 2.5 stars
The Train by Liam Ryan - 2.5 stars
The Shooting Squad - 2 stars

I am aware that it's not easy to write a short story (been there, done that) but, overall, what I noted in this collection is the lack of depth regarding every story and the connections in it. The only story that came close was "Ultra" but in every story, there is room for development. I also thought that they didn't quite fit the brief that the editor chose. I didn't get the sense of loneliness or the necessity for a connection, and the stories didn't immerse me into them.
Some stories briefly worked themes of sexual assault and I wish it had been more pronounced and developed.

To conclude, I was extremely excited to read and review this anthology but I was extremely disappointed with what I read. I don't think the poems and the stories adhered to the theme imposed which was a shame.
I am interested in reading more works from the participant authors so that is one of the plus sides in reading this anthology.

This collection is actually the reason I joined NetGalley. I saw one of the authors tweet about it being up on the site, so I joined. Months later, the publisher so graciously “granted my wish” of this title.

This is a collection of short stories using poems as prompts. It features work by many popular poets. I was interested in this collection specifically because amanda lovelace is my favorite poet and she has a piece in this (it was odd seeing her use capital letters).

Going into this, I thought it was just a collection of poems and short stories, I did not realize that there was any rhyme of reason to this. Basically one of the poets wrote a poem and then another one would write a story based on that poem.

WHAT I LIKED:
I loved RH Swaney’s collection Lovely Seeds and his pieces were my favorite in this collection. I don’t know what it is about his words, but I really connect to them.
Michelle Halket’s introduction was beautiful and honestly one of my favorite parts of the collection
There is so much vivid imagery and intricate metaphors
Even though they are writing short stories you can tell these writers are poets at heart. Their writing is immersive and makes you feel

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:
Some of the stories were not to my liking, even if I did like the writing. I could not connect with some, which is expected with an anthology
Since the stories are heavily laden with descriptions, they are slow and it could be hard to relate/care about the characters.

Overall, I enjoyed most of the stories and loved the writing quality, but the poems were my favorite part of this collection. I am not a huge fan of anthologies and enjoyed this more than the average anthology, but it still wasn’t the same as a collection by one of these poets.

Disconnected is a collection of short stories and poetry. I loved the concept and really like the common tie between the different entries. However, I had a hard time getting into the flow of things as this is neither a collection of poems or a collection of short stories, but rather both. There were definite moments of brilliance, and I thoroughly enjoyed the collection, but I felt like it could have been more. The short stories just weren't enough, and it was odd that they eventually ended and just became poetry. The theme variances were also a bit hard to get used to. I did really enjoy the read. 3* I received this copy for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection of short stories and poetry. I actually really liked how they displayed a short story and a poem from each of the ten authors. I really liked reading from each author in two different forms. I loved the poems in this book, and I liked most of the short stories. But to me, this collection isn't anything that spectacular and it took me a while to get through. I'm sure that other people would love this entire collection, but I would still recommend picking this up if only to read the poems.

A strong poetry/short story anthology.

I have previously read poetry from most of these authors so I was intrigued to see their prose.
In general, I really enjoyed all of the stories. I didn't expect fantasy, but the fantastical ones turned out to be my favourite. There were a couple of stories which felt really "disconnected" to the rest; they really stood out as lacking the ability to hold a reader, but even they were easy to read through. Not one story felt like a chore.

Overall, I loved the concept, loved a few of the stories, and liked the rest.
I'd definitely be interested in more anthologies with similar and/or unusual concepts!

Anthologies are always hard for me to rate and review, but I found this especially difficult. Whilst all on the same theme of connections, as the title suggests, I was surprised by how romantically inclined this felt. The first few short stories in particular were very focused on romantic relationships, which were not to my particular enjoyment, although the endings of these did surprise me if not redeem the stories. The poems diverged onto a more diverse range of topics and I loved almost every one of these. The stories, however, were not all to my taste, which I guess could not have been expected from samplings from such a large selection of writers.

This is an interesting project with a great concept and a lot of talented poets. The editor asked the contributors to write poems that were then passed on to each other as inspiration for short stories or other poems in what could be called a poetic game of telephone. Some of the stories and poems are stronger than others, as you would expect. If you're a fan of any of the poets involved, you'll most likely enjoy the collection. From the editor's note, it seems like one goal of [Dis]connected is to push back against the critics of "instapoetry" and today's young poets. I think it heartily achieves that goal.

This was a really great collection of poetry and short stories. The fact that contemporary poets are paired together to write short stories based on the other's poem is such a great premise and a great exercise in creative writing too. I loved the way the poems and stories connected together and the way each poet chose to interpret lines or ideas in each others poems and use that as a starting point from the story.



Some stories highlight words and phrases from the poem that have been used and some include a note on how they have interpreted the poem. This was really helpful as a reader. I particularly enjoyed Cyrus Parker's poem and story, both were real but dark and I liked that reality.



Another Entry that I really enjoyed was the short story by Yena Sharma Purmasir. The beauty of this is that I have not come across this poet before and so I will now go out and see what else I can find that they have written-genius! I didn't connect with each and every poem and story, but again that is the beauty of a collection like this. I did read everything, I discovered new writers and I connected with quite a few poems.



Make sure you check out the content of each of the stories before picking this one up in case there are triggers for you but otherwise, I would really recommend this collection, especially if you are only just discovering these contemporary poets, this is a great mix!

Just as the title (Dis)Connected is unique, so is the concept of this book. Take a group of current day poets, and have each poet write one poem, and one short story based on another poet's (in the group) poem. The working theme for each poem/story is that in this age where we are so digitally connected, we are more disconnected from others than ever before. Everything about this book intrigues me.

Some of the pairings work better than others, and some poets are better at writing short stories than others, but this is a very interesting collection of work! The full range of human emotions are covered within these pages, and it's fascinating to see the variety of styles, and stories written given the common theme.

This is one to add to your list.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Central Ave Publishing for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Wow, wow, wow this is an incredible connection. Going in I expected more poetry than short stories but in the end, I thought these were some of the best short stories I have ever read. There was a real sense of variety despite the connection they all share and the collection itself. 

This is a collection that tackles so many different issues from grief to family. Real life issues to fantastic fantasy. I truly believe there is something in this collection for everyone and being able to get a sneak peek of this was brilliant, I haven't stopped recommending people pre-order this and make sure that they get their own copy. I truly, truly fell in love with this. 

Some of my favourites were Nikita Gill's Parietal Eye, Cyrus Parker's Where The Sea Meets the Sky, Sara Bond's Terra Firma,  Yena Sharma Purmasir's Ultra and Amanda Lovelace's Small Yellow Cottage on the Shore. Each of these are so different and yet were perfectly chosen to fit next to each other. 

It might sound like a broken record but it is hard to convey just how beautiful these stories are. Unlike many other collections I have read, I could not put this down. Each story and author wrote such compelling tales I had to read the next one, and the next and the next. Some were incredibly creepy, inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, while others used Mythology and Mermaids. Each could individually capture something within me. 

I gave this collection 5 stars. I literally picked it up because I recognised two incredibly brilliant poets and ended up finding even more, that I would like to read further.  I really have to sing the praises because this completely knocked me for six and I didn't know much going in. 

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy for review.

I  received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This was a fascinating collection of stories and poems from several authors. I liked the flow that most of the stories to poems had. Amanda Lovelace was my favorite in this book!

[Dis]Connected is a patchwork of beautifully written stories and poems that capture the imagination, as we find, lose and appreciate those connections we make in life. The premise of the book is to explore, why in an ever-connected world we are seeing isolation and disconnection with so many people. We have created a world where the ability to connect with others is truly awesome but that brings both positive and negative opportunities to interact or feel omitted.

Michelle Halket, very cleverly commissioned this book to illustrate the theme of Connection and Disconnection from a group of contemporary poets. Michelle challenged this concept by asking each poet to write 3 poems, which would be randomly assigned to another group member, who would then write a short story based on one of the poems.

Many of the stories and poems could have existed on their own but perhaps the thematic focus on [Dis]Connection, urges us to peer deeper into the literary works to identify where those thoughts are illustrated. In many ways, it is an ingenious way of increasing the impact of a story or poem. What we have in this collection of short stories and poems is a diverse range of settings and emotions. From real hardships to fantasy, from post-apocalyptic to supernatural, and from new-beginnings to murder.

The flow of the book is a poem followed by a short story for about 85% of the book and the final 15% are the other 2 poems from each poet. If you love poetry, short stories and genre variety, you’ll love this beautifully crafted interconnected book.

I would like to thank Michelle Halket, Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

I received an ebook version from Netgalley for a review:

There wasn't a single page in this book that didn't feel powerful. Most of the stories gave me this overbearing anxiety that caused me to need to go to the next page. It felt controlling (in a good way). Everything about this book is a good idea, and I especially loved getting to read something from 11 different people. The vast differences in writings all came together into something great.

Absolutely adored this collection. What a brilliant idea, and what a nightmare it must have been to put together.

It’s a very quick read and I found myself disappointed that it was over so soon. Granted, some stories don’t always match up with the quality of the poems they were influenced by (and vice versa), but it didn’t really matter that much since I couldn’t help but be impressed by the creative and unexpected turns those stories took.

Will probably be going out and buying a physical copy on the back of this collection.

With thanks to Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely adored Disconnected in every way. The short stories gave so much depth to the poems, it was amazing.

A stunning collection of interlinked poems and short stories about humanity. Such an interesting read and a valuable tool in reading for growth

4 stars!
This collection of poetry was really good !! I liked most of the texts. I recommend this receuil to all those who love poetry in general. Thanks to Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange of my honest review.