This was beautiful. Spilled thoughts ("instagram-style") really is my favorite way to enjoy poetry at the moment and this collection was just what I needed. Great images and deep meaning, about love, self-love, family, friendship and identity. I really loved it. I'll sure read what else she wrote! Loved it!

A Strangely Wrapped Gift is presented more like a collection of short random chaotic thoughts rather than a standard poetry book. There is plenty of deep mental health thoughts and topics in there as well as some inane day to day things. The day to day basics would likely be dismissed easily by most people and not given a second thought so I think the fact that there's been so much analysis, thoughts and meanings given to even these basic parts of life gives us some insight into how people may view things differently and how they might search for hidden meanings.
There were parts of the book that were lost on me but again, I think this reinforces the idea behind how other people think about things.
There were also some very beautiful poems that I could relate to and those stuck with me. My favourite being;

You didn't have to break me, just to prove that you are whole (break)

I truly believe that people, especially women, who suffer from mental health problems, low mood, low confidence, or are struggling with their self worth will really relate to this book and find hope within the pages of this beautiful, raw, emotional and honest book of poetry.

(ARC received from netgalley)

“I wish I could be okay with unrequited love, but I am not a wolf, and you are not the moon.”

I love that, so much.

Man, I need a physical copy of this book. Not every line hit for me, but those that did, hit hard. I need to go through it again, and highlight every line that made me fall in love a little bit.

Also, this book makes me wish there was some kind of secret mental illness handshake or fist bump you could do, to be like, hey, me too. It’s always comforting to hear about how other people have similar brain bruises.

I will say, a huge component of this poetry collection is... an echo? A voice? Present with odd capitalization and parentheses.

IE;
“Do not weep for lost love. Weep only for lost time.
( Wee P)”

This... didn’t quite resonate with me, though that’s mainly because I’d be left puzzled as to the spacing and capitalization, and my internal voice gave it a mocking tone. Which, the second one is definitely a “me” problem, not a problem with the book itself.

I also found some of the leaps of topics within poems to be puzzling (random musings on colonization, factory farming, abuse, racism).

Still, over all, super lovely and I’d definitely recommend it for fans of poetry.

Very beautiful poetry. Flowed like a short story and really resonated with me. Enjoyed this collection very much.

<i>arc provided by the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

I really enjoyed this poetry collection. I could relate to some of them, some were making me feel a whole plethora of emotions and others were just alright.

Overall, the author’s writing is beautiful and I really enjoyed this collection as a whole. I will definitely check out other work by them!

3.5/5 ⭐️

A Strangely Wrapped Gift is a collection of short modern poems about love, loss, mental health, recovery and being part of the LGBTQ+ community. It is split into 5 parts: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring and Leap Year, that I all enjoyed equally. There is a consistency throughout the whole book that I really appreciated. I didn't feel like one part was stronger than another as it is often the case with poetry collections.

If you liked "Milk and Honey", chances are you're going to enjoy this collection as well :)

I will definitely look for more of Emily Juniper's work.

I have been trying to get more into poetry and I am so thankful to NetGalley that I got the chance to read this book of poetry.

This was a quick read and I do see how this book could move so many people I unfortunately just didn’t connect with it the way I would have liked.

I feel like this definitely describes the female experience that I don’t personally relate to but I know women who could relate to this.

I would be interested in seeing more from this author.

**I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

I was happily surprised by this collection. I had started it when it was self published and I don't think I ever finished it because it didnt capture my attention. Re-reading it I recall a few poems but it was like a fresh experience with this collection. I found myself turning page by page because I was so captured in Junipers words. Definitely on my lookout for when it is published.

A sincere collection with some especially lovely poems within. There was a lot to like here, and I adore the meaning behind the collection's title and the clever flow and formatting within.

3.5/5 ⭐
I've come to realise that poetry is similar to music, but I guess it's more poignant. A lot of the lyrics and therefore in poetry; the poems can be extremely personal to the author and harder to relate for many other individuals. So if you can't relate, there isn't a bop you can just bop to, yknow?

My preferences when it comes to poetry, I've realised, tend to be shorter and more meaningful in a vague way. To bring something thought-provoking and high quality in a low quantity format. A Strangely Wrapped Gift had many of these poems and for that, it was great and I could relate to some of it. However, not all of it was (as is normal), so for a lot of it I could only empathise and it wasn't as enjoyable because the experiences mentioned were not relative to my life.

I still enjoyed that it had an emphasis on mental health, but it could have definitely been organised better so that the poems had an order that made more sense. I loved the idea of the seasonal chapters but they felt more chronological to the author's experiences and how they created the poetry rather than the themes from the poems themselves as a whole.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ebook review copy in exchange for a review :)

This collection of poetry travels through the seasons and depicts a story in each one singing truths many can relate to especially to me, Acceptance and Hope, two short but honest poems about love and moving on looking forward to the future. Topics such as eating disorders, loss of a baby, being part of the LGBTQIA community get mentioned and they are such beautiful depictions of each hard hitting issue they need to be read by more people and help them accept and move on too if they're facing or dealing will a fellow issue too.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

The poetry collection contains some beautifully written passages. The phrasing in many of the pieces was wonderfully done; however, I found myself not loving the format. This is probably more a me thing than a book thing, so keep that in mind. If you love the poetry format that is more small passages, then you will probably love this collection way more than I did. I just had a slightly hard time getting into the format.

That being said, the content of this was wonderfully done. There is a lot of discussion about mental health, OCD, heartbreak and recovery. It's obvious that the author put her heart into her poetry and that is something I do love about this collection.

'A Strangely Wrapped Gift' is a beautiful poetry collection that swept up my heart and soul and helped me unwind from the real world through the beautiful poetry provided. This collection is a thoughtful creation discussing topics of mental health and OCD to relationships and growth. It was beautiful and there was not one poem that I didn't like, apart from the ones that I instead adored and cherished.

I cannot wait to buy my own physical copy of this book when it comes out in March, and I am also excited to read more of Emily's work, from the other collections that she has already written to hopefully more in the future!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher of this collection for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

A Strangely Wrapped Gift by Emily Juniper is a thoughful, measured, and lyrical collection of musings on OCD, relationships, love and longing, and I was completely and utterly captivated through it all. I am a newcomer to the work of Ms Juniper, and she has certainly caught my attention with this impressive compilation of passionate evokation. Verses are organized into the four seasons, along with a final section, Leap Year, and I applaud the refreshing decision to title each entry at the end, rather than the beginning. Once I found my stride with this unusual format, I found it to be quite an effective tool toward emphasis of thought. In short, this collection is, indeed, a gift that you must give to yourself.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for this ARC.

Strangely Wrapped Gift is an interesting collection of shorter poems. While some focus on the poets own battles with OCD, others reflect the life that we are currently living in a strange, and often scary world. There were certain points within the collection that I thought was beautifully brilliant and explained what it's like to feel overwhelmed. One of my favourites, PAPeR AnD teARS, shows the range of things in the world we can cry over, some so much bigger than us and others just a general feeling.

I do feel that some of the poems felt a little bit samey and therefore I struggled to concentrate on them more than others. For me, this collection was a 3-star read. There are some real gems in this collection and I'd like to read more of Juniper's work.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

'A Strangely Wrapped Gift' is a modern poetry collection. Juniper talks about same-sex partners, mental health, relationships and more.
It is a very modern form of poetry, in the style of Rupi Kaur or Instagram poets. Unlike most reviewers, I don't think of Instagram poets as worse poets than others. I do find it difficult to connect to one-liners though.
Overall, this wasn't quite what I expected. I did connect to a few of the longer poems. In fact, some I really really liked. Others though, were too short or too personal for me to relate to.
It wasn't the most impressive read I had this year. But I didn't hate it either. I think there's a poem for everyone in this. Maybe you like the short and concise poems. Maybe you're like me and will fall for the longer ones. Maybe one of the topics or sentiments will just speak to you enough to move you.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had really high hopes for this collection. While this is the first content I have read from Byrnes, I absolutely jumped at the chance to pick up a poetry book that discussed living with mental health.

But I'll be honest, I was let down. This collection just didn't feel like it had a lot of thought or craft put into it.

I am not someone who disregards modern poetry, because it "sounds like a Tumblr post" (I was personally a reckoning on Tumblr), however this collection just didn't elicit any of the emotion that I would have expected from a topic so close to home.

Overall, I think this reads a lot like an unedited journal-entry, style of prose. But even in saying that - it just felt too muted and dialed back for something written off the cuff.

Maybe it will work for someone else, but not for me.

If you enjoy short poetry which has a strong message but not too much reading between the lines, then you will probably really enjoy this. A Strangely Wrapped Gift is very much an Instagram poetry collection - lots of very short (often one line) poems. This isn't to say they are poor or have limited impact, I think their impact is very much proportionate to the experiences of the reader and quite often their romances, but there isn't very much to them. I guess it's really a matter of taste.

I prefer to read poetry with subtle delivery; stories which I can pick through and decide what they mean to me. That's really difficult to do with poetry like this and often I find that the one liners are designed to be a blunt, sometimes vengeful, approach which doesn't always work for me. I'm just the wrong audience for this collection.

I did enjoy some of the slightly longer poems, particularly those which challenged the media we are presented with, Disney for example, and the message it sends (often incorrectly) to young girls. I also liked that the author tried on a number of occasions to address something we're probably all guilty of - looking the other way instead of facing a truth we wish we didn't know about the world; she does this so well with the meat industry. It might be easier to pretend we don't know where our food comes from, but it certainly forms part of the problem.

I think the poems show so much potential, I just wish she had delivered a collection with more substantial poetry within so that it really showcased her talent.

ARC provided free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful poetry collection including poems on mental illness, heartbreak, amongst others. I especially loved how the book was separated into the four seasons.

The poem themselves were beautifully written and I could tell that passion and emotion had been challenged into each poem. However, I wasn’t a fan of the title being at the end of the poems, it felt disjointing which in turn caused me to struggle with the flow. Apart from that I really enjoyed this book and I would check out more of this authors work.

"A Strangely Wrapped Gift" is a collection of what most would call "instagram poetry" about love, life, and mental illness. The book fell flat due to the lack of basic poetic tools that could have created some imagery and life but instead felt repetitive and banal. The more personal poems on OCD were obviously written from heart and have merit while others preaching feminism and social justice felt overdone and forced. Two poems "Bliss" and "My Fault" had such an overabundance of trying to be "The Woke White Person" that I was uncomfortable reading them.

Some poems such as "1 AM", "Autumn", and "On Mental Illness" boasted colorful imagery, heartfelt words, and rich tones that I WISHED the rest of this book did.