Weird, complex, multilayered, sometimes hard to read. I loved this poems that mixes a lot of elements creating some original and meaningful
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A great collection of poetry with a strong Belfast voice exploring a wide variety of themes. I think that this would be best enjoyed as an audio edition to fully enjoy the rhythm of each poem.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

As soon as I saw the name of this book I knew it had to be a local author. of course! a very Belfast poetry collection.

This is so fun & charming with something more sinister bubbling under the surface. probably the aul generational trauma if I were to take a wild guess.

Love to see a new poet coming out of the North & what a debut this is.

Gub is Northern Irish poet Scott McKendry's brilliantly original first book of elaborate, sometimes quite obtuse but invariably fascinating poems about such a huge variety of topics that it was often both a little jarring as well as refreshing, as it moved from one vastly different subject matter to another. McKendry makes full use of his Northern Irish heritage in both the use of Celtic language and well worn, extremely heavy use of NI/Belfast slang and the places and people selected throughout to be showcased.

Each poem only usually runs the span of a single page so with each page turned there is more often than not a new poem on a completely new topic which has no link to the previous. Hence, it takes a little getting used to but it becomes quite fun as I always wanted to read on and discover what lay before me despite the cryptic/highly enigmatic nature of quite a few of them. Some poems resonate more than others, like in any anthology. Some gripped me immediately and some took a second reading to really feel what McKendry had been hoping to convey. Amongst my favourites were Belphégor, Lord of the Gap, Hell's Ambassador to France; Swazzle; Hopewell Place & Snap.

As I'm not a native Irish speaker, I had to look some of the words up to be able to comprehend the narrative and ended up down quite the rabbit hole; this is ultimately inconvenient but didn't take away from the experience of the book or its flow too much. Despite my enjoyment of the majority of it, it strikes me as a quite niche but with a rather severe lack of competent poets putting out their work of late, I'm sure it'll receive the recognition deserving of this collection of richly textured, unapologetically original and sometimes beguiling pieces. Perhaps an acquired taste even if you do understand the ubiquitous Irish slang but nonetheless Gub remains an enjoyable book of poetry.

Scott McKendry has created a masterpiece of a book here. Dreamlike and brimming with writing that shows a great deal of respect and care for the craft, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I hate comparing authors to one another, and so I'm quite pleased to report that this book is like no other I've read in recent memory.

Walks a fine line between innovative and inscrutable. On the whole it was very vivid, lyrical, with some humour while also tackling heavy topics. There were some things that just went totally over my head to be honest, but that's my fault not the poetry's! Would love to hear this as an audiobook.

DNF - I found the writing style almost too plain & too lacking; trying to piece together something out of thin air whereas I wasn't even on the boat that had set sail. I am inclined to believe that I will check this out when it's available via audiobook.

Gub is a poetry collection from Scott McKendry rooted firmly in his native Belfast. This is a true tour-de-force, lyrical, funny, full of Irish charm and utterly unique. I will be pushing copies of this into the hands of poetry lovers. The use of language is rich, varied - standard English but also Belfast dialect - and full of arresting imagery. I can't wait to read more from him in the future. A new talent has arrived.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.