Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Just reading the opening note about why this collection was written made me tear up a bit since it really resonated with me about my feelings that I had and still have surrounding the death of my own maternal grandparents. The poems relating to the death of the poet's grandparents hit incredibly hard and brought out the grief of my own. I loved how each of the poems evoked a specific emotion (rage/sadness/etc.) while I read them. The descriptions were visceral, and some made me truly uncomfortable (though that seems to have been the point of the poems), and did their job in evoking all kinds of feelings effectively. There were many feelings I identified with, such as the grief over the loss of innocence that a girl may experience as she grows up.

Each poem has a form that fits the poem, rather than the poet using one form that all of the poems need to fit into. It allows the message of each poem to come through in whatever length and structure works best for that poem’s feeling. One of the poems even used blackout to great effect, though I am not sure if that was intentional to allow the reader to identify who they would put in the poem, or if it was to protect the identity of an actual person the poem was addressing. The author used references to mainstream pop culture and slang (celebrities, sourdough, and bae, to name a few of them) as well as lyrical prose in a way that felt nostalgic and haunting at times. The images throughout the collection are simple but relevant to the poem they accompany. Themes of innocence/naivety, loss of youth, love/lust, heartbreak, trauma, and womanhood are all covered through a lens of death or endings. These topics are explicit, so please keep that in mind if you are going to read this collection.

Thank you NetGalley, Central Avenue Publishing and Michelle Awad for accepting my request to read and review Sudden Seances.

If you are someone who likes the dark, decaying, and trauma reads than this one if for you.
Michelle’s collection of poetry touching on topics of grief, self reflection, loss and pain is haunting and beautifully written.
Each page makes you explore your inner emotions, that may or may not have been present and at the surface of your subconscious.

Sudden seances is filled with symbolism and psychological mind-bending poetry that will leave you thinking about it for days.
Was a pleasure reading Sudden Seances and looking forward to reading more of Michelle’s work in the future.

Whilst I do enjoy poetry, it is not something I would usually choose to read. However, I absolutely devoured this collection of macabre, decaying, yearning, aching, grief stricken verse. More than this, there is a real heart here in this collection, a warm nostalgia, like sunshine in childhood. It creates a safe space for you to sit with your own grief. Michelle Awad is spectacular, and has truly created a piece of magic

this was a great collection. spooky, self-aware, insightful, humorous with an edge, a great mix of metaphor and direct prose. some of them were a little long for my taste, but most were the perfect size and i enjoyed that the size varied also! i highlighted 58 different passages/sentences while reading this, all of which moved me or immersed me in a crystal clear moment. it was hard to choose just one to share in this review, but i'll go with this one where the author made me feel so seen: "My need for attention and my fear of being perceived are on a blind date inside my chest, and it’s not going well. I don’t know how to fall in love without trying to control it." way to call a girl out on her bs, that's all i'll say lol. the illustrations didn't load correctly in the kindle format i have but i liked the pieces i could see––simple, matching themes, keeping the spooky magic vibes sprinkled all throughout.

i look forward to reading more from this poet in the future.

This was a gem of a collection! I loved the dark, witchy themes throughout and the way Awad deftly covered such heavy topics. I found the Requiem section of this collection particularly strong, with my favorite poems being “Ghost Town”, “Chalk Outlines and Cauterizing Old Wounds”, and “The Security Questions Asks Me “What’s Your Father’s Middle Name”, and I Do Not Know”. Looking forward to reading more of Awad’s work.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Michelle Awad's Sudden Seances is a quietly devastating poetry collection that uses the metaphor of the séance to explore how grief reshapes the living. These poems don't just mourn the dead—they examine the rituals we create to keep reaching across the silence, from photographs and objects to the simple, heartbreaking act of speaking someone's name aloud.

Awad writes with a poet's ear and an elegist's heart, finding unexpected images in the mundane spaces where loss takes up residence. The collection moves between the literal and the metaphorical with ease, and the best poems here carry a haunting resonance that lingers long after the final line. There's a tenderness in how she treats her subjects, but also a willingness to sit with the discomfort and ambiguity of grief rather than neatly resolving it.

The organization of the collection feels considered. As a reader, you're led through the experience of loss and longing in a way that feels emotionally honest rather than formulaic. Some poems hit harder than others, but that's the nature of any collection, and the weaker pieces never derail the overall arc.

For anyone who has navigated the strange, uncharted territory of grief, Sudden Seances will feel like recognition—like finding, in someone else's words, something you'd felt but couldn't yet name. This is an assured and moving debut.

Sudden Seances is a unique collection with deep roots in the art of witchcraft, exploring how we commune with both internal and external ghosts. Centered around themes of loss, grief, heartbreak, and self-reflection, attempting to uncover the haunting nature of the human experience and gain a deeper understanding of reality that goes beyond the bounds of our perception. This collection is unlike anything I have ever read before and was somehow disturbing, gory, beautiful, and inspiring all at once. I have a deep appreciation for the arcane, but I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book when I first started reading it. However, I quickly formed a deep admiration for the author's creativity and exceptional poetry.

Sudden Séance is a poetry that embraces experimental forms and the prose format. I absolutely loved the decaying diction of each line break and word choice. There is something unique about the way the macabre spoke beautifully as if it were a full-length novel. You can feel the aches in your bones as you read poems of grief, love lost, and longing. The theme of the occult was the perfect way to frame this collection into something that resonates with the darker crevices of your soul. A poetry collection that is united in defying fear and what scares us at night.
When you are faced with your emotions alone it can often leave you in this paralyzed state of fear. This poetry collection gives answers to that while giving insight into the horrors of what that psyche can look like. How can we get passed it if we never face what we fear most? This is demonstrated eloquently in the Venn diagram poem and the way that it is presented for everyone to take something from. I absolutely adore this poetry collection and glad that I got to read during national poetry month. Thank you Michelle, Central Avenue Poetry, and Netgalley for this advanced digital copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
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Loved the whole vibe of this collection of poems. The overall tone of this worked well with all poems. I knew I would like this from the first few poems. Thank you to Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the eARC!