[Book Review] Haunt by Ryan Meyer

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Haunt by Ryan Meyer is a collection of poetry that centers around loss, death, and darkness.

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way. 

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Haunt by Ryan Meyer

First things first, I love that some of the titles are from songs from bands. Two titles were from Chevelle songs, and you bet I spent the next few days at work listening to nothing but Chevelle! 

This collection has poems about death, loss, and other dark things such as watching someone you love get addicted to drugs, inviting darkness in, sacrificing, letting go, and much more.

My favorite poems from the collection include the following titles:

• Haunt 
• I. 
• One Man’s Charm is Another Man’s Warning
• II.
• Nothing Peak or, Where You Though the Answers Were 
• Carved 
• III.
• The Oldest Rules in the Book
• If You Haunted My Room
• IV.
• Dracula Drive – about the Melon Heads!
• Windmill 
• He Looked Like Me 
• V. 

The variety here is wonderful. Some poems started off upbeat and fun before taking a dark turn, while some started spooky and only got more intense from there. Some were sweet and heartwarming all the way through with just a sprinkle of darkness, like If You Haunted My Room. 

Even in length there was a variety here! Some poems were a few pages, such as Nothing Peak and Where You Though the Answers Were, while some were just a couple of stanzas. 

I absolutely loved the continuation of the poem that appeared in installments; I. II. III. IV. and V. The first poem kicked off in a terrifying jolt and then we slowly get more insight as the poems continue on. While I was really enjoying each tale along the way, I was always pumped when I saw another of the these poems pop up.

Carved was one of my favorites! I loved how eerie this one was and then it ends with a bang! The formatting of the text was also really fun!

There was also a lot of mentions of someone right behind “them.” Whether it was feeling breath on their neck, sensing someone behind them, or other similar situations. Each time something like that occurred, it only got more spooky. 

One more quick note, I loved that some of the poem titles led directly into the poem itself as the first line. This is so clever! I don’t think I had seen this done before so that was really exciting for me.

My Favorite Passages from Haunt

There are SO MANY things I wanted to write here. But to just tease with one poem that was part of the longer form poem that was spread out, I’ll just leave this photo:

My Final Thoughts on Haunt

I loved this collection of horror poems. For fans of darkness and beauty in the horror that is life, this is a must read. It’s so wonderfully written and the entire collection is well organized. This will have you stopping between each poem to savor what you have just read before moving on to the next.

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Thanks for reading!
What horror poetry have you read recently? I NEED to read more asap!

And shout out to Ryan for sending me a signed physical copy. I’m so pumped to have this on my shelf!

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Snag a copy through Bookshop to help support local indie bookshops: