Description
the secret about dying arrived scrawny. it’s growing stronger & fatter though & whispers,
“go mad.”
Beyond ancient gates, among thorny overgrowth and carnivorous blooms, a raven called Death waits tirelessly for its chance to roost within us. Using scraps of love, remorse, anger, and pain, it weaves. With erasure, memory, and discovery, it binds. And from the garden of wounds that grows within our broken hearts, it builds Strange Nests.
In the follow-up to her Bram Stoker and Elgin Award nominated collection, A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh uses poetry, design, and illustration to unearth the horrific, consumptive, and transformative nature of grief from the pages of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden.
With an amazing cover by Lynne Hansen
Advanced Praise for Strange Nests
“Strange Nests is a brilliant collection of poems that speak in a subtle voice of deep darkness. Jessica McHugh conjures real magic here.”
—Jonathan Maberry, NYTimes bestselling author of Relentless and Ink
“Jessica McHugh finds the deep truths hidden in plain pages. This collection will plant rose bushes in your heart. You’ll feel every bloom and bleed with every thorn.”
—Sarah Read, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of The Bone Weaver’s Orchard
“Jessica McHugh’s Strange Nests is a beautiful, somber reflection on life, death, grief, and the bonds between siblings. A wondrous read that will lull you into a lovely breathless silence.”
—doungjai gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered
*McHugh’s newest offering of blackout poetry is more than words circled on printed pages, each set of two pages shows the original page covered in beautiful, colorful drawings, the poetry outlined and the second page with the reborn poems. The combination is two pages that visually excites our eyes and new poetry that touches our soul.“”
—Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master.
Jessica McHugh
Jessica McHugh is a novelist, poet, and internationally-produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-four books published in twelve years, including her bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” her YA series, “The Darla Decker Diaries,” and her blackout poetry collection, “A Complex Accident of Life.”
Please visit McHughniverse.com for more samples of the McHughniverse.
As well as both A Complex Accident of Life and Home Birth both published by Apokrupha!
