A unique, touching verse novel that explores a child's way of coping with death.

Charlotte is a young girl living in Australia, and her mother passed away long ago. The girl's life is lonely and simple, and she begins filling her time with collecting dead creatures she stumbles across in the Australian countryside—a dead crow, for instance. She cares for them, and later on develops an interest in taxidermy as means to preserve them—her own way of resurrecting the creatures, bringing lost ones back to life. Her macabre hobby doesn't sit right with her worried Aunt Hilda, who wants her to be a "normal" child.

I had no idea what a verse novel was when I requested this book, so for fellow uncultured peasants, allow me to explain that it means narrative poetry. I am not someone usually entertained by poetry as a medium, but this book was a comfortable read that touched upon subjects that interest me: death, coping with grief, the internment camps during WW2 and the treatment of Aboriginals in Australia. The prose flows just right, and there were some lovely passages that lingered with me.

There are a few passages that may be too gory for certain readers, so beware if you're the squeamish sort. But it's nothing extreme, in my opinion, and adds to the narrative rather than detracts.

This is a verse novel in which a young woman deals with her mother's death through taxidermy. Charlotte finds solace in revitalizing animals. She feels as if she is giving them purpose as well as bringing them back to life.

This book is beautiful and like none other I have ever read. Exquisitely written and worth the read. Cannot wait for it to be re-published!

**Disclaimer: I received an early copy of The Art of Taxidermy from NetGalley and Text Publishing for review purposes.  Thank you to them for this opportunity.

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot is a young adult novel in verse.  It falls into the genre of historical fiction as it takes place in Australia is a time period that follows World War II.  This book comes out on August 23rd, 2019.  I gave it 4 stars on GoodReads.
Here is the summary from GoodReads:
Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. 
And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.
The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all.

I am always so impressed with novels in verse.  It amazes me the way that an author can convey so much emotion and details about what happens based on so many less words than the typical book contains.  However, sometimes details can be lost and things like flashbacks can be confusing.  I had some moments like that with The Art of Taxidermy.  Certain things that I thought had had happened, hadn't and there was the occasional flashback that did confuse me.  However, Kernot's use of language was absolutely gorgeous.  She had some really interesting figures of speech and I really liked the way that she played with words.  

The story itself was interesting.  It is primarily about death and grief and Lottie, the protagonist/narrator, dealing with these things and ultimately her fascination with death and decay.  It was really cool to me that Kernot was able to make a story about death so beautiful.  I really enjoyed watching Lottie grow and learn about herself and her interests, and it was really interesting to watch her learn about her family.  

The story was unique for me, because it occupied a perspective that I don't often read about or hear about.  The story, as mentioned previously, takes place in Australia after World War II.  Lottie's family is German, and they immigrated to Australia prior to the war because they didn't like how things were going in Germany.  The story discusses how Lottie's father and Opa were put into an internment camp called Loveday during the war, simply because they were German.  The book doesn't go in depth with this, but it's interesting to read about the lingering damage it left the family.  Additionally, Lottie is treated poorly at school because of her German heritage.  Personally, I have German heritage.  My Oma and Opa immigrated to Canada after the war, so it's a bit of a different experience and I was never bullied for having German heritage, but I could understand the reactions she had to how she was treated.  It was just a point of personal connection I had with her.

The description and imagery in this book is really good.  There was a lot of rather morbid imagery because, as one may have guessed from the title and summary, Lottie is quite fascinated with death and becomes quite interested in the idea of taxidermy.  At one point she decides to become a taxidermist and tries to learn how to do it on her own.  There is a lot of talk of her finding dead animals and wanting to keep them, so if you're squeamish, this probably isn't the book for you.  However, even just reading about Lottie's fascination is fascinating.  It's not a topic that I particularly relate to so it's really interesting to get a different perspective on it.

Ultimately, the depiction of grief is the real standout from this novel.  Lottie's mother is dead, and so is her opa and other figures in her life.  Lottie has to learn to come to terms with these things, and that's what the novel is about.  However, she's not the only one as the remaining members of her family also need to learn to cope with their losses.  These moments in the novel are particularly poignant.  

So, while this wasn't my favourite novel in verse that I've ever read, it was a lovely, well written story that educated me and it made me feel.  It was a quick read as well, and the pacing was really good.  So when August 23rd comes around, you should consider picking yourself up a copy.  Thank you again to Text Publishing and NetGalley for this opportunity, and thank you to you for reading this.

Blog review coming soon.

This book, written in verse, details Charlotte's experience with grief, loss, and the resurrection of life.
The Art of Taxidermy absolutely destroyed me. The haunting back story, the intimate look at a young girls handle on the death of her mother, and the disapproval of her Aunt.
Largely romanticizing life, this book follows Charlotte on a beautifully written journey as she comes to terms with a traumatic loss, through the discovery and practice of taxidermy.
Would highly recommend.
My rating : 4 stars

Oh man, what an interesting little book. Going in, I didn’t know it was written in verse so it took a little while to adjust to that format of writing. This is a cute, if not strange, story. ⁣
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The story follows Lottie as she explores her newfound love of taxidermy. Personally, I’ve always found taxidermy a bit gross and creepy, but this book actually changed my view. Lottie has a way of describing the art of taxidermy as just that - art. Giving new life to something that has passed. ⁣
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This book is beautiful and weird and heartbreaking at times. It’s a true representation of growing up in a world full of loss, and finding ways to cope with your grief. ⁣
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I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a light story dealing with tough topics. ⁣
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I wasn't aware that this book was written in verse before I started reading it, but I really enjoyed it. I loved the character of Lottie and how passionately she cares about dead things and their preservation and how it affects her family life.

Having the story in verse gave way to hearing both the inner voice of Lottie as well as moving the story forward, which sometimes went in a way that I wasn't expecting.

Overall this was a fun, relatively quick read that I really enjoyed and would be a good introduction to verse novels.

As someone who studies and has taught creative writing with a specialization in poetry, I was really excited by the idea of this ya verse novel. I had hoped it would accomplish everything Jandy Nelson sought to in The Sky is Everywhere and more. The premise was intriguing and Kernot withheld just enough details in her introductory sections to capture readers' attentions. However, this book fell so so short. I was continually confused by novel was written in verse. It seemed like a throwaway--nothing was added by formatting the story in this way. The hapless use of poetry actually turned me off from reading the book to its completion. It was a disappointing read for me.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve read a book that was written in verse and this one reminded me why I love this form of storytelling so much. It was a beautifully haunting, and at times gruesome, story of a young girl dealing with loss and finding her place in the world.

The story features a young girl, Lottie, who is fascinated by nature and by studying and admiring animals after they’ve died. She collects specimens and preserves them the best she can as a child so that she can cherish them as her treasures. It’s a gruesome topic but her love of the animals is written with such passion that you can feel how much she adores them as you’re reading. She also deals with the way everyone around her seems to think that there’s something wrong with her because of her fascination and her heartbreak when anything happens to her animals is so well portrayed.

As the book progresses we get to find out more about Lottie and her family and all the loss that they’ve suffered, and it starts to make sense why she might have such a fascination with preserving death. One of my favourite things about the story was the relationship with Lottie and her father, his grief is easy to see as reading but so is his love for his daughter and it’s really nice to see how much he supports and understands her.

I did really enjoy reading this one, but it also doesn’t feel all that memorable. It’s beautiful and definitely something that I would love to read again but I don’t know if it’s going to stay with me like I hoped it would. I mean not that I need to remember all the character names, but it’s only been a few days since I’ve read it and I already had to look them up. The feelings I had while reading it have remained though, so it’s still a 4 star read for me. If you don’t like gory things or books dealing with heavier topics then probably skip this one, but if you’re fine with those then definitely give it a go because it really is a beautifully written story.

It was beautifully written and and I will likely check out more from this author. The story at times was a little repetitive when it came to her dealing with the animals and taxidermy. I really liked how her father didn't shame her for having an interest in it but I do think there should have been more conversation about death and grief between the two of them.

This was just OK for me. Nothing terribly wrong and nothing super exciting. Would recommend.

Incredible! The hauntingly lyrical story that Kernot weaves is as beautiful as it is dark. A wonderful tale about dealing with death, hardships, and prejudices. This is definitely one I will be purchasing for my own personal collection as well as recommend it for our library collection. This definitely blew me away!

AMAZING, HOW SO MUCH CAN BE CONVEYED WITH SO FEW WORDS

Full confession first - I actually had no idea this would be a verse novel when I started it. I have never read a novel written in verse before, so it took a little while to get into it. But once I did, I actually found myself enjoying the lyrical writing. I was fascinated by the topic of grief and coping with loss but, sadly, the repetitive plot dragged it down in my opinion. Still worth the read though!

"Her name was always spoken
in a whisper -
Adrianna, Adrianna.
Long vowels,
rolling in waves
of pain through air."

THE THINGS I LIKED

Topic: Many books handle the topic 'grief'. But few books handle it in such a multilayered way as this one. The MC Lottie, who is around 11-12 at the start of this book, has lost her mother and sister. To cope with this loss, Lottie becomes fascinated by the reanimation of dead animals through taxidermy. But her grief is not the only one in this book - there is also the quiet grief of her father, the memory-ladden grief of her grandmother and the grief-turned-fierce-protection of her aunt Hilda. Beautifully handled.

Verse: Like I said, verse novels is not something I have a whole lot of experience with, but I was truly impressed by how much meaning could be conveyed with so few words. Now, I, of course, can't say if this is the case with all verse novels, but in any case, it was impressive.

Writing: Death, taxidermy and grief are quite morbid topics, but the author here managed to make them almost beautiful with her poetic and lyrical writing. However, if you are squeamish about graphic descriptions of dead animals in various stages of decay, I would stay clear of this book if I were you. Fair warning.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

Repetition: Sadly, this book seemed to repeat itself - Lottie finds a dead animal and brings it home. Aunt Hilda destroys it. And repeat. Over and over. The inability of the story to renew itself was a blow for me and made it a little boring. On the plus side though, it is short, so even with the repetitiveness it is quickly finished.

The Art of Taxidermy is beautifully written and flows with an ease not commonly come by. The way the author tells the story through carefully crafted prose is sublime and I couldn't believe how quickly I had gotten to the last page.

This book is for anyone who wants to take a look at grief and the grieving process from a new perspective and the way it's presented through the main character makes you feel for her and connect organically with her.

On another note besides the actual writing of the book; the aesthetics are lovely and interweave beautifully with the narrative.

My only word of caution is for those that are squeamish-- you might have a hard time getting through some of the more graphic descriptions of "specimens" so be forewarned.

All in all, this book is a beautiful and poignant look into one person's journey through grief and the implications it has on those close to her. It's a study in human relationships, both alive and deceased.

I am so honored to have been able to get an advanced reader's copy in return for my honest review.

First thing, this cover is STUNNING.
This book was beautiful, showing the emotion of love and loss at such a young age. The main character, Lottie, is dealing with the death of people close to her in her own way, by finding dead critters and learning how to do taxidermy. Her aunt is against the entire thing, thinking it isn't for young ladies and is unbecoming, but it shows that everyone has their own thing and it doesn't have to stick inside the status quo. This is a fast read, I completed it in less than 3 hours, but it is a good read that captures the emotions of loss and the long-term grieving process. It highlights that everyone copes differently, especially at young ages.

I don't know what really affected the story for me. Whether it was the writing or that it was in verse. I don't know if this story was told well written in verse. For the first 30%, I didn't even know what was happening. Then as Charlotte starting getting into taxidermy, it became much clearer. She was using it to connect with her sister over the loss of her mother and going against their aunt. But in the end the story just didn't work because it was boring.

This is not an actual review. I didn't finish the book but somehow I am not allowed to say that so to get it off my shelf I need to put in a review. Never happened before -- sorry!

Beautiful. Haunting. Young Lottie leads such a misunderstood life. Like a bubble about to burst, all the sadness and grief that encompasses her reaches a crossroads and finds that just by communicating her thoughts makes all the difference to her future. I often worry about books that are labeled YA whose lead characters are very young. I’ve found most teens aren’t interested. However, the content is very mature and lyrical and hopefully the cover will entice them. Adults will devour this.

A quick and interesting read, full of wonder. I loved how this book was set out and found it quick to read. The ending is really lovely as well.

An addictively quick read, written beautifully in verse. Both heartbreaking and uplifting, this story is brilliantly compelling.

I requested this book because I've loved most of the verse novels I've read so far, but this is a no from me.

The writing style is actually good, but the descriptions of dead and decaying animals really grossed me out (although I concede that that's a me thing). For most of this book, I was just kind of bored, and I found that it wasn't really for me. So nothing too amazing, but nothing too terrible either.

But then... Did this white author... really have to use the N word? Short answer: no, not at all, not ever. Yikes. And I've somehow not seen this mentioned in any of the reviews I've read? I actually stopped reading right after seeing this, because that's honestly all I need to know. (Page 170 btw, for reference.) This book is set to come out in August so I sincerely hope this will get rectified in the finished copy.

The Art Of Taxidermy.
It really lives up to its title.

I thought perhaps it was a metaphor for something in the book but oh no this girl finds dead animals and keeps them.

She hopes to find a way to preserve them and give them “life” again and the book describes her bedroom as smelling as death and decay.

Some of the descriptions for the dead animals was also gross so if you are kind of squeamish and live animals then this book may not be for you.

It is about a girl named Lottie from Australia who lives with her father and aunt. Her mother has passed away and I think Lottie discovers her passion for Taxidermy by her slight obsession with death. I think it is her way of coping.
She has a friend in the book named Annie who we later find out was her sister. I had a suspicion early on that Annie was a figment of Lottie’s imagination when I noticed people would totally ignore her and her presence. I am assuming it is in Lottie’s head and she was not seeing ghosts.

I gave this book only two stars because I did think the author is talented and I liked her writing style even though this book was not enjoyable for me. Maybe someone going through a loss of their own would connect with the story better. I would read something else by the author in the future and give her next book a chance.

Another reason I gave it two stars was that even though this was a short book I found it very boring and I had to push myself through it. I am not sure if it was boring for me because I could not really connect with it or because it was truly boring. Like I said I did like the writing style so I am guessing it because I had no connection to the characters.

Since the book was in Australia which we did not find out until more towards the end some better description would have been nice. As a reader I really like to picture the scenery in my mind as Im reading.

This was one of those books for me where the cover was stunning but the book inside did not live up to the hype of the cover for me.

If you enjoy YA and have time for a quick read then I would say to give it a try. Id love for you to let me your thoughts on this one!