I reviewed this book as part of my April Reading Wrap Up on my BookTube channel https://youtu.be/xSovZsszcvo

Poems with bite, yeah I couldn’t resist a bad pun, but these really are hard-hitting, full of meaning and emotion, they often hit hard and they really make you think and reflect on yourself .What a great debut , thoroughly recommended

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I did not request this book on NetGalley. It just appeared on my shelf, which is a little unfair for my percentage of reading / rating but anyway. I had a skim through and seems like a cool book!

Really interesting yet acerbic collection that feels timely in the range of topics it covers. Found it a little overwhelming to read at times but Radojevic has a strong voice.

teeth in the back of my neck, Monika Radojevic


A debut collection about identity, heritage, history and what it is to be a woman.

This collection lives up to the name, a handful of serious, stunning bites. Profoundly written and put together this collection is truly remarkable. A worthy edition to any bookshelf.

Teeth in the Back of my Neck is a fantastic collection of poems. I am very impressed with this collection. It covers a wide range of topics from womanhood, identity, race and belonging. My favourites being 'Men Who Howl at the Moon', 'To Be a Woman' and 'When'.

The poems are deep and hard-hitting. Original and emotional. They make you reflect on your own experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Highly recommend. Great debut collection and worthy (co-) winner of the #Merky prize.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the eARC in exchange of an honest review.

Teeth in the Back of my Neck is a collection of poetry that focuses on anger and sadness, on identity and history, and on the societal structures that hold us. Split into two parts—'The Teeth' and 'The Neck'—the poems explore things the violence and trauma that women face, the way women's bodies are seen, and how race and belonging are constructed and viewed in society.

The collection manages to feel varied whilst having clear themes, and the poems are written in an immediate and forthright way that gets across the anger and power behind them. Poems like 'Hell Will Fall Apart for You' and 'A Few Brown Bodies' look at how people react and how to get angry (or not) about things, and how to enact change, feeling immediate and memorable. The second half of the collection focuses even more on personal identity, history, and people's relation to others in how these are built. I found the poems that explore the importance of names ('Jane') and the idea of DNA testing and the self ('23andme') particularly interesting, questioning what makes a person and how other people react to that.

It's hard, despite the pun, not to call Teeth in the Back of my Neck poems with bite, because that's what they feel like: they're sharp, witty, and emotional, and even just looking quickly back through the book to write this review makes me want to read them again and again.