Hell Yeah

by Rachelle Toarmino

Genres: Poetry

85 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2025

About the author

Rachelle Toarmino is a poet from Niagara Falls, New York. She is the author of the poetry collections Hell Yeah and That Ex, as well as several chapbooks, most recently My Science, winner of the 2024 Sixth Finch Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in Poets.org, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, American Poetry Review, Bennington Review, Southeast Review, The Slowdown, and Omnidawn, which awarded her its 2024 Single Poem Broadside Prize. She earned her MFA in poetry at UMass Amherst, where she received an Academy of American Poets Prize. She is also the founding editor in chief of the literary publishing project Peach Mag and the creator and lead instructor of Beauty School, an independent poetry school. She lives in Buffalo.

Reviews

[Colette Bernheim]

“I like the idea of playing it cool as much as the next girl but I just can’t shut the fuck up” is a killer and incredibly real opening line for a poem

[Adrian Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hell Yeah will make you want to get weird. From what I gather, "weird" is a state of existence and the witty, sultry, self-aware voice Toarmino achieves makes me want to exist there alongside her.

My favorite genre of poetry could arguably be described as "for the girlies" but, babe, this is for the grown women. I loved it. Wealth of creative lines throughout, an unpretentious feeling of introspection, relatable exploration of feeling & human dynamic. I cannot stress enough how much I appreciated an adult feminine tone. At times, it can be a challenge to find that as a 30+ reader. Many poems became fast favorites."All my Life, Oh Lord" spoke to me in particular following the loss of my father earlier this year. It captures the essence of how dads move through the world. A huge thanks to Rachelle for that- great dads are hard to come by and poems about them are an even greater rarity.

This was an inspiring and thoughtful poetry collection. I'm certain you will enjoy it too.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A second Rachelle Toarmino book has hit

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm alive because I want whatever's at the other end of this song." (75)

What a start to a year of reading. I heard Toarmino read in Frederick in November, so I could hear these in her powerful, measured voice. Another reviewer said these are poems for women (not just the "girlies"), and I have to agree. The word-play, ecstatic instructions to live, they what-to-do-next of these are incredible. Very along the lines of Bernadette Mayer (one of the epigraph authors) in the way Toamino is playing with language while being so very clear.

"I'm saying I want to happen / lifting as I warm." (12)

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this poetry collection the morning before seeing Rachelle Toarmino read it in person. It was a full day of Hell Yeah. Split between three sections (Music, Flowers, Meat), this is a book that twists language, phrases, family, life, love. It's inward, it's outward, and it's sharp as hell. Her poem for her father titled "All My Life, Oh Lord" might be my favorite, as well as the Meat section of prose poems, or the final poem of the book, ending with a self-titled "Rachelle Toarmino" poem after Molly Brodak's "Molly Brodak". Bangers only.

[Isaac Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind-fuck. Feel-all.

These are so conscious.

[Britt B · Rating 5 out of 5]

after seeing this author’s performance at writers & books in Rochester, i had to get this! these poems will stick with me for a very long time. amazing collection.

[Hannah Bonner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn, this book is unrelentingly good.