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A Strange and Wicked Magic
A dark but familiar sequel to the best-selling “More than Words”, Zack Shah returns with a much-anticipated second volume of poetry and prose titled “A Strange and Wicked Magic”.
Haunting, beautiful and provocative, this new collection unravels the dichotomous nature of love, how it is neither good nor bad but both: venom and nectar, poison and cure, heaven and hell.
This book will take you through the highs and lows of it all, the pain and the pleasure, the chaos and the calm, the hurting and the healing.
A bittersweet read for the lovelorn, the lonely and the lost.
Coming soon in 2022.
Haunting, beautiful and provocative, this new collection unravels the dichotomous nature of love, how it is neither good nor bad but both: venom and nectar, poison and cure, heaven and hell.
This book will take you through the highs and lows of it all, the pain and the pleasure, the chaos and the calm, the hurting and the healing.
A bittersweet read for the lovelorn, the lonely and the lost.
Coming soon in 2022.
Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
4 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Zack Shah
8 books8 followersZack Shah has been a lover of the written word ever since he can remember, reading fairytales and escaping ever so often into the world of make-believe, where wishes can come true with the wave of a wand and a magic spell. Growing up, he always believed that there was something magical about rhymes, about how witches and wizards would use them to reshape reality, grant everlasting life and sway the elements themselves to their whims. While his own poems don’t have that kind of power, he likes to think they carry their own kind of magic, something, deeper, darker and undeniably more human.
"More than Words" is his debut publication.
"More than Words" is his debut publication.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 24, 2022
A Strange and Wicked Magic is a mysetrious yet vulnerable mishmash of feelings put into words. It has that magnetic pull in the pages that made me finish the whole book in one sitting.
I'm not always a fan of poetry books because I don't always agree with everything and poetry, unlike fiction, is a raw rendition of the author's thoughts. It's a hit or miss. But I think this book is vague enough for readers to make their own meaning, which I really look forward when reading books, especially poetry books. Because sometimes reading some poems just feel like reading a personal diary and that makes me so uncomfortable. That didn't happen in A Strange and Wicked Magic.
The short stories at the end were a treat. I loooove fairytale retellings and I think the author did such a beautiful job retelling the stories and putting mini spins in it.
Thank you @penwingspublishing for sending me this book. Sorry @zackshahpoet I finished your book that you probably spent so many time and sweat on in one sitting.
Rating: 3.75 stars rounded up
I'm not always a fan of poetry books because I don't always agree with everything and poetry, unlike fiction, is a raw rendition of the author's thoughts. It's a hit or miss. But I think this book is vague enough for readers to make their own meaning, which I really look forward when reading books, especially poetry books. Because sometimes reading some poems just feel like reading a personal diary and that makes me so uncomfortable. That didn't happen in A Strange and Wicked Magic.
The short stories at the end were a treat. I loooove fairytale retellings and I think the author did such a beautiful job retelling the stories and putting mini spins in it.
Thank you @penwingspublishing for sending me this book. Sorry @zackshahpoet I finished your book that you probably spent so many time and sweat on in one sitting.
Rating: 3.75 stars rounded up
April 15, 2022
Are you the kind of person who treasure weaved words especially of poetry, prose and short stories? Do you easily mesmerised by beautiful stanzas, rhyming or lines with heightened imagery and emotionally impacted?
If you are who I mentioned above, I urge you to give a chance in reading this newly released book of Penwings, ‘A Strange & Wicked Magic’ by Zack Shah. I can guarantee, you’ll be doing yourself a favour.
🧚🏻 This book divided into four parts; Lost Souls, Déjà Vu, Incantations and Twisted Tales.
🧚🏻 Lost Souls (with 3 chapters— Fallen Stars, City of Sadness, Always and Forever) and Déjà Vu are collections of poem and poetry prose about love also heartbreak that comes after.
🧚🏻 Incantations is compilation of bewitching spells while Twisted Tales contains short stories of familiar figure in classic fairy tales fabricated into its own unexpected turn of events (well, living up to their title TWISTED TALES)
🧚🏻 Spare me some time and let me convince you why you need to pick up this book, shall we?
🌙 Lost Souls
— Despite comes with three chapters starting with relationship phase of ‘being in love’ to pain and grief over unrequited love to acceptance stage of heartbreak where you ready to be at peace with your own self, I love how the author makes me feel like a developed story itself instead of series regarding poem and poetry prose because it flows progressively from one page to another.
— My absolute favourite in this one is a poetry prose called ‘Last Sunset’. My oh my, the way each words intertwined into something that described my unspoken contemplation just, wow, WHOA. I now agree that it’s close to magical how others’ expressed thoughts might share the same fundamental piece of your heart. How beautiful isn’t?
🌙 Déjà Vu
— it’s like a proper closure to Lost Souls and somehow, for me, it’s also feels like an alternate ending or maybe afterthought to the previous part.
— this is not a spoiler, no worries, I just want to share my insight regarding this one where I thought at first, this might be getting back to once he/she loved or it’s brand new love with another person but end up, having the very similar ending but there will be one poem that make me went “Oh, hold on…hm interesting”
🌙 Incantations
— Everyone, I just want to say, this is such a brilliant and refreshing idea of the author utilised his gift of words’ play to create spells. Aaahh it’s so good!
— You know, how traditional magic spell made up of fascinating and flowery lines that took some moment for you to understand the meaning behind it. Some also constructed into rhyme system which similar to poem. This is another level of creating parallelism between poetry and spells. I love it as throughout the read, I might pretend being an enchanter myself.
🌙 Twisted Tales
— guys, there are THREE short stories where the author comes up with such great excellence of beauty which basically summarised all of them literally screamed ‘tragedy that can never be undone due to harsh truth of reality’.
— I couldn’t say more because YOU GUYS HAVE TO FREAKING READ IT AND KNOW WHY I LOVE IT SO MUCH AAAHH!!! And oh, I forget to mention that these short stories are so morally grey coded to its very marrow bone. Aha, yes, I know that I already hooked you, don’t I?
— Alright, alright, I give you some hint: one served as backstory villain to the sea’s princess, one probably combined two well known Disney fairy tales of glass slipper and poisoned apple and one took such a smooth genderbend in cursed kingdom.
🧚🏻 Overall, ‘A Strange and Wicked Magic’ is such a beautiful piece of work. There are some poems that isn’t my liking as it a bit repetitive but I appreciate it still because from one poet to another, I feel the genuine emotion.
🧚🏻 And the rest (which is A LOT) where I come to love from the bottom of my heart, thank you Zack Shah for your courage to write down the words and as it become much alive in a space once blank. Thank you for sharing your words to the minds that crave of possibilities, to the souls in need of assurance and to the hearts that found comfort in it.
📌 If you read it til the end, gotcha! I know you’re interested and the book is now available in most major bookstores in Malaysia.
If you are who I mentioned above, I urge you to give a chance in reading this newly released book of Penwings, ‘A Strange & Wicked Magic’ by Zack Shah. I can guarantee, you’ll be doing yourself a favour.
🧚🏻 This book divided into four parts; Lost Souls, Déjà Vu, Incantations and Twisted Tales.
🧚🏻 Lost Souls (with 3 chapters— Fallen Stars, City of Sadness, Always and Forever) and Déjà Vu are collections of poem and poetry prose about love also heartbreak that comes after.
🧚🏻 Incantations is compilation of bewitching spells while Twisted Tales contains short stories of familiar figure in classic fairy tales fabricated into its own unexpected turn of events (well, living up to their title TWISTED TALES)
🧚🏻 Spare me some time and let me convince you why you need to pick up this book, shall we?
🌙 Lost Souls
— Despite comes with three chapters starting with relationship phase of ‘being in love’ to pain and grief over unrequited love to acceptance stage of heartbreak where you ready to be at peace with your own self, I love how the author makes me feel like a developed story itself instead of series regarding poem and poetry prose because it flows progressively from one page to another.
— My absolute favourite in this one is a poetry prose called ‘Last Sunset’. My oh my, the way each words intertwined into something that described my unspoken contemplation just, wow, WHOA. I now agree that it’s close to magical how others’ expressed thoughts might share the same fundamental piece of your heart. How beautiful isn’t?
🌙 Déjà Vu
— it’s like a proper closure to Lost Souls and somehow, for me, it’s also feels like an alternate ending or maybe afterthought to the previous part.
— this is not a spoiler, no worries, I just want to share my insight regarding this one where I thought at first, this might be getting back to once he/she loved or it’s brand new love with another person but end up, having the very similar ending but there will be one poem that make me went “Oh, hold on…hm interesting”
🌙 Incantations
— Everyone, I just want to say, this is such a brilliant and refreshing idea of the author utilised his gift of words’ play to create spells. Aaahh it’s so good!
— You know, how traditional magic spell made up of fascinating and flowery lines that took some moment for you to understand the meaning behind it. Some also constructed into rhyme system which similar to poem. This is another level of creating parallelism between poetry and spells. I love it as throughout the read, I might pretend being an enchanter myself.
🌙 Twisted Tales
— guys, there are THREE short stories where the author comes up with such great excellence of beauty which basically summarised all of them literally screamed ‘tragedy that can never be undone due to harsh truth of reality’.
— I couldn’t say more because YOU GUYS HAVE TO FREAKING READ IT AND KNOW WHY I LOVE IT SO MUCH AAAHH!!! And oh, I forget to mention that these short stories are so morally grey coded to its very marrow bone. Aha, yes, I know that I already hooked you, don’t I?
— Alright, alright, I give you some hint: one served as backstory villain to the sea’s princess, one probably combined two well known Disney fairy tales of glass slipper and poisoned apple and one took such a smooth genderbend in cursed kingdom.
🧚🏻 Overall, ‘A Strange and Wicked Magic’ is such a beautiful piece of work. There are some poems that isn’t my liking as it a bit repetitive but I appreciate it still because from one poet to another, I feel the genuine emotion.
🧚🏻 And the rest (which is A LOT) where I come to love from the bottom of my heart, thank you Zack Shah for your courage to write down the words and as it become much alive in a space once blank. Thank you for sharing your words to the minds that crave of possibilities, to the souls in need of assurance and to the hearts that found comfort in it.
📌 If you read it til the end, gotcha! I know you’re interested and the book is now available in most major bookstores in Malaysia.
April 3, 2022
“Love should be the end-all-be-all of our existence. But the world isn’t that kind.”
Rating :3.75/5
I've been reading more collections of poetry and short stories lately and Penwings publishing has been kind enough to provide me a copy of A Strange and Wicked Magic for me to review. Mind you I am still in the early exploration stage of poetry so this will be a less technical review. I won't be commenting on the format, poetic technic used etc.
this collection consists mostly of those about romantic love, which I found just okay. There were some good ones and I enjoyed most of them but there were a few that I felt could've used more polishing. But my what I adore in this book is the longer poems and the short stories in the last part of the book.
I found myself engrossed by how the author managed to add twists to classic disney tales and make it their own. Making it dark and twisty is exactly what I love. The longer poems were my favourite ones, they were vague but with lines that made you relate to it with your own experiences. I also liked how the poems are told from different perspectives , it added another layer to the stories told.
Overall a great poetry collection for those starting out from the genre. Be sure to support local authors :)
Be sure to purchase A Strange and Wicked Magic in all major bookstores and on www.penwings.com/store!
Zack Shah Poetry Bundle promotion is still on going !🫶🏻
- Zack Shah Poetry Bundle, More than Words + A Strange and Wicked Magic for RM55. Promotion is from 29/3 - 5/4 ✨
March 31, 2022
Peculiar thought and quite easy to fantasize! Beginner reader poems should get this one!!
March 8, 2022
My favourites were the Incantations and Short Stories chapters. :)
December 13, 2022
My first introduction to poetry and short stories, so my expectations were quite low but I enjoyed almost every verse.
My only concern is one of the short stories that could have some TW of some sort.
My only concern is one of the short stories that could have some TW of some sort.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2023
A refreshing poetry and short stories collection that was beautifully written from cover to cover.
The poems in here were well structured; there's imagery, sound and wonderful rhythm as you read line by line. It makes me not wanting to stop reading. Like when I finished one poem, I'm off to reading the next one, and then the next page and then the next page and BOOM it's finished 😫😭
I can definitely say that I resonate and relate to the poems in this book because the poems show feelings of heartbreak, the good side of love and the messy and bad side of love as well and there's also hints of explicit elements and some substance abuse which was very subtle and not too explicit or obvious but I don't mind it all. I still love the overall themes of the book.
I absolutely love the Incantations part. Reading these spells really makes me feel like I'm a witch and the spells are ready to be cast /* 🤣🤣 The rhyming schemes in this part was very fun indeed.
And the short stories in here... 🤯🤯 was definitely a twist hence the chapter is titled Twisted Tales. My favourite among the 3 short stories would be The Price of Magic. And just like the poems it was well written, it gives a little bit of a nostalgia feeling because I get to reminisce with these twisted short stories to the original classic ones which I loveee 😍
Overall, the poems are not too long and too short. And the writings in this book, I can say that it's suitable for poetry beginners who wants to start reading poetry. I do feel like you will easily enjoy this book since the poems are not complicated to understand the in-depth meaning and message. So definitely give this book a read!!
🌟: 4.9/5
The poems in here were well structured; there's imagery, sound and wonderful rhythm as you read line by line. It makes me not wanting to stop reading. Like when I finished one poem, I'm off to reading the next one, and then the next page and then the next page and BOOM it's finished 😫😭
I can definitely say that I resonate and relate to the poems in this book because the poems show feelings of heartbreak, the good side of love and the messy and bad side of love as well and there's also hints of explicit elements and some substance abuse which was very subtle and not too explicit or obvious but I don't mind it all. I still love the overall themes of the book.
I absolutely love the Incantations part. Reading these spells really makes me feel like I'm a witch and the spells are ready to be cast /* 🤣🤣 The rhyming schemes in this part was very fun indeed.
And the short stories in here... 🤯🤯 was definitely a twist hence the chapter is titled Twisted Tales. My favourite among the 3 short stories would be The Price of Magic. And just like the poems it was well written, it gives a little bit of a nostalgia feeling because I get to reminisce with these twisted short stories to the original classic ones which I loveee 😍
Overall, the poems are not too long and too short. And the writings in this book, I can say that it's suitable for poetry beginners who wants to start reading poetry. I do feel like you will easily enjoy this book since the poems are not complicated to understand the in-depth meaning and message. So definitely give this book a read!!
🌟: 4.9/5
April 29, 2022
A Strange and Wicked Magic is a poetry and short story book that really amazed me on how much I connected to these poems and how much emotions I felt during reading this book.
To be honest I haven't picked up a poetry and short story book ever since I graduated high school but I did want to get back into it and really study about poetry again and Penwings Publishing just so happens to send me this book and I must say I actually really enjoyed reading these poems.
I tab and annotate my books and the more annotations the better which exactly happened to this poetry and short story book. I tabbed so much to always look back at my favorite poems or ones that I connected to. I also could understand most of these poems instantly which I think is the fun part of reading a poetry book because you kind of went through that certain situation in your life and for me reading it in a form of a poem was really therapeutic.
My favorite part of the book is definitely the Incantations, it is like casting a spell in a form of a poem. I absolutely love reading wizard and witches type fantasy book and for the author to put this concept in the book makes it so much fun to read.
This book as I mentioned has short stories as well which I really enjoyed reading all of them and the short stories are like those old Disney fairytale but with a twist which makes it more interesting to read.
I personally think this book is perfect for beginners such as myself as these poems are really easy to understand but still fun to read.
To be honest I haven't picked up a poetry and short story book ever since I graduated high school but I did want to get back into it and really study about poetry again and Penwings Publishing just so happens to send me this book and I must say I actually really enjoyed reading these poems.
I tab and annotate my books and the more annotations the better which exactly happened to this poetry and short story book. I tabbed so much to always look back at my favorite poems or ones that I connected to. I also could understand most of these poems instantly which I think is the fun part of reading a poetry book because you kind of went through that certain situation in your life and for me reading it in a form of a poem was really therapeutic.
My favorite part of the book is definitely the Incantations, it is like casting a spell in a form of a poem. I absolutely love reading wizard and witches type fantasy book and for the author to put this concept in the book makes it so much fun to read.
This book as I mentioned has short stories as well which I really enjoyed reading all of them and the short stories are like those old Disney fairytale but with a twist which makes it more interesting to read.
I personally think this book is perfect for beginners such as myself as these poems are really easy to understand but still fun to read.
December 21, 2025
I absolutely love this book. The pieces are so beautifully written & I wish I could have this talent of writing beautiful pieces. It contains sorrow, foolish love, wrath, self-realisation & more.
At the last few pages, it has 3 fairytales retelling twisted version. They were amazing as well. I finished the book in 1 go, 1 night. Definitely gonna read more from him.
At the last few pages, it has 3 fairytales retelling twisted version. They were amazing as well. I finished the book in 1 go, 1 night. Definitely gonna read more from him.
December 25, 2022
I love this collection! Absolutely love this. It's lyrical and beautiful that it was difficult for me to pick the ones I liked the most. I know I will go back to this book and use these quotes somewhere. Although my only complain is that now I can never look at Maleficent the same again.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews