Love and Hate By Andrew McClure

Two words. Two halves of the same restless heart.

In this raw and unflinching debut collection, Andrew McClure splits the human experience down the middle and lays both sides bare. Love and Hate move through the full spectrum of feeling, from the tender to the brutal, from devotion to fury, refusing to look away from any of it.

The first half, Love, is all warmth and longing. Here you'll find a son's gratitude for an old man's quiet affection, a husband's vow to his wife, the dizzy nerves of meeting someone new, and the bone-deep joy of coming home to the people who matter most. These are poems about wanting, waiting, and holding on.

Then the collection turns. Hate burns hotter and darker, giving voice to heartbreak, resentment, grief, and the ugly thoughts most people keep hidden. McClure writes from the raw nerve, capturing rage and despair with the same honesty he brings to joy.

Written in a plainspoken, conversational style that reads as a confession whispered at midnight, Love and Hate is poetry for anyone who has ever loved hard, lost badly, and felt everything in between. It does not pretend that the heart is a simple thing. It celebrates the contradiction.

Content note: This collection contains explicit language, mature sexual content, and frank depictions of violence, despair, and suicidal thoughts. Intended for adult readers.