Welcome to Devon Toovey’s Poetry Series:
PEELED POETRY
This is just the beginning. Peeled is the first in a growing collection of raw, emotional, soul-deep poetry by Devon Toovey.
Each book in the series peels back different layers — desire and longing, yes, but also family wounds, betrayal, friendship, and the ache of becoming.
Her words are for anyone who has ever loved too hard, broken too loudly, or felt like they didn’t fit inside their own skin.
The stories evolve. The scars deepen. The light sharpens.Stay tuned — there’s so much more to come.
About Peeled
Peeled wasn’t meant to be a book.
It began quietly—just me, scribbling in stolen moments, trying to release the noise in my head and the pressure in my chest. I didn’t sit down with a theme or a plan. I wrote because I needed somewhere for all the feelings to go.
The poems came in fragments. Raw. Unfiltered. Emotional. They weren’t written to impress. They were written to relieve.
At first, I never intended to share them.
But something shifted. The more I wrote, the more I realized: these pages weren’t just for me. They might speak to someone else, too. Someone who also feels too much. Someone who’s also trying to make sense of the mess. Someone who needs words for what they can’t say out loud.
That’s when Peeled became something bigger.
This is poetry for the emotionally overwhelmed. For the ones who bottle things up until they spill. For the ones navigating longing, shame, desire, silence, survival, and the complicated joy of self-reclamation.These poems are not polished. They’re not perfect. But they’re honest. And maybe, in that honesty, they can help someone else feel less alone.
If you’ve ever felt like too much or not enough…If you’ve ever carried something heavy without knowing how to name it…If you’ve ever needed someone to just get it...This is for you.
Peeled is available now in paperback, hardcover, and eBook.And it’s just the beginning—Volume 2, Stripped, is already underway. The story continues.
You are the music that plays in my mind
The melody stuck in my head
Playing your song brings me peace
But keeps the obsession fed
— Peeled
In Peeled, Devon Toovey masterfully weaves raw emotion, sensuality, and introspection into a captivating collection of poetry and prose. Exploring the profound spectrum of love, lust, heartbreak, and healing, these works offer readers an intimate glimpse into the human experience.
Structured in evocative sections—Love, Lust, Heartbreak, and Mental Health—each piece peels back layers of vulnerability, revealing honest truths that resonate deeply. Toovey’s lyrical verses capture the delicate beauty of quiet mornings, the fiery intensity of desire, the profound ache of separation, and the relentless battles within one's mind.
With powerful imagery, rhythmic flow, and moments both tender and fierce, Peeled invites readers on a journey through passion and pain, longing and liberation, culminating in self-awareness and strength. Whether navigating the bliss of new love, the sting of loss, or the empowering path toward healing, readers will find pieces of their own stories reflected within these pages.
A bold exploration of emotion and identity, Peeled is for anyone who has loved, lost, desired, and fought to reclaim themselves.
Q&A WITH THE AUTHOR
Q: Why did you name the book Peeled?
A: Because that's exactly what it felt like — peeling off layer after layer of repression and silence, of pain and heartache, of pretending and fitting a mold. I wrote my way back to myself. I wanted to see what was left when I stopped performing and started telling the truth.
Q: What surprised you most while writing it?
A: How incredible it felt. How natural. Like I'd never stopped. I became addicted to the honesty of it — how much I let myself say, even to myself. That kind of permission was new for me. And necessary.
Q: What do you hope readers feel when they read Peeled?
A: Seen. Understood. Less alone. Like someone put their ache into words. Like it's okay to feel too much — that there's beauty in pain and ache and survival and fighting back. That you're not broken for feeling everything.
Q: Do you have a favorite piece in the collection?
A: That's hard. Some pieces are favorites because they're technically strong, or they got the best feedback. Others wreck me because they're still bleeding. Those are the ones I'm proudest of — the ones I almost didn't include.
Q: What was the hardest piece to write?
A: Magic Fingers was a challenge to myself — to lean into imagery instead of my usual literal style. I find literal writing limiting, and I'm always trying to grow beyond that. The Spaces In Between was a massive undertaking, unlike anything I'd done before — and it was incredibly rewarding. And then there are the pieces that were hard because they required truths I didn't want to face. But honestly? The hardest of all is writing about happy, safe love. I'm still working on that.
Q: What does poetry mean to you now?
A: That I have a space where I belong.A space where I'm safe — even if it's just with myself.
Q: What would you tell your 14-year-old self?
A: Please don't give up. Please don't stop. You weren't wrong — they were wrong. Never let anyone steal your light.
Q: What's next — will there be more?
A: Oh, yes. Volume 2 is already in the works, and I'm so excited. It's evolving day by day, changing as I do. I can't wait to see what it turns out to be — and I can't wait to share it.
Richard Birch, U.K.
As stated in the blurb on the back of the book, Peeled is a dissection of the author, from the dizzying highs to the lowest of lows, and everything in between. It covers love, loss, anguish, mental health, lust, and the need to be seen. It's unapologetic in its tone, and is a beautiful show of vulnerability, of passion, of pain, and of love.
I really enjoy Devon's style of writing. Language is used precisely as a tool. She can devastate, show weakness, her strength, or the burning desires of love and lust within her. She can paint vivid imagery; sometimes she intentionally forces you to improvise your own.
It is raw. It is unapologetic. Above all, it is profound.
It will stay with you.
It is wonderful.
Colleen Sullivan, U.S.
I didn’t think I was a poetry person. Turns out I just hadn’t read the right kind. Peeled hit me like a punch I didn’t see coming—raw, bold, and way too relatable. It’s not all pretty words and metaphors. It’s heartbreak, rage, lust, and all the messy stuff nobody likes to admit. I found myself laughing, wincing, and saying 'oh hell' out loud more than once. Even if you don’t usually do poetry, give this one a shot. You might feel a little too seen.
Steve Love, U.S.
These pages were never supposed to see the light.
Peeled is a collision of lust and loss, desire and despair, softness and spite.
It's a mirror for anyone who has ever loved harder than they should have, and survived something they didn't think they would.
Devon Toovey writes like someone who knows what it means to beg, to burn, and to bite down on every feeling that ever made them feel alive.
