Poetry Review #1:

Hello my fellow bookworms! I know it's been a while since a post went up, and all I can say to justify this is the following: College is a lot. A little over a month ago I moved into my new home, Boston College, and met some amazing people, got involved and started some pretty interesting classes. And now that I've settled into a routine, I think it's time to get back to blogging. I've got some really exciting ideas that I'm super excited to share with you and I can't wait to get started.

So I was scrolling through the blog and I realized one thing that has been pretty lacking in my post thus far: I haven't reviewed any poetry books! I'm a sucker for books of short, contemporary poetry and I happened to bring some a long to college with me. This week has been a pretty important week in the world of contemporary poetry. Rupi Kaur's new book The Sun and Her Flowers went on sale yesterday (I will hopefully be getting my copy on Saturday) and today as I was stumbling through the twitter-verse I learned that Amanda Lovelace (writer of The Princess Saves Herself in This One) posted the release dates for her next TWO books. The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One comes out March 6th, 2018 and her third book The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One is projected to come out in the spring of 2019. So, today I thought it was only fitting to do my first poetry review today!

Today I want to address three pretty popular books of poetry: Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, Love Her Wild by Atticus, and The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace. Now, I realize that these books aren't super new (the newest being Love Her Wild in July of this year), but they are all wildly popular. I got all three of these books, but Love Her Wild was the only one I went into with the intention of flagging poems that I liked. The other two were purchased honestly as excuses to procrastinate, and were read randomly, a few poems at a time.

So let's get into reviewing.

First of all, I loved all of these books. Like honestly. This is my first comparison book review, and I don't want any hating going on. I was touched by something in all three of these books and it was really hard to pick a favorite. But if I had to make a ranking (which I did for this post to be interesting) it would be:

#1: The Princess Saves Herself in This One

#2: Love Her Wild

#3: Milk and Honey

#3-Milk and Honey:

So I genuinely enjoyed reading Milk and Honey. I did, there's no doubt about that. But I have to say as I was reading it, I found myself not able to actually get through it because the content was so heavy. I understand why Kaur wrote the book this way, the poems are meant to be heavy. But her book of poetry was an emotional roller coaster, and we all know that my life is its own emotional roller coaster. But I really loved the distinct parts that represented the different periods in her life. Her poetry was so unflinchingly honest, it was stunning. But I could only take it in small doses. It wasn't the kind of poetry that I could just sit down and read in one sitting. Some of it was so powerful, I needed time to digest it. I understand that the poetry being really powerful and impactful is a good thing, but I think that what really made this one difficult for me, was not just the honesty but also the content. I had a love/hate relationship with the honesty in this book. Sometimes I was like "Yes, you get me, you are speaking a literal truth of my life" and others I was more like "Oh wow that's super honest I didn't know I felt that, and Im not sure how I feel about it." At times, the poems were down right erotic, but so so true. And I kinda loved that they were so open and real about women and their sexuality. But others, I just couldn't relate to. Yes, it is heavy, and yes these are things that we need to talk about, but really I didn't feel emotionally connected to these poems in the way I felt to others. That might be a good thing, if it means that I haven't had to endure those things like Rupi did. But I think the best way to say it, is that this poetry just didn't speak to me the way other poems did. And that's why this one falls last on my list. I liked most of the poems in this book and they were only enhanced by the sketches found throughout it. Overall, I have to say that I would give this one a 📚📚📚📚 out of 5. I'm super excited to get my hands on a copy of The Sun and Her Flowers this weekend and keep your eyes open for my review of that one!

#2- Love Her Wild:

In the case of Love Her Wild, I was shoved into the mind of Atticus and damn did I love it. I was ringing a customer out at work, who happened to be purchasing this book and was immediately drawn to the cover. I mean come on. Black and white cloudscape, with what appears to be a woman falling from the sky... what's not to love? In all seriousness I did really love this cover.

After I rang up the customer I immediately went to see if we had any more copies and we had one, which I purchased, went home, read, CRIED, and read again. Something about the way Atticus wrote his poems, which were so unfathomably sweet, just sucked me in. The way Atticus writes about his lover, is the way I want my future husband to think about me on the regular. I read these poems, and honestly my heart ached at how lovely some of them were. Even as I was reading, I was thinking to myself that some of these would make some really beautiful vows one day. Others, I was thinking, "Sure I'd get this tattooed on my body one day." They just touched me so deeply, I fell absolutely in love with Atticus. I can turn to any one of the dozens of sticky flags in this book and read it again, and instantly just get filled with this feeling of serenity. The poems are also mixed in with some truly stunning photographs that fit the mood of the poetry really well. All around this was one really well put together piece. This was the kind of book of poetry that I could sit down and read in 45 minutes, and do it again and again and again. But, this was a book of love poems and I really wanted to see some other poems about different emotions or experiences so that is why Love Her Wild is not ranked at #1. So... Love Her Wild gets a dazzling 📚📚📚📚+.5 out of 5. Hold on, I'm gonna go read it again.

#1- The Princess Saves Herself in This One:

Alright Last but certainly not least, we have The Princess Saves Herself in This One. I remember when I bought this one I sat in a parking lot waiting to pick my dad up from work and read half of it, and then I made him drive home so I could read a few more pages. Unfortunately for me, I got home and curbed my procrastination and didn't end up finishing it until a few months later. But this book felt like it had been a part of me. I read and felt like it had been written just for me. That dazzling, spotlight moment where I felt like Amanda Lovelace was speaking to me had me in a spell. Right away I was sending pictures to my friends, exclaiming "ISN'T THIS AMAZING. LIKE LOOK AT THAT POEM. LOOK AT IT." More often than not, they had no idea what I was talking about, but I felt better knowing that I had shared this wonderful book with someone. Lovelace talked about sexual assault, love, eating disorders, body positivity, feminine empowerment, and mental health in so many ways that I just related to. I felt way more connected to the poetry, and felt it speaking to me, in a way that other books didn't. It was the perfect balance of honest and real, but wasn't super, uncomfortably honest. ALSO. I'm not about to ignore the fact that there a many a Harry Potter reference in here. That will always get you points in my book. I walked out of reading this book feeling like someone else knew what I was feeling and going through and understood me. And at the same damn time, I felt like a badass, dragon slayer that could take on literally anything. This book was an experience, and one I would do over and over again.

From a writer's standpoint, I had never felt like I could write poetry. I was never clever enough to come up with a witty, rhyme in exactly seven syllables that also had perfect Iambic meter. I just was not capable of writing so advanced. And not to say that this kind of poetry isn't clever or intelligent or difficult, but for me it was clear and simple and something I could handle. I finally felt like I could write poetry. And so I did, and it really is thanks to this book.

Really, it was the emotional connection, how personal it felt and its accessibility that made me love this book. That's the reason why it ranks first on my list and is the book I most often recommend to customers who are looking to start reading poetry. I am literally counting down the days until The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One and The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One come out. This book, I mean I think it's pretty obvious, gets a 📚📚📚📚📚 out of 5!! Amanda Lovelace, keep doing what you're doing.

And I think that is everything for our first poetry review! I have two books picked out for the next one so far, and I am searching for a third! If you have any books of contemporary poetry please, please, please leave me a comment down below! If you have a favorite poem from any of these lovely books post it on social media and tag me because I'd love to see if we have any of the same favorites!

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-Kayla