Poetry is not easy to write or read. But it felt that this author wanted to be a little bit more deep than the writing permitted. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read this book.

~1.5~

I do not have much to say except two things:

1. I really, really thought I would not be able to finish this. The whole time I was just thinking: it's over soon, you can do it, don't DNF, don't DNF...
2. This poetry writing style is unlike any I've read, and I hated it so much. It was messy, I couldn't understand what I was reading half the time and the amount of times I read "the cookie crumbles" or something about sniffing panties (particularly "your daughters"); I died a little inside.

I thought it would be an interesting take on poetry, and sexuality and sensuality. I was deeply wrong.

Honestly, I think that half star is more for me for pulling through this.

(Free ARC from NetGalley and ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op that I chose to review after reading - Cross-posted on Goodreads on December 30th, 2024)

Publishing date: 02.12.2024
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

Usually these kinds of poems do work for me, not this one though. The blurb was fascinating, and I expected something similar in the book itself. Spoiler: It was not similar at all.

Grotesque, direct, and lowkey nasty themes are usually my cup of tea. Not sure what the author used in their blend here, but it wasn't the kind I like. In the blurb it was mentioned that the book would be like "corn". I saw that, but it felt so tasteless. The sentence may start with god and then end with a phallus. This mix of religious imagery with "corn" was just not it.

Sometimes the stream of consciousness writing works well. In this book it reads a little broken and drags on too long. Several poems could be boiled down to a few paragraphs with maybe three sentences each. Instead we get too many commas and too many words.

Final ranking and star rating?
1 star, F tier. This was a big miss. My expectations were not met. Maybe my brain is too small to comprehend the brilliance here. But if there are fellow girls with the same sized brain, don't bother. It won't be what you expect.

DNF at 30% sorry to NetGalley and jay G this poetry book was not enjoyable for me in the slightest - I don’t even thing an editor could save it.

I did not enjoy or even really comprehend whatever this was supposed to be. A jumble of random words doesn’t really make it poetry.

DNF at 19%

I really wanted to like these poems but they held no true meaning to me. There were also many things in this book that I didn't like but I don't want to elaborate. The beginning of the chapter "Low-Hanging Fruit" was my final straw. I couldn't read it anymore.

I loved the flow of the poems, how quick and easy they were to read. With some of them, I wanted to sing them. This author has carefully constructed meaning and depth in their poems. You can tell the author is passionate about growth, solitude, embracing change. It was a really nice change of pace from my usual adult books as well as other books. It's interesting how the author alludes to more meaning in some poems compared to others. This author knows her stuff! Compliments all around.