Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Milk and Honey

This came out when I was in high school and even then people were making fun of her. Recently I saw a video of her reading a poem (the one on page 101) and thought it was kinda cute and mostly corny, so I figured like the Brits say "Wot IS all this then?" What's all the hullabaloo, what's all the fuss about, why don't people like her? I should find out for myself.

So anyway I get it. Very corny, very basic, I still think it's a waste of a tree and a waste of paper. But not necessarily a waste of ink... Plenty of the pages are pretty moving. Sometimes basic is resounding and renowned for a reason. Now that I've read this though you can really see the influence she and others like her have had on pop culture in general. Is that good or bad? The answer is yes. (But mostly it's bad.)

I don't like making reviews like this but here I goes. The "poems" aren't really rhythmic or present with the flow of things I usually associate with the term "poetry." Like, yes, arguably a lot of poetry is like this but I personally don't like that. Just because you put several line breaks in something that in any other case would be considered a run on sentence I'm supposed to clap for you? And there are some instances where even when there is a line break it's still a run on sentence? No punctuation at all girl? Not even a comma? An em dash? A semi colon? It's confusing. Pick a struggle.

On a positive note, there's kind of a storyline here. This book couldve been improved if the "poems" weren't placed in the same theme in random order but in a way that better connected them, because it's clear many of the poems are about different people, not just one ex or how that ex connects with a parent or family member. All those people have different feelings and memories attached to them. But alas. Rupi Girl, you'll never be Sandra Cisneros. You'll never be Mitski Miyawaki's Magnificent Musical Melodrama now available on Spotify.

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tinkithesquirelll's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Beutifull work.,

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gracie_samol's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

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miandi's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

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booksdogsandcoffee's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

A beautiful collection of poetry about a south Asian women, her resilience, strength and stories. I loved listening to the audio it had such power and emotion with the author reading it. This book is so important, especially right now. Talking about women's experience more importantly poc women and their experience with sexual assault, trauma, and the world are things we need to listen to and raise up. There are so many amazing quotes from this here are a few of my favorites. I also highly suggest listening to this. The author reads in spoken word, and imo it makes it so powerful.

“Other women’s bodies are not our battle grounds.”

“How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.”

“Your love is the love that makes all other loves irrelevant”

“I am hopelessly a lover and a dreamer, and that will be the death of me”

“The abused and the abuser, I have been both.”

“Do not beg for what does not want to stay.”

“It is a part of the human experience to feel pain, do not be afraid. Open yourself to it.”

“Who tricked you into believing you need another person to complete you?”

“To be soft is to be powerful.”

Cw/tw

Genocide,

loss,

refugees,

rape,

torture

alcoholic,

abusive parent,

under age rape,

toxic relationship,

toxic family,

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itsmeyseniab's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you

I loved how this first collection by Rupi Kaur was split into four chapters: "the hurting," "the loving," "the breaking," and "the healing" - it added another layer to the storytelling as well as showing Rupi's personal growth (that I very much connected with personally). The first chapter was extremely difficult to read and I would not recommend this collection to anyone who may be triggered by topics including assault, toxic relationships and abuse. That being said, the final two chapters (the breaking and the healing) are what made this a four star read for me - ultimately this collection tells the story of a young woman learning to love herself and to never make herself feel small for the sake of others, a sentiment that I think needs to be more prominent in media today.

Although I enjoyed the overall purpose of this collection, I will say the writing itself was just okay. There were some poems that were very heavy and thought-provoking, while others came off as being "filler". I would've liked to see the collection a little bit shorter, but overall I think this is a good collection for anyone looking to get into poetry for the first time.

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lizziertaft's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

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