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erikabee's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
I don’t think it’s bad, overall, but I don’t feel like it reads as poetry. While some “poems” are inspiring and resonated with me, and you can tell Rupo Kaur really put a lot of raw and vulnerable stories in here, some things read as just cliché words of wisdom. There doesn’t appear to be any structure and minimal flow to the poems, which make it awkward to read, but I still enjoyed and bookmarked pieces where the message was really thoughtful and impactful for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Body shaming, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Sexism
honeyandthyme's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
1.5
Before my review, I want to state how upsetting I find it that most 5 star reviews of this book come with no justification. While of course it's natural for others to have loved this book when I (clearly) wasn't a fan, I find this an unfair skew of the book to be a higher rating than it truly deserves and I question why many folks scored it so high without any explanation. If they loved it, I would have loved to have known why before I picked this up.
In the interest of full transparency for this review, I had to skip much of the first section due to some of the subject matters (which I have added content warnings for). I am no-one to critique the way an author describes and processes their lived experiences; these were their stories to tell and should be inherently respected as such. However, for the readers consuming these narratives, I want to caution that the author is quite blunt and raw in (what I personally found to be) an extremely upsetting way regarding some very difficult topics. This is definitely on me for not checking out the content warnings before picking this up; usually I am able to manage reading even graphic content, but found Rupi Kaur’s poems to be particularly distressing.
In poetry, we find both the beautiful and the ugly, and this work felt mostly ugly and dirty, despite the last three sections being significantly less triggering. Perhaps that is the magic of the book which draws readers to it. For me, this poetry collection was difficult to read not only for the topics, but for the writing style. This may be a personal preference, but when I read poetry of this type, I want to experience large or difficult topics in an intimate way. In a sense, to feel the author is beside you, sharing a deeply personal story. This book managed to be strikingly distressing without reaching the intimacy of a personal narrative.
The writing style is, in my opinion (and I am no expert), choppy, disorganized, and frustratingly short. Because many poems were 3-6 lines (at only a few words per line), the author was very blunt in their delivery. This could have been excellent with more thoughtful word choice, but instead it feels like they took a simple statement and chopped it into lines and called it poetry.
This book was not at all my cup of tea, but I can see how others might enjoy it more. Some poems were incredibly poignant, managing to capture the senses and leave me resting on the page many minutes after I’d finished the last line. I also appreciated the incorporation of line drawings and feel they added to the work - no easy feat to accomplish. It also discussed certain s*xual acts with a tone which felt both normal and refreshing - like it wasn’t a sin - while using them to make a greater point (i.e. not shock value but commentary).
In the interest of full transparency for this review, I had to skip much of the first section due to some of the subject matters (which I have added content warnings for). I am no-one to critique the way an author describes and processes their lived experiences; these were their stories to tell and should be inherently respected as such. However, for the readers consuming these narratives, I want to caution that the author is quite blunt and raw in (what I personally found to be) an extremely upsetting way regarding some very difficult topics. This is definitely on me for not checking out the content warnings before picking this up; usually I am able to manage reading even graphic content, but found Rupi Kaur’s poems to be particularly distressing.
In poetry, we find both the beautiful and the ugly, and this work felt mostly ugly and dirty, despite the last three sections being significantly less triggering. Perhaps that is the magic of the book which draws readers to it. For me, this poetry collection was difficult to read not only for the topics, but for the writing style. This may be a personal preference, but when I read poetry of this type, I want to experience large or difficult topics in an intimate way. In a sense, to feel the author is beside you, sharing a deeply personal story. This book managed to be strikingly distressing without reaching the intimacy of a personal narrative.
The writing style is, in my opinion (and I am no expert), choppy, disorganized, and frustratingly short. Because many poems were 3-6 lines (at only a few words per line), the author was very blunt in their delivery. This could have been excellent with more thoughtful word choice, but instead it feels like they took a simple statement and chopped it into lines and called it poetry.
This book was not at all my cup of tea, but I can see how others might enjoy it more. Some poems were incredibly poignant, managing to capture the senses and leave me resting on the page many minutes after I’d finished the last line. I also appreciated the incorporation of line drawings and feel they added to the work - no easy feat to accomplish. It also discussed certain s*xual acts with a tone which felt both normal and refreshing - like it wasn’t a sin - while using them to make a greater point (i.e. not shock value but commentary).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
hollywood's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
quotable quotes
maybe
I don't get poetry
and
these poems are just
words
randomly separated
by hitting enter
maybe
I don't get poetry
and
these poems are just
words
randomly separated
by hitting enter
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse and Rape
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