Reviews

Aphrodite Made Me Do It, by Trista Mateer

anujab's review

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3.0

2 stars for content and 1 star for the artwork

viajentreletras's review

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3.0

This is the second poetry book I read from Trista and I liked it more than the first one.

milsss's review

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4.0

“They made a monster of Medusa as well. Hated how loud her trauma was. (…)
They made a war-ground of her body, so she made one of theirs”
For someone who isn’t used to reading poetry this book was really easy to get through while it covered many complex subjects such as love, hate, sexual assault and the understanding and acceptance of oneself.

maryann_victoria's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

gracesbookshelves's review

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4.0

I didn’t forget how to fight for myself.
I forgot that I could.


After a little time, men did what they always do. They didn’t try to
understand, they tried to explain.


Where people don’t think my sexuality is a phase unless I can produce a girlfriend
on command.


Wow. I really don't read poetry a bunch, but I am trying to get into it more and this is a amazing start. I started reading this collection and I could not put it down. It really hit home for me. Beautiful. 4 stars!

harridrake's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

papasquish's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

I’ve been trying to expand what I read, and this is my first foray into reading poetry in 2023. I’ll admit I am not a big fan of poetry, but this seemed like a good book to get more into poetry. I was sadly mistaken.
To be fair, I should have read the summary more carefully because then I would have seen the word “instapoetry”, which perfectly describes everything wrong this this book. The book reads more as a bunch of motivational quotes strung together. Thus, it lacks a lot of emotion and depth that I thought it would have. 
Also, a lot of the poems in the book seemed so incredibly lazy. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I was reading the diary of a middle schooler who is active on tumbler, but unfortunately this is the work of a grown women who spent too much time on a “poem” that is just a list of items that make the author unhappy. 
The book isn’t all bad though. Some of the artwork was nice to look at, and there were some statements that I agreed with. Unfortunately, this is not enough to save this dumpster fire of a book. Maybe the state of poetry will fare better once instapoetry wanes in popularity, but that is unlikely to happen in the near future.

squirrelbrain3's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

"Can my art be a healing thing if I only write about my trauma and not my joy?"

This poetry collection made me feel so seen. I absolutely adored the way she wove the character of Aphrodite throughout the collection to make it more cohesive. This poetry explores what life is like for women and LGBTQIA+ in our patriarchal, heteronormative society. Check storygraph for trigger warnings, as it does cover some really sensitive topics. But this was a really powerful feminist read. Strongly suggest.

venti's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

okay

fengxin's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.75