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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I absolutely loved reading this collection of poems. It is a novel in verse really, even an autobiographical novel if you please, which perhaps makes it so much more intimate, and special. It is about the love after coming out as queer. For a woman who has only known how to love men, suddenly falls in love with women, and that's when the storytelling tone changes - the personal also becomes political, and the question of falling in and out of love is not just experiential.
Millner's verse is neat, simple - with all the heartache, the longing, the confusion of falling in love with another woman, and then to explore all levels of love - the obsessive, to fear, to envy, and how to become yourself at the end.
Couplets is about a first queer relationship. The lens is inward, but so much out there for all to see. It is written in couplets, with sections of prose poetry. How do you become queer, and how is the process of seeing yourself as one? How is it to be queer for another? Are you then queer for yourself at all? Millner explores so much and says so little, and says it all at the same time. The brevity of the poems, the subtle nature of the words on paper that refuse to be bracketed and while there is no subjectivity at all, there is a memoir in all of this somewhere. So you get everything - a memoir, a collection of poems, a novel, and to write in the first person.
Couplets is also about memory, of forgetfulness, of loves requited and unrequited, of shared experiences, of how we bond over and over again, while it is a book about two, it is a book about many, about all of us.
Millner's verse is neat, simple - with all the heartache, the longing, the confusion of falling in love with another woman, and then to explore all levels of love - the obsessive, to fear, to envy, and how to become yourself at the end.
Couplets is about a first queer relationship. The lens is inward, but so much out there for all to see. It is written in couplets, with sections of prose poetry. How do you become queer, and how is the process of seeing yourself as one? How is it to be queer for another? Are you then queer for yourself at all? Millner explores so much and says so little, and says it all at the same time. The brevity of the poems, the subtle nature of the words on paper that refuse to be bracketed and while there is no subjectivity at all, there is a memoir in all of this somewhere. So you get everything - a memoir, a collection of poems, a novel, and to write in the first person.
Couplets is also about memory, of forgetfulness, of loves requited and unrequited, of shared experiences, of how we bond over and over again, while it is a book about two, it is a book about many, about all of us.
“The proof of life is in the aching.”
I had high hopes for this one because the premise sounded so intriguing: a love story in verse about an anonymous woman who is in a relationship with a man but finds herself in an affair with a woman she meets at a bar.
The author/poet has a unique style of writing that didn’t work that well for me as there are multiple citations throughout these poems that I thought were often taking me away from the storyline in this specific format.
Also, nothing really happens and it’s a bit on the sad side were we mainly see how complicated and tough relationships can be without the benefits of them.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
I had high hopes for this one because the premise sounded so intriguing: a love story in verse about an anonymous woman who is in a relationship with a man but finds herself in an affair with a woman she meets at a bar.
The author/poet has a unique style of writing that didn’t work that well for me as there are multiple citations throughout these poems that I thought were often taking me away from the storyline in this specific format.
Also, nothing really happens and it’s a bit on the sad side were we mainly see how complicated and tough relationships can be without the benefits of them.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Beautiful, captivating. A love and loss story told through couplets and a few prose poems. I haven't read poetry so quickly in quite some time. Loved the melodic quality of most lines, the slant rhymes, the intriguing ways of describing things.
Authors first book. Short, mostly poems. Broke my lil tender heart with how haunting the recollections were of her past.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Love found me twice, at once. If it never
happens again I’ll still be luckier
than the moon."
happens again I’ll still be luckier
than the moon."
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated