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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I did not come to this book through Halsey's music. Rather, I stumbled across this book through an app’s suggestion. The truth is that I am always excited when I see artists breach into different genres of performance and art, and I was excited to check out how Halsey performed as a spoken word poet. I did both read and listen to her performance of this collection.
This collection is a solid 2 out of 5 stars. Many other reviews comment that it reads much like “high school poetry,” and as someone who has read a lot of high schooler’s work, it certainly does not. I have read many poems written by teens from ages to 14-18 that I would consider more complex and poetic than Halsey’s work here. I find her use of rhyme jarring. It feels very forced and contrived; it comes off quite similar to someone who is trying to write their very first rap piece.
In terms of word choice: On one hand, I like a lot of the vocabulary choices she uses when creating images and comparisons. She does well with putting together unique analogies. On the other hand, I find her use of swearing predictable and it comes across as a young child swearing for emphasis because they don’t know how to express their emotions through other words.
I would recommend this book to someone who loves Halsey. The subject matter is raw and does provide an insight into a part of Halsey’s life that we do not see in her lyrics and music. I would not recommend this book to someone who is looking for a good book of poetry to read and reflect on.
2 starts. Maybe I would have given it 3 or even 4 when I was younger? Who knows.
This collection is a solid 2 out of 5 stars. Many other reviews comment that it reads much like “high school poetry,” and as someone who has read a lot of high schooler’s work, it certainly does not. I have read many poems written by teens from ages to 14-18 that I would consider more complex and poetic than Halsey’s work here. I find her use of rhyme jarring. It feels very forced and contrived; it comes off quite similar to someone who is trying to write their very first rap piece.
In terms of word choice: On one hand, I like a lot of the vocabulary choices she uses when creating images and comparisons. She does well with putting together unique analogies. On the other hand, I find her use of swearing predictable and it comes across as a young child swearing for emphasis because they don’t know how to express their emotions through other words.
I would recommend this book to someone who loves Halsey. The subject matter is raw and does provide an insight into a part of Halsey’s life that we do not see in her lyrics and music. I would not recommend this book to someone who is looking for a good book of poetry to read and reflect on.
2 starts. Maybe I would have given it 3 or even 4 when I was younger? Who knows.
This was phenomenal! I really love Halsey's writing style, and I loved most of these poems too.
I'll disclaim this with, I do like a lot of Halsey's work. However...
this poetry book was pretty mid in a lot of ways. It didn't help that it seemed to reuse sections of her songs. Wasn't a fan of some ableist language used, and a lot of the poems just didn't seem like much more than forgotten notes app pages.
Some of the poems were a lot more interesting and well crafted, and I enjoyed the rhyming schemes... but there weren't many. I'm glad I didn't buy brand new, coz £17 is a lot of money for a so-so poetry book.
(these are all just my opinions)
this poetry book was pretty mid in a lot of ways. It didn't help that it seemed to reuse sections of her songs. Wasn't a fan of some ableist language used, and a lot of the poems just didn't seem like much more than forgotten notes app pages.
Some of the poems were a lot more interesting and well crafted, and I enjoyed the rhyming schemes... but there weren't many. I'm glad I didn't buy brand new, coz £17 is a lot of money for a so-so poetry book.
(these are all just my opinions)
the ability to capture emotions and different people descriptions is amazing. as a poet myself, i loved this book
“I regret buying you that Kindle.” — My boyfriend, after I showed him a few of the poems in this book. It’s just…not good. It feels like a combination of amateur Tumblr prose, rejected song lyrics, and shock-value edginess. Many of the poems could have stood to be edited further, and others felt immature at best. I can’t imagine this would’ve been published if she weren’t already a well-known singer-songwriter.
I would not recommend this, except maybe to Halsey super fans.
I would not recommend this, except maybe to Halsey super fans.
I love Halsey so so much. Her music, her lyrics, everything about her. But this was… not good. I wanted to take 100+ pages of poems and pick out little lines here and there and make 12 stellar poems out of them, because sometimes it’d be so good, but most of the time it didn’t feel like a solid poetry collection.
2.5/5 stars
2.5/5 stars
Poetry was never really my thing, but this past month I have been reading more, and let me just say Halsey can write incredibly.
Of course I know Halsey as a musical artists, but I was really impressed by her poetry. I believe she does such a great job of crafting her words. I didn't resonate or feel particularly connected to this collection, but overall enjoyed the audio version.