sonja_ahrb 's review for:

5.0
dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

While I do read the occasional poetry collection during the year, I do most of my poetry reading at the end of the year and the end of 2023 was no different. So naturally Amazon was recommending me poetry books and pretty soon after it came out in November, Pretty Boys Are Poisonous showed up in one of my Amazon cues. I noticed the cover right away along with that title and I was immediately interested in it! And then I saw it was by Megan Fox and I was thinking, “Megan Fox? THE Megan Fox? No, it’s probably a different Megan Fox.” I know how silly that is, but I hadn’t heard that Megan Fox was coming out with any book, let alone a book of poems. Anyway, I clicked on the book to see and as soon as I saw that it was indeed her, I was even more excited to read it than I already had been before I saw her name on it!

I would’ve read it straight away, but my Libby library didn’t have it and look, I really like Megan Fox, but I can’t be out here dropping $13.99 on a book when I already have to pay $11 every month for Kindle Unlimited and Apple Music. So my online library was really my only option and unfortunately you can’t request books on there anymore, but you can get notified if they do get a book you’re interested in and that’s what I did. I still checked for it periodically even though I knew I’d get a notification. Once I got some new library cards, I did get notified that some libraries had it, but only the audio was available and I’m not opposed to audiobooks, but I do generally prefer to read the physical book/ebook. I was checking recently to see if it was available and I saw that it would be soon, so I decided to place a hold on it. I know I could have done that from the beginning, but I have hang ups about holds because I worry that it’ll be my time to get the book and I’m just not in the mood to read it, but I feel like I have to since I waited so long to get it and more people after me really want it as well, so I usually avoid holds because I don’t need all that pressure in my life. I know it’s really silly and I don’t know why my brain works that way — it just does. However, I’ve been really good about actually reading my library books lately and since I was sure it wouldn’t be too long before it was available anyway, I figured the hold couldn’t hurt. And literally maybe an hour or two after I placed my hold, it was available!

I didn’t dive in right away because I had another book to finish, but I started Pretty Boys Are Poisonous right after I finished that book and my review for it and I loved this collection right away! I loved it from Megan Fox’s note at the beginning to all the poems within this collection! She is a very talented writer and her poems are visceral and devastating and so full of emotion. They’re beautiful in their heartbreak and truth. It’s one of my favorite books of poetry that I’ve ever read and I know I just talked about how I can’t be out here buying $13.99 books, but pretty quickly after I started Pretty Boys Are Poisonous, I did want to buy it so I could always have it whenever I wanted. While I didn’t actually buy it in that moment, I do one hundred percent want my own copy of this book someday.

So if you’re on the fence about whether or not to read this because you’re unsure about Megan Fox or if it will be any good, it is most definitely worth the read, though be warned that there is very dark subject matter, so take care. Pretty Boys Are Poisonous was just incredible and I really want the best for Megan Fox and I hope she does write more because she has a real talent for it!