A review by literalottie
Going South by Ella Yelich-O'Connor (Lorde)

informative reflective

4.0

 Yeah, I'm counting this towards my reading goal. I waited almost 8 months for this goddammit.

There's not much I can really "review" here - it's pretty much exactly what was promised - pictures from Lorde's Antarctica trip and a short essay at the beginning which touches on the theme of environmentalism (psst, you can also read the essay in this article). It's well written, and I liked how she discusses the conflict between wanting to protect the environment and wanting to observe and experience it, even when to do so causes damage. The pictures are nice to look at - Antarctica really is a breathtaking landscape. Penguins are also my favourite animal, and there are pictures of penguins in here, so ❤️❤️❤️

As a long-time Lorde stan, I was excited for this to provide more of an insight into the album, but I can't really judge on that until the album actually releases (August 20 can't come soon enough!!). I have a feeling that this isn't really going to be as intertwined with the album as I had originally thought; I think the Antarctica trip just planted the seed for the environmentalism theme that will be one part woven into the whole album, rather than the album actually being directly inspired by the Antarctica trip. Alas, this book is a cool companion piece nonetheless, and I'm glad to have it even just as a collector's item from my favourite artist.