Thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not really a poetry girl but I automatically request anything Classics related, no matter how tenuous the link.

The book was a mix of reflections, self-help ponderings and affirmations about topics as varied as desire, lost love, abuse, LGBT issues and sexual assault that all came together into something rather beautiful and powerful.

The Aphrodite parts were the standout for me but overall I just really enjoyed this although I'm a total newbie when it comes to poetry.

It’s a first-time reviewing poetry on this platform for me. However, I am more than happy than it is with Trista Mateer’s poetry. Her book, Aphrodite made me do it, intertwines the story of the goddess of love with the one of every and each woman. Through it, you discover how to survives the world and how to heal from wounds older than you, such as injustice made to women and discrimination, abuse, fear of rejection or heartbreak.Essentially, what is surprising and what really resonates with me in the writing is this ambition to write the common and the daily life as sacred spaces and moments, as many possibilities to found yourself and to heal. The real world, just as the world of myths and goddesses, becomes important and magical, sublimed by the person who live in it.
By unraveling the story of Aphrodite, Trista Mateer wants to show how empowering taking back your own narrative can be. She interrogates, meddling with past and present, ancient and resolutely modern, how history is rewritten by the “victorious” and the ones who benefit from the power dynamic.

I’ve read most of the books written by Trista Matter and “Aphrodite made me do it” is my favourite of all.

It’s a beautiful collection of poetry and prose and reading it feels like checking the author’s art journal, because it has illustrations and photos with messages... and it’s so gorgeous!

And I love how it deals with topics such as feminism, body image, sexual assault, abuse, queerphobia, trauma, healing and self care.

WONDERFUL. I'm not sure this collection of poetry will be for everyone but for me it was great. I think sometimes poetry falls into our hands at the exact moment we need it. I LOVED this whole collection and the images just enhanced the experience. Aphrodite Made Me Do It deals with a lot of tough topics in a beautiful way.

A wonderfully magical collection of poetry and prose!
Mateer manages to not only re-write Aphrodite in the modern lens but gives her a voice so powerful and succinct I found myself highlighting phrases of the book every two seconds.

This read was beautifully written and made me as reader pause and soak in every word. I truly enjoyed this author's writing style and look forward to seeing her name more in the future.

The writing didn’t mesh well with me. I found myself getting utterly lost in the text and not in a good way. Should’ve went through at least another round of edits. But the actual premise was interesting.

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I want to give young, new poets a chance and I am always looking for new talent, but every time I try them out, I end up disappointed. I think it's great that so many people can turn to writing to express their thoughts, heal from their pasts, and fight for social justices. But this new wave of poets and their poetry seem to read more like diary entries or Instagram posts than poems.

<i>I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.</i>

I’m usually torn when it comes to modern day free verse poetry, and this collection is no exception.

On the one hand, I mean, just look at it and read the synopsis. It features thoughtful utterances about personal growth, trauma, and loving yourself and others, presented in parallel with the myth of Aphrodite and in conversation with her, which is such a cool concept (I’m a big mythology nerd so giving Aphrodite her own voice for once is really nice). The book also features some very nice art work in a sort of scrapbook style, which I really liked. The collection is also in part the author's vehicle for expressing herself and reflecting on her experiences, feelings, and traumas, which she does admirably. The themes that she talks about are highly personal and relate mostly to her own life, but are also universal in a way, meaning that many people will relate to at least parts of the work and recognise themselves in the verse.

On the other hand, the poetry itself feels a little contrived and perfectly fits the mold of pseudo-psychological self-care posts online that are written in a kind of internet poetry format, which I (an English literature student fairly uninitiated in modern poetry) struggle to truly appreciate in the way it probably deserves. I know that this type of poetry is very popular online and among millenials and this is the way in which the poet has chosen to express herself and I respect that, but it just doesn’t speak to me that much. I guess that when it comes to poetry, I am still quite an inexperienced and conservative reader. Additionally, although the themes seem universal (i.e. love, abuse, anger, heartache, etc), they are just not universal for me. These are not generally topics that I relate to, though that is certainly more to do with me than with the author or this collection. I am just not exactly the right person for this book.There are many people that I think this book will be perfect for and that will relate to it and adore it, but I am not one of them.

Having said that, there are some poems and parts of the collection that I enjoyed very much. I adored ‘modern hymn for myself’ and the entire three of cups section that followed. I made a bunch of screenshots of sentences and poems that spoke to me or that I thought were particularly interesting, just so that I can easily find them again. As I mentioned before, I also really liked the art pages that were interspersed throughout the book. Overall then, this was a pleasant and quick read, although my enjoyment of it was somewhat diminished by my inability to fully relate to and appreciate both the format and the subject matter.

<b>3.5 out of 5 stars</b>

i adore this poetry collection so much. i didn’t personally relate to everything that was talked about, but so many parts hit me hard. it was beautiful - the writing, the imagery, all of it

it's soft yet fierce writing, and somehow exactly what i needed right now. i dont even know how to properly review this but i loved it and thats all that really matters tbh

i also just realized this is the same author who wrote honeybee which i also loved, so basically i can say that i love and adore trista mateer’s writing

This is a gorgeous poetry collection. I can't wait to buy the physical book.
I love the author's style of poetry, this one hit hard for me.
I can't wait to read more from them.

As a poetry fan, I was excited about this collection, and it did not let me down. There is a lot of pain in these words, but in that cathartic way that poetry has about it. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and full of love all at the same time, and I suppose that is to be expected from a book that invokes the goddess of love right in the title. This is the sort of book that will rip you apart and put you together again, and I'll be shocked if it's not a one-sitting read for most people. The poems will reach straight into your heart and worm their way in so you will never truly be free of them again. And you wouldn't want to be.

I gave this a 2.5 rating. I loved the imagery and the photos in the book. But I felt like the poetry/story line wasn't flowing together well. It was sort of jumbled up in a self care, my rape story, love is what everyone wants, romance is dead mess. Although I appreciate what the author was trying to do, I just had a hard time connecting with this one.

This book was INCREDIBLE. It spoke directly to my heart as a woman, a feminist, a reader, as a woman. For a shorter poetry collection, it contains so much power and strength. Fans of Greek mythology and the Gurlesque aesthetic of poetry will LOVE this book. It reminded me of a cross between Matthea Harvey and Danielle Pafunda. The illustrations and artwork are gorgeous and truly help to set a mood for reading. The relationship between The Poet and Aphrodite is done in such a way that, while distinct voices as characters, they often blend into an ethereal everywoman. (Fans of Madeleine Miller's CIRCE will definitely love these poems!) This is a collection I will happily return to again and again to find new depths. The best collection I've read in quite some time.

Aphrodite Made Me Do It is a beautiful, honest, raw collection of poems written both from the poet’s perspective as well as “Aphrodite’s”. They comment on their experiences with men and touch upon extremely sensitive topics that are unfortunately quite relatable to many people, so please be cautious of trigger warnings before reading this. There are also poems about less sensitive things like love, both with another and with(in) yourself.

Mateer truly impressed me with this stream-of-consciousness approach to poetry and I found a lot of these poems resonating deeper than I anticipated them to. Their writing reminded me of things I’ve written in my own journal and it was healing to know that I am not alone in some of my personal feelings on things.

I enjoyed this very much and I recommend it to people, but especially women, who are looking to self-assess, heal, and work toward self-love.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, or how much I would enjoy it, as I don’t often read poetry. In fact, I didn’t enjoy much poetry when I did my English Literature degree, but I’ve come to realise that I don’t hate poetry, it’s just a matter of finding the words that sing to you.

This book has a varied style, with some written in more poetic form and other sections written in more of a prose style. The mixture makes it more accessible, and although I personally would have enjoyed more of the fragmented poetry sections, I think this does give it appeal to a wider audience. You don’t have to like poetry to like this book.

The topics covered are very relatable, put in simple terms that everyone can understand, but those words are put together in a beautifully lyrical way. Subject matter such as body image, assault, love, coming out, abuse and family are all explored in a very honest way. Using mythology as a way to tell the story and explore the themes of the book was an interesting and effective choice. It does help that I’ve always had an interest in mythology. Aphrodite is given a voice and the book gives an interesting perspective on how the love goddess is represented in literature and culture.

It was a very quick read, and I almost wished there had been more (which I guess is a good thing), but at the same time it is nice to read something compact for a change. There is certainly an encouragement for self-care and healing, and I did feel uplifted having finished it.

The experience of this book would be even better in paperback, and I would urge you to get a hard copy of this book rather than an ebook. There are illustrations interspersed through the poetry, and I would have loved to be able to see them in colour and the words all laid out on the page as intended.

Even if you think poetry isn’t your thing, I would encourage you to give this book a go!

*Received via NetGalley for review*

An interesting premise, but it felt very amateur. The interspersed photos, the discussion of sexuality and gender, the handwritten portions - it all felt clunky and like I was reading someone's actual journal rather than something ready for publication.
The formatting wasn't exactly there (maybe my fault for reading the Kindle edition).

It was like reading someone’s personal journal as they move through healing from their trauma, whether inflicted by themselves or others. There are two "main characters": the poet, writing about her own experience with love and life, and Aphrodite, talking about her own life and giving advice/having a conversation with the poet. We are enough is the message in this poetry, no matter your trauma, family history or romantic relationship history As far as the themes of women empowerment and self-love and self-care... these are topics that we can never get enough. Told in poetry and prose, Aphrodite Made Me Do It is a beautiful collection of work. It's raw and powerful, encompassing the perspectives of both the goddess and the poet relevant pictures that are beautiful and empowering

Part autobiographical, part self-help, and part exploration of Greek mythology through the lens of the titular Aphrodite, Trista Mateer's brand-new feminist poetry/prose/art collection is a story of assault and survival, depression and joy, despair and desire, introspection and discovery. Fierce, angry, and ultimately hopeful, Aphrodite Made Me Do It shines a light on society's issues while still promising that there is hope.

Welcome Back,

Being totally 100% honest I have not read a lot of poetry collections of poetry in general. As a kid, I loved those Shel Silverstein books that were his big bind ups of his poetry works and they were fun silly poems. I would check them out of the library again and again. As I have gotten older I have had more of an interest in reading more poetry and have put the Princess Saves Herself in This One and others on my Amazon book wish list (meaning I will purchase them at some point). But other than this I really have not had much experience with poetry as a whole. Recently, on Netgalley I was given a copy of Aphrodite Made Me Do It in exchange for an honest review. So I was really excited to get to finally try some more poetry.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In this poetry collection, the authors uses a lot of imagery both with pictures and words to create not only empowering poems but empowering images that tell a story. Now I am not sure if this story is about the author but I will say a lot of these poems were very empowering and amazing and helped to feel like it was okay to let go of things. Also, the illustrations in this collection weather they were just images or images with a mix of words were probably my favorite thing. If I could I would literally get prints of these for my home. I felt like the images spoke so loudly about the poems, the author, and important things in today's world that maybe I have felt or greatly understood at some point in my life. Overall, I really enjoyed this poetry collection, and I have already gone back and looked at some of the images again. I am definitely giving this five stars on Goodreads. Also, I am sorry if this review seems a little scattered compared to normal, I did not want to say too much or too little but I did want to express how much I truly enjoyed this.


**Received an ARC in Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.