I'm not nineteen anymore...

Book Review: Nineteen by Makenzie Campbell
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Central Avenue Publishing
Release Date: 3rd March, 2020

Heartbreak. A topic that feels like it's been done to death. Can you still write about a break up, or losing someone in an original way? Or, maybe I'm now at an age where I've read a lot about it. I suppose at nineteen it's all still relatively new.

With that being said, it's important to note, before I review this book - I am not nineteen. You can add ten years to that and come somewhat close to my age. Therefore, this book is not something I feel I can relate to anymore, and honestly, it didn't evoke any feelings of the past.

Some areas of the poet's thoughts do come across as melodramatic and 'oh woe is me', but again, that's probably my bias because I'm not in the midst of teenage heartache. Really, I'm probably just bitter that I'm no longer nineteen, and I don't want to admit or accept that I'm getting old.

You may have guessed that the title; Nineteen reflects the poet's age when she wrote the book. It is about a specific time in a young person's life; a transition in to adulthood. Described as covering topics such as, 'heartbreak, love, loss, war, peace and healing' it seems that everyone should be able to relate. However, for me, that time has passed.

In order to find some connection with the poetry I did try to recall how I felt during a particularly difficult break-up. At twenty years old I remember that it felt dramatic at the time, but then the poet says she had, 'been in your life for months' and I can't help but cringe at the childishness. I think how I was with my teenage boyfriend for years.

Moving away from the subject matter, the book itself is well written. I would consider it more prose than poetry. It is a stream of consciousness; all the thoughts and feelings are poured onto the page. Saying that, this can make the structure erratic; the poet it flitting from one idea to the next without completing the thought. One minute she is discussing the metaphor of being in the 'passenger seat', therefore not feeling in control. The next sentence is a jarring turn to astrology.

Towards the end of the narrative we do revisit the car metaphor as she finds new love and becomes 'the driver'. It's that familiar, yet heart-warming message that all the broken hearted need to hear, 'you broke me in the worst way, but this pain bloomed into a blessing'; everything will be okay in the end. You could say it's an over-used trope, but at some point I guess it's something we all needed to hear, even if we didn't believe it at the time.

Obviously, poetry is a personal form of expressing an experience. I imagine it was very therapeutic to write. If you are living heartbreak right now and want to embrace and wallow in it, then this book could be for you.

Thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this e-arc.

This poetry collection was about loss, healing and finding your place in the world. I didn't really relate to the collection but I still loved these poems, Campbells poetry is soso beautiful and now I really want to get my hands on 2am thoughts!
There were many very inspiring poems on growth and healing which I wrote down quotes for! Overrall I feel very grateful that I was able to read an arc of this from NetGalley before it's release date, which is 3rd March 2020!
The only problem I had was the quality on my kindle, I struggled to tell where poems ended and started but apart from that I had an amazing experience with this poetry collection!

I don’t real a lot of poetry. I was excited to be able to read this book of poetry. It was very interesting.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Nineteen is a collection of poetry and prose written by Mackenzie Campbell, titled after the age at which she wrote it.

Overall, the writing was done well, especially for such a young author. My main problem was just that it didn’t evoke the emotion in me that is so critical for my enjoyment of poetry.

Modern poetry gets a bad rep, and I don’t want to be that person who reads it for the sake of hating and bashing it-condensing a whole genre into a single one star review. I want to preface this by saying that poetry is subjective and personal, which is part of the reason why I love it so much! Unfortunately, that makes it harder to find works I love- but when I do, it is like finding a diamond in the rough and very satisfying. My favourite of which so far being ‘Aphrodite Made Me Do It’ by Trista Mateer. (ironically heavily featuring some of things I say later in this review I don't like, primarily being narrated by the goddess of love herself.)

I am beginning to discover what works for me and what doesn't in modern poetry.
I have found that for me to enjoy poetry, it needs to have grit and depth. As a general rule that I don’t find poems centred around love, heartache or betrayal to hit the hardest. Instead, those focused on families, nostalgia, regrets, change and life lessons seem to be my favourite.

For example, the beginning of a poem from this collection that I loved with nostalgia as a main theme:

“Soon enough you’ll be thirty and wondering how the hell you got from here to there. You’ll look back at old pictures and swear that was just yesterday and then realise that yesterday was ten years ago."

But one I didn’t, focused on heartbreak was:

"You fool me each and every time into thinking you care
That maybe this time we could be the perfect pair
But then you open my message and don’t reply and leave me just wondering why…
I’m undeserving of love."

To me, this poem feels melodramatic, but lacking emotion. A strange combination I know, but that sums up my feelings for most of 'Nineteen'

Additionally, I tend to like longer poems as opposed to shorter.
Here are some examples of short ones that didn't connect with me.
Your smile is a
delicacy”

or

“I am enamoured
by the complexity
of your personality.”

Just because you click the enter button a couple of times does not turn a sentence into poetry. Again, I want to reiterate that poetry is a subjective thing, and if you find some hidden meaning in those words or it resonates with you- Im happy for you! To me though, they seem quite surface level and lazy.

I find it difficult to rate poetry, so I tend to go by how many poems I highlighted, that stood out to me. I think it is quite telling that I only highlighted 5. For context, this book is almost 200 pages with the majority of poems being on one page each.

I would still recommend this if you don't have some of the same problems I do- as it was objectively well done.

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing for this ARC

Release Date: 3 March 2020

This book is hauntingly beautiful, and was such a heartwrenching read. The prose is delicate in a way that somehow also gets at some of the darkest, truest, hardest aspects of being a person who has known heartbreak. Though this is a small collection, it took me a while to page my way through due to its density and depth. I highly recommend this collection for anyone who has known the pain of love gone awry, who is looking to feel seen and heard.

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Nineteen, is thought provoking, wonderful collection of poems that are incredibly raw.
The writing is emotionally charged and the stanzas were perfectly divided. Allowing the reader to glimpse Campbell’s inter most thoughts, as she is overcoming some personal struggles of heartbreak and sorrow. Also it dives into the a young woman’s transitioning into adulthood, and the overwhelming feelings that come with maturity.


. #Nineteen #NetGalley

Absolutely loved reading this! I definitely need to read 2am Thoughts.
Each poem begged me to read the next and all told a story that I could relate to.

I was really disappointed in this poetry collection. I personally like short poems and these were really long. Also the format made it hard to tell were one poem ends and another begins. The poems weren't all that different from ones that I've read in other poetry collections.

Very beautifully written poetry. Focuses on depression, anxiety and the light that can come from the positive relationships in your life, and in turn the devastation when those that are impactful on us fail us. Cannot wait to check out the authors other book.

Page 6 and I was already on the verge of tears.

THIS! This book made me a kinda way I haven't felt in a while.

Transitioning into adulthood, for some people, it a very difficult experience and a time of lonliness, self doubt and a whole lot of other things.

Nineteen by Makenzie Campbell made me feel like it is perfectly fine to feel these sort of things, and that everything will be okay in the end. Keep wondering through the dark for the light is coming closer.

I would strongly reccommend this for anyone who is looking for reassurance and for something down to earth and relatable.

As a nineteen-year-old, I really enjoyed this collection of poems. The author is looking back at nineteen which makes me more appreciative of where I am in life. There's also plenty of stories of heartbreak and romance and introspection
The only reason I didn't give this a full 5 stars was because I found a lot of it to be similar to other poems I have been reading so it simply didn't repeat a lot of insight that I have already read. However, it goes to show how similar human nature and human experiences are which is valuable in understanding that despite our unique circumstances, there are other people who understand.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Expected Release date: March 3rd 2020

Nineteen is a collection of poetry which deals with love, heartbreak and personal contemporary issues. This is the first collection of Campbell’s I’ve read, and I’m still fresh to reading poetry since I only started seeking it out mid last year. But I have always found it hard to rate poetry; it has so many different parts and is so personal. It’s so different from a novel. But I’ll try my hardest to highlight parts I think need discussing.

Firstly, the title. This collection is named after the age Makenzie Campbell was when writing the book. As someone who finds naming books difficult, I think this is so cool and just inventive, it fits well and is easy to remember. Additionally, the way Campbell categorises the poems in the collection is something I really like. These are placed into the following separations: ‘THE BEDROOM’, ‘THE CAR (THE PASSENGER’S SEAT)’, ‘THE SHOWER’, ‘THE PARK’, ‘THE COFFEE SHOP’, ‘THE CAR (THE DRIVER’S SEAT’)’. I’m always a fan of this in any collection, but in Nineteen I’m impressed by the way they all connect and how the two car ones show development and the change of power. At the end of each poem is also an illustration which fits the poem. This is an addition I also enjoy in poetry since it just adds an extra layer and just makes it more unique. Something I enjoyed in the collection was Campbell’s use of images. Within her poems she uses something such as ‘birds’ or ‘eviction notice’ and then will use a lexical field to link this image over her poem. I just found these clever and enjoyable. As well as this there were certain lines that really stood out and I loved, like ‘I have wasted too many years picking daisies, plucking the “He loves me” and “He loves me not” from them.’, which shows she has a future in poetry that I would like to follow.

However, there are some things about this collection that I didn’t like as much. I noticed that Campbell seems to improve throughout the book, which shows development and poems that stand out. But it also creates a sense of inconsistency and that maybe the first few poems weren’t edited as much. There were also parts I found worded weirdly, but this might have just been my preference (since poetry is very subjective). Another thing I noticed was that even though the poems were separated into sections, each poem didn’t have a title. Titles are very important for poems and without them it created confusion. Another thing Campbell didn’t utilise was structure and this created confusion again, making me have to reread parts. Structure could have added another layer and impact to the poem, instead it was an opportunity missed. But I’m unsure if these issues were just part of my arc process. Finally I found that within poems Campbell would seem to jump across ideas. The poem would start with one thing then change halfway through to something different. Yet both parts were interesting and enjoyable, I just feel they should have been separated since it was confusing and jarring.

I’m very grateful for receiving this arc and having the opportunity to widen my poetry knowledge, since it’s a genre I’m interested in. Campbell has a lot of promise and dedication that can already be seen, which is even more impressive at her age. Overall, I enjoyed this collection and I look forward to see her growth and development in the future.

I've been reading quite a bit of poetry lately and even though I did enjoy Nineteen, it didn't provoke much emotion from me. I thought the poems were really good for the most part but they seemed more like slam poetry and it didn't translate to the page and to me like they probably would have it they were read aloud, slam poetry style.
Overall, I appreciate the personal story told within Nineteen and enjoyed most of the poems, however, I think they would translate verbally much better than on paper.

I loved this anthology so much. It perfectly told the story of someone in love who had a bad break up trying to move on and it was amazing. I would recommend this to anyone.

3/5 stars. Thank you Central Avenue Publishing for approving this eARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely not what I was expecting but in a good way. Most poetry books I've read are like long and short poems, the short ones being the most meaningful to me but I surprisingly found that Nineteen was more like a collection of short stories written in prose and poems. A very emotional journey in every one of them, with some being very relatable to my life and hitting the same notes I wanted and I hope others would want to read - for contemplation and reflection.

The pictures felt a little unnecessary to me but it was an added touch that will probably enhance the reading experience with a physical copy. Some things I didn't enjoy was that some of the stories seemed a little stereotypical to tropes and other poems I have previously read but as well, it's a personal journey for the author as well. It also didn't seem to have great structure; not sure whether it was how it was formatted as an ebook that it looked weird on my kindle but it definitely felt more like short stories and was sometimes visually confusing. I'm sure the physical copy will have a much better layout, as a designer I can't help but notice these things.

Overall, pretty enjoyable but not something I'd pick up traditionally when it comes to poetry.

Unfortunately I was not able to get into this collection of poems. It probably is because I am not the target audience or age group. The writing felt juvenile and I really couldnt rela to the adolescent feelings/thoughts.

Social media like IG have really got me into poetry these days so I enjoyed this. The different categories were great and it was nice to see a bunch of poems in one book no matter the length of them.

First of all, thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for granting my wish and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


I don't always get along with poetry - it's something that goes back to middle school. But there was something in the blurb of "Nineteen" that got my attention and I'm so glad I could read it before its release - so here I am, hoping to convince you all to give it a chance.

Since I read an eARC I don't know if there's gonna be changes, but I liked the mix between poetry and prose.
I liked how different situations and different "places" inside the book created a story - from the sadness to the getting back on your feet.

I also liked how the perspective seemed to change: sometimes it's the person telling you the story the one being left behind, sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes it's them speaking to reader, sometimes it looks like the reader is the one consoling the narrator. And I loved the moment when the narrator says they're 28 and it seems like they're speaking to their nineteen selves.
It resonated with me - I underlined maybe the 75% of the book.

It was everything I thought when I was that age, it was everything I understood years later - it was everything I wrote in my diary and on my blog for years.
Heartbreaking, the loss of someone, the end of a relationship, the moment you start to live and love again - you sure can't help feeling involved and overwhelmed.

I am utterly amazed by Makenzie's poetry and her upcoming Nineteen title is no exception. I absolutely loved it, related to it, and fans of her previous works would enjoy this as well.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Now I don't read much poetry but after diving into Nineteen I'm thinking that I should. This entire book was filled with inspirational and thought-provoking poems. Each part was utterly breathtaking and eye-opening. Not going to lie, I took my sweet time devouring each word (even if I read it within a couple of hours). I am still thinking about what I read during this very moment.

It was beautiful to read about healing, growth, and hopefulness. I haven't gone through all things that were this personal.. but my heart definitely felt like I did. In the end, I was oddly satisfied by everything within this book.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, I will definitely look into reading more poetry throughout my life - starting now.