three stars only because i've had bad days and i cried. i liked the style, but the content was not what i expected. i don't know if i would liked it if i was not sad when i read it.

A heartfelt and empowering compilation of poems told to her younger self, Letters to the Person I Was offers words of wisdom to herself experiencing heartwrenching past events.  Though I appreciated the sentimentality (especially the diary-esque dating system of the poetry), I wasn't too personally crazy about the content.  It was nice and sweet, but it didn't totally do it for me--though that  might have also been because of the typeface, which I wasn't too crazy about either.  I did enjoy, however, the manner in which the poetry was broken up.  Though still chronological as a whole in this book, each section broke apart the more painful to the more hopeful, and that I felt was a good, aspirational move.

letters to the person i was by Sana Abuleil is a collection of poetry born of a responsibility to convey that whatever the circumstances we currently find ourselves in, life is, ultimately, always worth living.

The verses flowed through my consciousness and many resonated on a deeply profound level. This is a substantive collection that is worthy of the time invested in ruminating on each beautiful word.

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this ARC.

This book is exactly what it says on the tin - letters/poems the author is writing to younger iterations of herself - and yet it's exactly this that confused me while reading it and makes me not really know how to review it now.

First off, I'm unsure about how I feel about calling chopped-off sentences with no real rhyme or structure (yes, yes, free verse) poetry, but I do sometimes find them effective, both in this book and in general.

It was more the content that made me unsure of who this was meant for and where it was all going. The letters are sorted chronologically, but some of the earlier ones seem a bit too heavy to be messages to a 12-year-old girl (or maybe I'm just insensitive and underestimating kids?). They were deeply personal but also frustratingly abstract (is this a cop-out? or is it art?). They were, after a while, slightly repetitive, and uniformly depressing - and then, at later points in the book, extremely self-aware. ("my poems are all / starting to sound the same / they blur into each other")

And, somehow, that was what threw me off the most, that the author knew how she was coming across, supposedly to her younger self, but really to her readers, was aware of the weaknesses in her approach and chose to forge on without changing it.

It begs the question of who the book is for. There must be an audience for it, someone who, like the younger iterations of the author, really does need to hear that they are important in a hundred different varieties. I liked a handful of said varieties, but wasn't really the right audience for the rest.

Such beautiful words! I feel like a lot of this is highly relatable to who I was in the past as well. I wish the file would have been able to be downloaded on my kindle, but I ended up being able to read it on my phone.

This was very moving and an important read. I feel that things like this should be read by everyone, as it is one way to truly understand and connect with others. I loved everything about this.

Thank you netgalley for providing the e-arc in exchange of an honest review.
This poem books was in way of a journal , and some of them are so raw that they make you feel the sadness. The book was short and good read. Do read it when it comes out next year!

i don't know if i would call this a poetry book because its more like a self reflection journal. I felt there was struggle in this book because of how similar each poem was but i feel this book fits with the current authors coming out with poetry such as "Rupi Kaur" and even the title not having proper punctuations just like Kaur. this poetry didn't work for me but parts of it did show the authors pain and growth it just wasn't enough to save the book in my opinion

I had high hopes for this one.
Sadly, I couldn’t really get into the writing style of this book. Interesting and relevant topic and beautiful illustrations.

Poetry is so hard to review and evaluate. It’s such a personal journey and if you’re not on the same journey or haven’t been on it it can often be difficult to understand and interpret. This is such a beautiful book of poetry however I think that anyone could relate or appreciate it.

This is the new style of poetry that Rupi Kaur does so well. Sadly this one misses the mark. Without anything flowing like we are used to for poetry, they should be thought provoking and this poetry collection didn't do that for me. The writing was flat and lacked flow and style. It is such a heavy topic (self harm) but the collection didnt bring me in emotionally like it should have.

I found it difficult to read because of the childish font and the illustrations. They just didn't match.

Overall, this would be a pass for me.

This is a poetry collection in the popular modern style of journal poetry, very self focused and not exceptionally poetic. The style of all of the poems was fairly similar, leading to a kind of run-on journal feel of it about the author's life. Little color sketches accompany some of the poems. Some readers may enjoy the poems because they relate to them, but it feels so personal that it doesn't feel relatable, yet it feels so impersonal that the reader doesn't feel much empathy either. Not a lot of poetic devices are used here, just free verse poetry about her life and unhappiness for the most part.

Trigger warning-- self harm. There are other minor triggers too, but this is a big one from the start.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

I really enjoyed what this voice in verse had to offer in this collection. I’m glad to share good things about this book as a lover of poetry.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an advanced e-copy for an honest review.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: self-harm, suicide, abusive relationships, depression, and anxiety.

I had a weird experience ready this book because it’s the first time I’ve actually felt triggered while reading something, but I could relate a lot with the feelings presented on this collection especially those of the first and second sections. Still, I felt like the way it was written made feel the author detached from her own words and feelings. I did, however, loved the aesthetics (drawings and font) of the book. I feel that it sets it apart from most poetry collections.

Book's release date: February 25th, 2020 by Andrews McMeel Publishing

I found the collection frustrating. It was deeply personal, yet somehow, it felt like the writer was detached from the writing. I’m not sure I’d even classify this as poetry, so much as stream of consciousness writing. There’s not really anything lyrical or poetic or groundbreaking about the writing. It’s just…fine.

I also found the aesthetics of this book rather distracting. The font choice made it difficult to read. The graphics were oversized and thus overwhelmed the writing. Overall, a miss for me.

"This book is the way I say "You didn't break me", it's the way I look fear in the eye and tell it, 'I did what you said I couldn't, I did it, and I did it loud"

From it's very first lines, I knew I was going to like letters to the person I was. And it was the case. I fell in love with Sana's writing!
As a lover of words, I must say that I was impressed by the broad subjects she deals with in Letters to the person I was.
It is smart, beautifully writtend, and most of all: so true. The drawing are adding another dimension, more powerful to the poems.
The only thing I regret is the font: it is really uncomfortable to read!

It's hard to put into words what this was like to read. Heartbreaking and healing. That last section of poetry was so good.

There's a trend in poetry right now to produce volumes like this, in the same vein of Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace, with intensely personal poem, introspective, reflective, and not terribly structured. These volumes usually come in 3-4 parts, trying to map a journey (but don't always succeed). Sana Abuleil fits within this tradition, including the specific conceit of telling things to her younger self and adding little doodles throughout. Even though Kaur and Lovelace tends to have more gutpunches, I give Abuleil more credit because she doesn't write what I would consider poem "fragments" aka, small lines that are somewhat meaningful but divorced from a fully fleshed out poem.

Her poems are complete (though most are about a page, some longer or shorter), and she puts in more effort to affect poetics in her verse. There are a few very affecting lines, and some interesting extended metaphors (ex. a rubix cube in only black and white). However, a lot of the poems tend to blend together for lack of detail. (She even suggests she knows this in the beginning of one poem, that they are all starting to blur together for her.) I would like for her to draw out the situations more, make them more memorable and graspable. Granted, her audience is presumably herself, but it is also her readers as well. That said, some of the poems toward the end of The Understanding (third section) and a few dated from 2016 stand out as much stronger and bolder.

I think there's a tendancy when you begin writing poetry to let the language hide things you aren't comfortable talking about yet. Furthermore, in this genre of poetry volume, you sort of get an effect of someone writing a diary they don't really want others to read. I'd like to see what her next volume looks like as she grows as a poet. In that she's also an academic (I googled her), there's always that sense of being caught between your self-expression and your presumed employability. I can't say for sure that's related, but it might be.

However, for what this volume is, and the style it is done in, I would recommend this volume to anyone who has enjoyed Kaur and Lovelace and the like, because that's exactly the niche Abuleil is publishing in. In particular, if you have a teenage girl in your life who is learning to love poetry, you might consider this for her.

You can feel the pain in this poetry collection. You can feel the humanness and the pain of being alive. It’s like Sana Abuleil has let her skin bleed bare and opens. There is bravery and connection in this openness. It is years and their feelings written out on a page. It is healing. The drawings are beautiful and charming, and they reflect the flashes of images shown in this reading process. If you want to be plunged into the pain of the past and the joy of the future, read this.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this.

For some reason the ebook version has multiple of the same page, but other than that I loved it. I think there always things we wish we could tell our younger selfs.