For readers seeking a poetry collection that courageously confronts pressing issues like rape culture and gender inequality, Aija Mayrock's work resonates deeply. She fearlessly examines the challenges many girls and women encounter as they navigate societal norms within their families, friendships, and broader communities.

I found Mayrock's collection immensely impactful, offering a poignant blend of empowerment and empathy. It doesn't shy away from difficult topics, with candid discussions on rape culture and the pervasive challenges women face in workplaces, schools, and everyday interactions.

It's important to note that the collection includes themes that may be triggering, particularly its unflinching exploration of rape culture and its societal implications. However, amidst these weighty subjects, Mayrock's voice shines through with a message of resilience and understanding.

I requested an arc for this on NetGalley.

I do like to read about books that empower women, since I am one. So when I saw this poetry book on Netgalley I was intrigued.
However I wasn't completely satisfied at the end of it.
It was nice that the audiobook was narrated by the author herself and that it was spoken word.
The book is definitely about empowering women and also about consent and some of the societal pressures on women.

However I felt that the book was too general about the themes it was trying to include.
This left the experience after this audiobook a bit hollow, which is quite frankly a shame.
I also felt that a lot of experiences of women were left out, so it kind of focused more on the general experiences of womanhood and definitely lacking of inclusivity in something that could be a great poetry book that empowered women.

Not that that the specific topics that were tackled don't need to be talked about more, of course they do.
However when you put them in such a broad way without narrowing it down made me not connect to it.
I felt that there were also some cliches in the book like per example, how after you fall down you should get back up which is a good message, but without personal or otherwise fictional examples the message gets kind of lost on me. Since it felt like nothing was being shown to me qua imagery.

Also the fact that in the poetry there was a lot of rhyme like assonance of certain words that are on their own quite powerful made those words when they were put together like that actually less impactful to me.
I do get that it's an audiobook of a little bit over an hour, but it felt kind of slow.
Especially since a lot of the poems sounded very much the same, although certain ones did have music which set them apart.

What a stunning poetry collection. It should be considered mandatory reading for all women and girls. I'm not being dramatic, I swear! This collection has a bunch of hard hitting lines. No matter how developed or modern the world, in some way discrimination and harassment and hatred will always bee present for just being women.

I listened to the audiobook version of this.

I loved the poem where she speaks about anger.

This is a good poetry collection, very well rounded, but after the first third I started to feel like I was listening to a non-fiction book rather than a poetry collection. I love the activist and political work that she is doing, and I think it is extremely necessary. However, this is not the type of poetry I'm looking for right now.

Some of these poems were hit or miss for me, but overall I thought this collection had more shine than not. Many of the poems were beautifully written, with honest lines and beautiful form.

Aija Mayrock's poetry collection speaks to the hearts of teens, especially those who are feeling alone. I would recommend this collection to teens and their parents.

I really enjoyed this collection of poetry relating to women and written for women. The poems covered the full expanse of a woman's life - from girlhood to womanhood. I related well to the poems and found them very touching and moving.

Highly recommended.

Staying true to the book, my review will be in poetry form.

Dear Girl,

A collection of poetry
to bring you to tears.
Some you feel
Some you might never know,
while wishing you did.
I found myself clapping,
shouting yes this is true.
Rivers forming in my eyes
because I have worn these shoes.

****

Aija Mayrock's poems will connect
all women kind to another.
We have fought,
we have cried.
This our truth.
We must love each other,
love ourselves,
speak out for one another,
hold the candle,
hold the door.
Scream a little louder for the voices of the unsure,
the timed,
the scared,
the forgotten and the lost.

I cried. I connected. I smiled.

Well written, broken up into sections and 100% real.
*Thank you Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing

I liked this collection. It's wasn't my favorite collection in the world but it packed an emotional punch that left me reeling in it's wake.

I love poetry though I don't always read as much as I should. As far as being debut, Mayrock's poetry is great. Though I didn't always connect with her poems, she has some really good material throughout the book that I loved. I am not always going to understand all of someone's poetry because most poetry is based on personal experiences and feelings. As human beings we don't all see or feel the world the same way. It is my opinion that from here Mayrock can only grow and I can't wait to see what she comes out with in the future.

I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

WOOOOOOOOOW WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK!!

Dear Girl it's a very powerful book and I need all the people, women and men, to read this book.

This is a book about all the love you can give and take, to yourself. I really think it is a very neccesary book to read. Has very powerful messages for women, for our mothers, sisters, partners, brothers, partners, fathers, with the aim of telling them that women have the same rights as everyone else.

Women are stars, warriors, beautifull, mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, girlfriends, heroines, powefull, smart, creative, etc...

This is going to be one of my favorite books of the year and please, read this book. You need it.

Both the audio book and this are amazing. I felt the emotions of the words through the voice of the poet in the audiobook but I felt the words personally. It's an empowering book. I recommend for both genders especially the female gender

This was a promising debut for sure. I really liked few poems though I wasn't able to connect to a few. The main theme of this collection was to uplift women voices and women empowerment which I feel that it handled pretty well. Another theme that I really liked was how women need to support each other! The poems are empowering and touching at times. But I found them too repetitive and generic at times.

Nonetheless it is good debut overall.

Loved this for a bit of motivational, uplifting, girl on fire poetry that feels empowering to read. Not all of the poems in this collection resonated with me, but there were plenty that did. Punchy, powerful and strong for a first poetry collection.

I really enjoyed this collection of poem, in fact, I thought it was quite relatable. However I did find them to be based not on personal stories so a lot of the poems sounds familiar to me already, and it's not particularly emotionally grasping.

This book was really empowering. I highly recommend the audiobook. I felt the emotions conveyed. It was raw and real. I truly enjoyed this work of art. It's powerful, moving, touching, what more do you need to pick this up.

Dear Girl is as the book itself says "a journey from girlhood to womanhood through poetry".

It is written in extremely simple language and is a really short book. you can easily finish it within an hour. If you are someone who is searching for deep meanings and imagery than this is not for you.

But, the book has covered almost every problem that women as a whole have suffered or may suffer from. It talks about rape and how the survivor only meets with "intimidation, investigation and disbelief". It talks about how we must extend our support to "women of color" , "trans women" and "lgbtq+ women". It says sorry to women who were taught to be "white and thin". And deals with many other topics like that. As I said it almost checks off every problem in the entire list. There is great deal of repetitive symbolism of phoenix (flame, rising and burning), swords and shields and etc.

What I liked the most in this book, though, was how the poet appealed to parents to raise their sons and daughters properly. How if you father has taught you to fight, you "soar". How a women becomes the "warrior" her mother wanted her to be.

Overall, it's an uplifting and empowering book. It will be picked by those who love themselves. But I will recommend you to gift this to that friend or sister of yours who doesn't love herself enough. It will do her good.
Lastly, thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the eARC.

Received an Audio book and a Digital arc from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Girl is a set of poems dealing with the subject matter of Feminism and everything that goes with it. It almost remain of " the Witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace which was also about the subject matter of Feminism . This was a very quick listened and read since I read it along with listening to it. The narrator was really good since it was author of the book who was reading it.

Rating: 3/5
Reading the description of this poetry book it was described as a journey of girlhood to womanhood, which is generally my type of reading. This book does have a transition of poems that range from poems that are targeted at girlhood to womanhood and some in-between. The theme of the poems was highlighted at starting with ‘Dear Girl’ and then giving advice or outlining an experience. Maybe I would have liked the poetry better if I was not 22 and did not experience the bulk of the transition of girlhood to womanhood (as this work is referencing this too). I thought the writing style was good and that there were not any issues that I had with the way the writing was done. I did wish that the poems had titles though, so I could reference some of them. I wish this poetry collection was longer because I feel like this collection was covering a topic that they needed to say more on and they basically said the bare minimum. Part of me is concerned with the understanding of gender in this work and that it is focused more on cisgender girls and women, so I think I would have liked for there to be more inclusive situations that were not biologically centered. The poems that resonated with me the most are the ones that were on page 22 and 30. These poems highlight that women do not need to hide their voices and that they have the right to speak their minds. I just like the way the author wrote these poems and resonated with the wording.
I gave this poetry collection a 3 out of 5 stars because I enjoyed many of the poems, but I did not love them. I believe that the author is on the younger side, so she may be still developing her writing style and I look forward to seeing if her style develops as she ages. In my reading of the poetry collection, there was a focus on cisgender women and I would have liked the collection to focus on the gender identity of women too instead of focusing on biological functions half the population can do. This collection should have been longer and touched on more specific topics of the transition of girlhood to womanhood as the book description states. I felt like I was reading the collection was about halfway done with it and then blinked it was done. I somewhat felt like, ‘oh that was it’ when I read the last poem.

Dear Girl is the debut poetry collection from Aija Mayrock - written from a sister to another sister. It is sharp , so on point , empowering and ultimately it touched the soul. This collection calls out to the women to speak up - to find truth - to make their voices heard. It is not just poetry but motivational writings.

"you must believe the words you speak are weak,
but Echoes of words
can start revolutions. "

'Dear Girl' is an impressive collection of poems. I was listening to the autho's piercing voice with the lights off and honestly speaking it gave me chills because major portions of this book hits a chord - incidents I experienced while growing up as a girl and of course as a woman.

"grow wiser, grow deeper, but never grow up"

This book is not something that no one has ever read before or have not heard somewhere else , but it is something that needs to be taught to your offsprings ,to be told to your siblings . It is not only meant to be read but also learnt.
This book restored my spirits and made me believe that I am the fire.

" Dear Girl,
You ask me what I wish for you.
I simply say -
Never allow any soul to clip your wings
You were not born an ember
You were born a flame."

This book consoled me - it taught me that I do need to take care of myself at times. Everything else - everyone else will vapourise but what matters the most is self-love and self-esteem.

The theme may seem repetitive at times but the use of impactful words made it very consistent in quality and made me fall in love with my being.

If you are in search of something motivational or are feeling a bit low spirited today just grab your earphones and start listening to the audio version (maybe you can grab the soft copy also) and start listening (or reading - whatever you choose to).