I'd like to say that reviewing poetry is hard, but I have read and reviewed really good poetry. The kind of poems that leave you reeling and force you to think. This just wasn't it for me.
The author plays with a mix of different lengths / styles of poetry in this collection. I found her 'list' type poems to be very repetitive. Her short form poems left a lot to be desired- that being said, her long form poems like Cherry Coke Zero were really enjoyable to read. (the author does admit within the book that she feels poetry doesn't need to be good, doesn't need to connect with readers, it just needs to be written)
Overall, as a collection, this just wasn't 'it' for me. To me, this read more like a feminist manifesto filled with one liners than a poetry collection. I also did not enjoy the addition of so many graphics. It felt as though the book was trying to make up for its lack of substance by adding kitschy images.

*Thank you Random House Children’s + NetGalley for the digital ACR in exchange for review!*

I am so in love with the stars and I love that this book expresses the way I feel about them, in there way of making you feel small in this big world. We are made of stars and I believe that this book does an amazing job portraying that, whether or not that was the intention. “I am my own universe”
I love the writing and so many of the poems I just read them over and over to sit with them and think about them. The only complaint I have in the arc ebook didn’t show the calligraphy written poems but I can’t wait to own a physical copy so I can enjoy the full effect of the book. Thank you to the author for writing this beautiful poetry collection and being vulnerable. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this arc copy

“The page always listened when no one else would.”

I have recently been enjoying poetry a lot more than I used to so I was excited to receive this collection on Netgalley.

I did relate to a lot of the poems throughout and found myself connecting to more poems because of it. “Cherry Coke Zero” was probably my favorite in the entire collection with “The Poem Does Not Have to Be Good” coming in a close second.

My main problem with this collection was that most of the poems were too short for the message they were conveying. I felt like 1-4 lines was not enough to pack the emotion that I know the author was feeling, but as the other said herself in one of her poems, “The poem does not have to prove itself to anyone”. I love that. Because you know that writing poetry helped the author, so even if it doesn’t help you, who cares?

The copy I received, and I also saw a few other reviewers comment on, had some art pages that were missing words, but as it is an advanced copy, I assume that will be fixed in the future.

I also adored the artwork throughout, and it added a little more substance to the poetry. I think this was a well put together poetry collection and I’m excited to see more from this author.

Trista Mateer has a way with poetry that constantly blows me away. This newest collection is no different. Capturing the emotions through the journey of self-acceptance, these poems feel like friends, some are hard to swallow but all are raw and very real.

Five stars. If you like contemporary poetry, don’t let the young adult label dissuade you from reading When the Stars Wrote Back. I absolutely love Trista Mateer’s poetry and have been looking forward to her newest work for months now. Very relatable and empowering. Check this one out.

Thanks to Random House Children’s and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

As far as postmodern poetry goes, this collection is pretty solid. I would say, however, the middle section was not as strong and at times, the poems feel somewhat repetitive. This is common with collections of this size and so I don’t fault When the Stars Wrote Back too much for this. The illustrations accompanying the poetry is a nice touch and complements the tone of these pieces quite well. Poetry is one of the most subjective genres, but I do have confidence this collection will appeal to seasoned readers who enjoy confessional style, as well as younger readers dipping their toes into the genre.

Unfortunately the only format available to me is the kindle app on my ipad and /or iphone. I really love the cover and the description. For that I gave it 2.5 stars. I can't wait for this to be published. Bummed that the kindle app was not an available format for digital ARC.

this is the third Trista Mateer collection i've read and there's just something about her writing that gives me chills every time. i don't personally relate to every topic she writes about, but the ones that i do relate to, i relate hard.

I love all of Tristas work and this book was no exception! I fell in love with every word and page, she has a way to make you feel everything she writes even if you cant relate

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC of When the Stars Wrote Back!

This book certainly contains lovely poetry - all of which I enjoyed reading through in one sitting. That said, I have been reading a lot of poetry lately, varying from Dickinson to more modern authors, and these poems fell somewhere between "good" and "average." If you are a younger reader, however, I do believe you will enjoy this much more than me!

Pub Date: June 2, 2020

This book was very good! The author wrote her poems with total honesty. I really enjoyed how at the beginning it was all hopelessness and no growth but towards the end the poems were all about confidence and change. I’m not a huge poetry fan, but I thought these poems were good. I think this book could be really inspiring to others who have gone through what she has. I haven’t been through most of the events she has so I didn’t really connect to the poems. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading the poems. I liked how this book can be read fairly quickly and is easy to read. I recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry or just wants to read a quick and interesting book.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Books for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

"When I couldn't get what I wanted out of life,
I turned to literature:
miles and piles of books
bouquets of midnight-blue pens.

The page always listened when no one else would."

I have never felt a quote as I felt that. That one reached into me and pulled out my soul for the world to see in 5 short lines!

When the Stars Wrote Back is a collection of beautiful and thoughtful poetry. They make you think. They make you feel. This collection in particular resonated with me as it mirrored a set of thoughts and feelings I've experienced myself in my lifetime. I love how the author touched on deep and sensitive topics and then in the same collection touched on happier subjects. I love her style; it's easy to read and really pushes the emotions behind the words to the surface. I really enjoyed the illustrations as well- they were beautiful yet simple. Perfectly suited to this collection. And that cover is the most gorgeous cover I have seen this year!

"I will not be a fairy-tale mermaid
willing to give up her own voice for love."

I think this one just wasn't a great fit for me. To begin with, I *want* to be a poetry person, and keep trying it, but it's not always my thing. This one appealed to me with it's synopsis and frankly gorgeous cover - I also loved the illustrations. Some poems, I totally enjoyed, even if they didn't feel like poetry I'm used to, because the overall message worked for me. Some I didn't. I also had trouble with some feeling like they were missing multiple words, I thought at first it was just because it's an unfinished ARC, but no one else mentioned it in their reviews that I can see, so I'm thinking maybe it was intentional and I didn't "get" it?

I don't know much about poetry so whenever I review it you must know it just comes from personal enjoyment and attachement to the poems. This book read a lot like someone's journal. It felt very personal and I really like the art included in it but at the same time the poems felt a bit jumbled, jumping from one topic to another and back again. It kind of felt jarring. Besides that these poems just didn't really connect with me. So yeah, not really my favourite.

This poem book was so beautifully written. I resonate with some of these poems. I love the way that it was formatted and written. Thank you to publishers and author and illustrator behind this book. It was a short read but it was powerful. It covered a few hard topics and in my mind, the author did a good job on tackling them. I highly recommend this book just for anyone!

“I think that the first step to loving the life you have made for yourself is knowing that you want it.”

I think this poetry collection is great for body positivity, healing after trauma and the experiences women have to go through in life. I liked this but I did not enjoy this as much as Aphrodite Made Me Do It. I think a large reason why Aphrodite Made Me Do It appealed to me was because of the use of greek mythology in the poems. I still enjoyed this collection overall, I just did not connect to it as much on a personal level compared to the author's previous collection.

3/5

Absolutely gorgeous poetry. Beautiful, thoughtful poems. Definitely a book to savor and enjoy a few poems at a time. These are poems to reread, reflect on, take pictures of, and to tear out and put on your walls. I hope everyone who reads this beautiful books of poems feels seen, heard, and understood.

Thank you to #NetGalley for my digital ARC of #WhentheStarsWroteBack in exchange for my honest review. This book is marketed towards Young Adults but I think all ages will relate and enjoy it. It comes out June 2nd and I’m going to preorder a copy for myself to reread and one to send to my teenage niece.

Fans of Milk and Honey will enjoy. Buy it. Read it. Feel it. Share it.

Cw: mentions of sexual assault/rape culture

Typically, I read eARCS (and ebooks in general) on my Kindle Paperwhite. However, due to the format available from me on Netgalley, I ended up reading this on my iPad and I’m glad I did because the illustrations were gorgeous on that screen.

I ended up devouring this collection in two sittings over one day. I liked how cathartic it felt; it felt like I was getting a glimpse into the author’s journal and getting to release my emotions with her. I especially liked the poems that were arranged in lists. This was my first book of contemporary poetry so I haven’t seen that before and I liked that way of portraying the poem (and it helped with the journal-like feeling).

In terms of the subject matter, I appreciated the content warning given in my advanced copy. I thought it was appropriate and honestly more books should include it. I think the subjects covered are things that today’s teens will recognize and relate to. I especially think the poet’s discussion of sexual assault and rape culture were presented in a way that wasn’t particularly graphic and were extremely powerful.

While I wouldn’t recommend this book for younger teens and caution potential readers to look at the content warnings, I highly recommend this poetry collection, especially to young women. I myself am in my early twenties and the collection was still very relevant to my life. My only criticism would be that the way the ebook downloaded on my iPad made some of the illustrations rather indecipherable, but I’m sure this will be fixed in final copies. I have already preordered a finished hard copy of this book online as I want to return to specific passages over and over.

Powerful collection. I can see some of my teen students really relating to this one and rereading parts of it over and over. I can't wait to see the final version with the art.

I feel as if poetry books are hard to review. Poems are very interpretive and can mean so many different things to so many different people. That being said- my honest review of this is 2/2.5 stars. I'll start with what I liked first- the art throughout the book I enjoyed a lot. I thought it was very pretty. A little scattered but pretty nonetheless. A few lines/poems here and there I really liked too. The medium length poems I felt like I connected to the best. The shorter poems (some literally being one line) were probably my least favorite. It's not as if I believe that all poems need to be longer than one line but I feel as if the one line poems were lyrics pulled from random songs. They didn't see to connect and some of them were missing words (maybe this was stylistic since they were also mostly "handwritten" poems that had the words missing). I feel as if I also went into this poetry book expecting a flow or theme to kinda emerge as I read it. While a theme did peek it's head through every now and then the flow felt very off and as if there were multiple writers. If I was told this was an anthology of poems I would have probably liked it more. The flow just wasn't a winner for me.

So once again: the art was pretty. I liked a few random poems. I didn't like the flow or the one line poems. I personally wouldn't read again but if you're into poetry you should read it yourself to form your own opinion because poetry is very personal and taste specific.