this is my first read from this author, and i am genuinely amazed by the works inside this book, some got really close to home and some missed, but still a very solid read and a breath of fresh air from previous poetry books i've consumed

Honestly, I really enjoyed this one. It felt very raw and emotional reading about living with mental illness and how it affects our day to day life, our friendships, our relationships. It talked about difficult topics, but there still was a glimmer of hope.

The format of this poetry collection was a very strong point. Side A was basically the poems, written normally, and side B of the "tape" was blackout poetry on the same exact poems as side A, revealing some secret messages. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.

I loved the concept of this poetry collection. It's a breath of fresh air from most poetry books. I liked Side A more than Side B though, since I felt a lot of emotions reading entries from that part of the book. A lot of the entries are so raw and real that I can personally relate to some prose.

These poems were really beautiful written. And some of the vrese hit so close to the heart.
Thank you netgalley for providing with e-arc in exchange of an honest review.
Absolutely liked this book

This was the first poetry book I read by Alicia Cook and I really liked it. I loved the concept of the book: a poetic mixtape. The poems were divided into two parts (side A and side B), and out of the two parts, I especially liked reading side B.

Sadly, the first part of the book did not contain many poems that really spoke to me and because of this, I went through it pretty slow. However, part two totally surprised me! In part two, the poems from part one got mixed-up to create new, smaller poems. I've never seen this in a poetry book before and absolutely loved the uniqueness of it.

All in all, I'm glad that I was able to read and review this book and I would recommend it to anyone who's struggling or has struggled with depression or anxiety.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read Alicia Cooks poetry before. I seen her other collection with the cover identical to this one and I was always on the fence about because a little part of me thought it wasnt gonna be any good. Amazon is filled to the brim with poetry books whether they're self published or not. So Its always kinda like finding a needle in the haystack when it comes to the ones that's actually pretty decent or even good for that matter. So that being said this collection was decent. A good amount of the poems I really resonated with and really got on so many levels but some of the others seemed like they were just saying the same thing over and over again. I also felt like some of them were just a little too long and just dragged on. The author would mention a "you" in the poems but it would be a little confusing because sometimes it sounded like it was the same person and then it didnt the next minute. I think my favorite part about the whole collection was Side B The Remixes. I thought that was really cool. I did really love how this collection was formatted. I really enjoyed the whole mix tape aspect of it expect for the "currently listening" I think that could have been left off these poems. I didnt really see that they added anything to the collection.


Thank you Andrew's Mcmeel Publishing and Netgalley for my arc to read and review.

I would finish a poem and not remember a single thing I had just read - which suggests to me that there was no spark in any of the lines. I might have skimmed a lot of them, but I have no way of knowing? A successful Instagram post does not a talented poet make. The whiplash from the extreme emotional shifts from poem to poem was painful and confusing - so many poems aimed at a “you” who never seemed to be the same person and yet maybe was?

There’s feelings wrapped up in these poems that needed to be written, but I don’t know if they needed to be read by the mass audience.

I liked the idea of using black-out poetry to shift the meaning, but 92 poems to get through meant that by the time I reached “Side B” I just wanted to the whole thing to be over. They came too little too late. (And even when they did arrive, they felt very elementary school art project, rather than publishable work…)

Even if I liked a particular poem, I couldn’t tell you which one it was because each poem is labeled as a track, which makes them all blend together. Additionally, the use of the “currently listening” felt very out of date - like someone picking a “cool” song for their MySpace page. It didn’t add anything to the poems and there was hardly enough time to go look up the song and then come back and read twelve quick lines. It felt a lot like someone should have nixed that idea.

I loved this poetry collection. I've read a few that missed the mark for me, but I can surely see myself reading more from this author. The poems were beautiful and relatable and reading some of them felt very comforting, knowing I'm not alone with these thoughts. The second part, in which the first poems were the base for blackout poetry was quite interesting, but some of them were really hard to read. Overall, this was a solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a copy! The title immediately drew me in as I find it extremely relatable. Thrilled to find this beautiful book of poetry and can't wait to buy the hardcopy. The added mixtape themes gave a fresh take, adding to every emotion the poem invoked and positively contributed to my experience. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the poems and will keep an eye out for more from Alicia Cook!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this collection.

Let’s start by saying that this collection was well done, I particularly loved the way it was formatted. It was definitely different from anything I’ve seen so far and it was honestly genius. I do feel like some poems were a little too long, and kind of dragged for me. I think that they could have used trimming. And then side B was honestly better in my opinion. I tend to get bored or not paying attention to longer poems. But I still think that this was a beautiful collection

This really resonated with me. It was amazing to see something that I related with so much. So happy to have read this little gem and can't wait to recommend to all my friends.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This poetry collection hit me in the feels! I loved Alicia Cook's rawness and simplicity in describing her emotions.

I found the mixtape concept really original and fascinating and I especially liked the "remixes", where the author reconstructed the poems to create something else completely!

I could totally related to the poems about anxiety and depression and it felt so good to be seen. I also loved that the author included the songs that inspired her poems.

I really enjoyed this collection and I believe that anyone, poetry lover or not, can find inspiration and solace in Alicia's words.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy.

I looooved this poetry collection, it is one of my all-time favorite ones now. There wasn't a poem in here that I didn't enjoy. But I especially loved those about depression and anxiety, whose hit deep. The songs listed at the end of each poem added another layer of enjoyment to my reading experience and i added some of the songs to my playlist. The list of trigger warnings at the beginning of the book was a thoughtful touch and more books should do that.
Huge thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I loved the inclusion of the "currently listening to" with each poem. I thought it gave an added something special to the collection and a way to further connect with the pieces. However, I just didn't enjoy this one as much as Alicia Cook's previous works. It felt like it took longer to pick up and I found myself getting distracted from reading quite often. Still a lovely collection, but not my favorite.

I got this eARC copy in exchange for a review, and TBH Alicia Cook is one of my favourite modern poets that is considered an IG poet. Although she has developed a format of stylizing her poetry (which can be considered her personal brand) through the mixtape and remixes of poems, I find that though with many poets, it could be considered a trick pony move to discuss the same themes/ topics she’s probably one of the few who manages to spin something new every time she publishes.

Particularly this collection does not fail to have a fresh take. While her first collection introduces the style of her poetry/ found poetry and her second collection incorporated other collaborations in creating lyrical poems into some recorded songs, this particular anthology as a whole collectively was the most cohesive in terms of reliability in discussing mental health -which is near and dear to my life. I always enjoy her lyricism to her words and found that she really played around with the form of found poetry in not only remixing her poems from Side A, but visually made it an engaging experience to follow along and recommend this book.

“This is still a love poem even if I don’t love you anymore”

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions are my own and this did not affect my review in any way.

I requested this collection because I have been a huge fan of the authors work on Instagram and I was excited to read a full collection of her work. I started reading it without really knowing about the format or the subjects it dealt with and I am so happy to say that I loved this collection.

Sorry I haven´t texted you back is a poetry collection that touches upon themes such as love, grief, heartbreak and hope while doing it in a fun and creative format.

Over the last 2 years I started reading more and more poetry so it is safe to say that I have read a fair share of collections and because of this I have been less blown away by poetry because I know what to expect. However, this collection is so different from every other collections I have read (and I mean this in a good way) and it was exciting to read something outside of the box.

I was really moved by this collection, each poem made me feel something and I was able to relate to most of them. I was truly blown away by the depth and writing of each poem, each word served a purpose and I was very quickly emotionally invested in it.

I really enjoyed the blackout-poetry, I loved how the author took a poem we had already read and gave it a totally new meaning, and the songs she recommends after each poem are unique and I really like that is allows you to put yourself in the place of the author even more.

This collection took a fun, new and creative concept and executed it perfectly.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this collection, I think this collection is very well written and I believe this collection is perfect por almost anyone, I think all of us can relate to some aspect of what the author is writing about and I think the execution is flawless.

“Be like water. Fill every space like it was made just for you, like you belong there. […] Don’t be afraid to leave behind a mark”

I'm not sure I'm capable of writing a coherant review to this poetry collection because oh gosh, this really hit me. I finished it all in one sitting, but I'll definitely be ordering a copy and I know it's one I'll be reading many times. I found myself bookmarking almost every poem in part 1 ("Side A: The Poems"). I really didn't think it could get better until I got to part 2 ("Side B: The remixes"), which is a collection of strikeout poetry made up of the poems from the first part. The poems are so personal and hard-hitting; I found myself deeply relating to a lot of them and I absolutely loved the author's style. Having songs linked to each poem was a really nice touch too. I can't recommend this book enough - please get your hands on it when it come out in October/November 2020 (in the US/UK, respectively, I believe)!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alicia Cook offers words that are honest and relevant. The title of this book captured me as someone who is currently living a life more and more stuffed with screens. Beautiful words, wonderful style.

Umm wow. Poetry has never really been my thing - at least i didn’t think it was until I read this.
Side A swept me up & made me feel all the things, but then I hit side B & I felt all the things on such a deeper level.
This is actually phenomenal & I’m determined to read the rest of Alicia Cook’s poetry.

Www.goodreads.com/ando89

There are some things I really like about this collection of poetry and other things that didn't do it as much for me.
The good: the poems are well written. I liked the "currently listening to" idea with each poem (though admittedly I felt a lot of the music choices were not to my taste in any way). I LOVED the remixing of the poems by doing blackout poetry with the poems from the first half.
The less-good: I felt like we were treading through the same ideas and themes over and over ad nauseum.