The characters were well-developed, and I found myself invested in their lives. The plot was well thought out and had enough twists and turns to keep me on the edge of my seat. I appreciated the attention to detail, and the author did a great job of creating a vivid world that was easy to picture in my mind.
The themes explored in the book were thought-provoking and gave me a lot to consider. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story with well-developed characters.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with this book and would definitely read it again. It was a great addition to my reading collection, and I can't wait to see what else this author has in store.

This was really inspiring and quite beautiful poetry, I am not a poetry person but really enjoyed this collection.
Thank you for the ARC NetGalley

There were some very powerful poems in this collection, while others left me wanting a bit more. Readers will identify with many of these themes. I loved Myers' use of words and metaphors at times, while other times the poems felt a bit generic. All in all, a really lovely collection to read and read again.

A good read. Go for it. I loved it. Some were ok.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for giving me an advanced copy.

4/5⭐: This poetry book was very powerful read from start to finish. I really enjoyed how the collection played around with form throughout the book. It was very grief heavy and centered around dark themes but it was captured beautifully. I loved the personification of depression and the discussion of body dysmorphia was really well done. There was also an interesting use of pop culture when comparing celebrity death (Mac Miller) to personal tragedy. The only reason this book was not a five for me was a matter of personal preference. While I enjoyed the collection, there were not enough poems that would be powerful enough for a re-read for me personally but I definitely would recommend this book to poetry fans.

----My ARC copy of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.----

Regan Myers is one of Button Poetry’s most-viewed performance poets. Her poems ‘Depression is Funny Like That’ and ‘The Girl Becomes Gasoline’ have had over three million combined views, and ‘Depression Is Funny Like That’ remains one of the top 15 videos on Button Poetry’s channel.

‘Afterwards’, Myers’ debut collection, explores themes of mental health, suicide, death, love and family; I expect it to be no less popular than her public performances. Unafraid to address the power of depression, it is a documentation of daily struggle and a gift for anyone who has grappled to find words to express themselves. Readers who suffer from depression will find solace through Myer’s words.

These are poems which are both intensely personal and universal. ‘Afterwards’ bears witness to what it means to survive the unbearable. It is a brave book, and what the poet has had to live through, in order to write this book, has taken courage. It’s a book is for us all: survivors who need to find solace when there is none, those who want to comfort the grief stricken yet don’t know how, and everyone who needs to find a flicker of hope in the company of grief.

Hypothesis

There is no map for moving on.
Moving on implies forward,
and in this case, to move on
I must first go back.

The data set is not complete, so to speak—
there is no more relationship to be had,
only to be analyzed.

Does moving on require a hypothesis?
Safety goggles? Carefully placed labels?
It certainly requires a summary of findings;
something to be revisited down the road,
when none of this makes sense
all over again.

Reagan Myers is the youngest Grand Slam champion to ever come out of Nebraska, and was the first woman to hold the title in seven years. She is currently working on her Masters degree in composition and rhetoric at the University of Nebraska.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @buttonpoetry for a DRC of ‘Afterwards: Poems’ by Reagan Myers.

"Depression is a silent film, a monologue shot underwater"

This heart wrenching and vulnerable collection manages to traverse through the feelings of depression, grief and more by taking you on a lyrical journey, navigating what it feels like to be human and face what the world has given you.

Each poem offers a moment of vulnerability and honesty. Opening you up to a place where you might relate, and if not, giving you the chance to understand and listen to the voice in the poems.

There were many poems that caught my attention. I feel silly for not having marked which poems, in particular, I am talking about but it was mostly because when I had finished one, I was either relishing in the words on the page or going straight to the next one, ready to see what would be next.

The poems were beautiful and I'm so grateful to the publishers for providing me with an eArc in exchange for my honest review! I definitely recommend this book!

Reagan Myers' debut collection shows promise. Combining her command of language with a frankness — and often depricating sense of humor — that allows her to describe emotions that are often indescribable. shows her as a poet to watch. Afterwards should be on any introductory poetry reader's TBR list.

I like how different poetry can be.
En especial cuando trata sobre la depresion. Y cuando una escritora se abre.
I like this book because it doesn´t have that malegaze of seeing things.

"Afterwards" is a beautiful look at how grief and closure is different for everyone. Myers dives into her friend (who committed suicide), her ex boyfriend (who was abusive) and her family.

Each poem has unique emotion and kept me asking for more so I'm a little disappointed at how short this collection is! That being said, I has a wonderful time reading it and had to put it down to digest more than a few times, it was a very emotional journey and Myers did a great job at conveying it to the reader.

My favorite poems are "Depression Is Funny Like That", "Mac Miller", and "When Death Comes".

"Each unwanted touch is gasoline. Each prodding hand, flint. Each time a man assumes my space, he is just stoking the flame. And a spark, stoked enough, will burn down the whole house."

Afterwards is filled with poems that will tug at your heartstrings. Reagan Myers takes readers through the many stages of grief and how she handles it. She also touches on mental illness and the effects it has on everyday life. This collection of poems resonated with me so well, and I wish I had it when I was going through the most intense part of the grief process after losing a loved one. I loved how the author addressed that grief isn't something that lasts for a few days or a year. It is an ongoing process. There will be times that will not be as intense, but grief is not always a one-and-done.

If anyone is going through a loss or traumatic experience, I would 100 percent recommend this book & if you're not, I think it's still a great touching read.

I was given a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

5 / 5 Stars

I was really hoping to love this book, because it was dealing with stuff that I could relate to. Most books about recovery and trauma are rather hit or miss, because they are trying to be philosophical.
This one isn't.
It's raw and intense and honest and I absolutly loved it. I'm still feeling rather emotional while writing this, which is exactly how I want to feel when I read this kind of poetry.
The beauty of this collection lies in its ability to make you cry , while also making you feel seen. There are some political poems in there and I wasn't sure how I would feel about them, but I gotta say, that Donald Trump poem was hella creative.

I'd give you a content warning, but the blurb is already doing a great job when it comes to those, which means the only thing left for me to say is:

If you're looking for a book that just gets it, a book with amazingly crafted poems and a book that's going to make you feel stuff, this is the collection for you.

I really enjoyed this poetry book. The poems felt very raw and were beautifully written. A problem I sometimes have with poetry is the feeling of not understanding what the author meant because of awkward wordings but this didn’t happen in this book, which is an excellent thing.

Thanks to NetGalley for this advance copy. It’s been awhile since I’ve read poetry that moved me and maybe it’s as one of the poems in this book “Depression is funny like that” and it is so on that level I relate to this author. This collection is about loss and grief, it’s about how mundane life can seem grappling with such heavy topics.
Many of the poems really struck a cord with me and I found them quite moving.
I didn’t care for the few more political poems but that’s just preference and not due to writing as even they were written quite well.

If you have ever experienced loss or want some insight to someone who has this book is absolutely a treasure. 4 stars.

There were some poems I really liked and some that just didn't resonated with me.
One I really liked was 'depression is funny like that'.

I did enjoy this and I'm looking forward to her future work.

3.75 stars

This young poet and performance poet puts a human face onto clinical depression and grief so effectively, the reader might laugh - or cry!
These are brave, heart-breaking poems written in free verse with an easy colloquial style sometimes with light humour which I really liked. Set in a domestic world where families and celebrities exist and day-to-day life has to go on despite intense loss and sadness, this is a moving collection - albeit lacking in structure, but that perhaps reflects the messy nature of the subject nature and the youthfulness of Reagan's honest voice.
(I recommend watching Reagan perform her poems on YouTube, Button Poetry. I love her performance of 'Depression is Funny Like That.').
I look forward to reading more from this talented poet.

Losing a loved a love one is hard, but the loss of a loved one to suicide is even harder. It’s difficult because it’s preventrable, and it’s hard to explain the feeling of helplessness afterwards. This collection of poetry details the grief that comes with losing a friend, but it is other things too. Myers explores the loss of family, depression, and sexual assault. There are a handful of good poems, such as The Girl Becomes Gasoline which was what made me decide to pick this book up.

Several of the poems reference the death of Mac Miller, who had died of an accidental drug overdose in 2018. Myers mentions how Mac Miller had passed around the same time that she had lost one of her best friends to suicide, which she ties in to plans unfinished. What happened to Mac Miller is tragic and he should certainly be remembered, and maybe I just don’t understand American celebrity culture, but the fact that he was brought up over and over felt out of place.

But I digress, as a whole the collection is pretty decent. The themes of the book are true to life and I appreciated Myer’s willingness to share her authentic self.

"You sound like an asshole and you look uncomfortable! I am next you in literally my pyjamas. You wouldn't need to smoke if your clothes felt like petting a hundred kittens" - the girl becomes gasoline.

A beautiful, personal collection of Reagan's poems that cover grief, disordered eating, suicide and trauma.

Her writing is raw, sarcastic and deprecating. It's approachable, equal parts funny and touching.

Overall a wonderful, honest collection of writing and suitable for anyone who needs a fresh perspective or voice in their own moment of struggle.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

One day, Button Poetry will release a collection that doesn't become one of my new favourites, but today is not that day. Afterwards is a really beautiful and often difficult window into complex grief. Myers' writing is full of lines that practically beg to be underlined and highlighted and read aloud.

As someone who, like Myers, has experienced multiple bereavements in a short space of time, I liked the messy nature of this book; it's not always clear whether she's writing about a break-up or, when it's clearly a bereavement, who she's mourning. That's just how grief works. It gets tangled up in itself. I'm glad that this book wasn't separated into sections which isolated each subject. It's necessarily muddled.

There were a few poems which didn't stand out particularly strongly to me, mostly the ones about womanhood and body image, which I think is purely because those are very common subjects in this style of poetry. The poems in here about grief and mental illness were by far the strongest.

My favourite poems in here were probably the erasure poems, where Myers takes existing texts (such as wedding vows and song lyrics) and reworks them into something completely different. I found those to be such great metaphors for grief; what is grief if not making the best of things?

I'm continually grateful to Button for publishing these short books of slam poetry from an enormous range of voices. I do think that, purely by the nature of the genre, some of the voices tend to bleed into one a little, but as a corpus of work, they continue to be excellent.

I loved these poems and the topics they delved into. The writing was great to express this emotion, and i carried something away from every poem. Very powerful and impactful!