I love makenzie Campbell!! Their writing is always so emotive and always gets me ugly crying and this was no different!

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this free eArc, this is my honest review.

Personally I didn't click with the words at all, so I struggled for weeks with reading as far as 52 % when I finally gave up.
A huge part of this might be due to the formatting. More than once I wasn't sure if it's a long poem which changes its voice or if a new one started.
Bonus points for including content warnings although why not put those into the description/blurb?

Nobody’s ever wanted the delinquent teens of Hope Juvenile Treatment Center. When they wake up one day and discover they’ve been abandoned by their guards, they think they have a shot at freedom…until they realize that a pandemic has taken hold of the world outside, and they’ve actually been left to die. Now their ignored existence has become a deadly fight for survival—and the only people they can rely on are each other.

. Beautiful poems about heartbreak ("I'm always running back to you, pouring myself into you/ thinking if I can just give you a little more this time, you/ will finally be able to love me the way I wanted), falling in and out of love (" Before I met you/I had a lion within me/I used to demand things I deserved/And then I met you/ and a soft spot opened inside me/my claws retracted/my teeth turned dull), resilience (" I am more than the wars I've lost with myself/I know because despite losing/ I am still here.), mental health (Know healing isn't linear and there is not one way to do it/Learn how to stop associating the world "love" with their hands.) and hope (" I promise one day I will be the ocean/I will be the ocean).

I love poetry books and always find difficult to critique them as I feel that all poetry books are great and it depends on many factors for it to be appreciated. I liked this book but will not say that it belongs to the top of the list of the poetry books that I have read as I did not really click with all of the writing. One thing that I absolutely loved were the illustrations included in the book and there were some phrases which were beautifully written.

I don’t know if it was the writing style of this or what but I just couldn’t get into it the way that I wanted to and I had a really hard time finishing it.

I really enjoyed this poetry collection. I have never been a self proclaimed expert in the field of short stories or poems, but I can confidently say this is not your average run of the mill Milk and Honey collection (nothing wrong with liking that one, but if you know, you know).
Trigger Warning: suicide, depression, abuse, etc
Being able to write about these dark topics so poetically is truly remarkable. I found it to be pretty average, but beautiful and relatable in the way we as humans box our issues away until we want to revisit them.

I liked this book. The phase started well and hooked me up from the start till the end. The way the poems were was just-
I almost cried

Overall, this Is one hell of a mook.

While I enjoyed this collection as a whole, parts felt disjointed and detached. I appreciated the sense of development and growth that is conveyed through each section. The art fit perfectly with the book's themes, and I thought that the concept of 6 'rooms', each with an underlying emotion, worked really well. Overall I really enjoyed this book but felt the writing and emotional impact could've been stronger.

4.5 stars*

Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the eARC for an honest review of this poetry collection.

I read Makenzie Campbell's other work, Nineteen, last year and can really see her development as a writer since then to now. This book explores loneliness, fear, heartbreak, nostalgia, love and hope (each having its own chapter) and as the reader I feel that I was able to watch as Campbell grew into someone that can see her worth. The book follows a growth that pours from the pages as you continue to the very end and I thought that was really beautiful. Even though I find Campbell's writings quite simple this is in no way a negative thing. The simple language meant that I could really get to the heart of what Campbell was saying with each piece which gave me more opportunity to relate to a lot of this collection.

I really liked Venla Saarinen's art that was featured in each chapter of the book and again really complimented the poetry with the simple but elegant artwork. I think that being able to share our vulnerabilities and sometimes our weaknesses just shows how strong we really are. Campbell definitely does this with this collection. This collection does explore the many feelings that come with a relationship, beginning and end and is something a lot of us, almost all, can appreciate.

Rooms of the Mind was a trip in which any reader can find at least one path/poem/room that can reach to them and with which they can identify. I liked that every one of the 6 rooms had behind them the main feelings with which people confront during their life.
Every person has these rooms in their mind, room where they retreat. Nobody knows which of these rooms will be open in the fallowing day and neither the order in which they are opened through time.

This style of poetry is my favourite and this collection lived up to my expectations. I really like the cover too and the blurb had my kind of poetry down to a tea.

Thank you for an advanced reader copy, I'd be keen to read more by this poet.

Thank you Netgalley for providing an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book Rooms of The Mind was enjoyable, not what excepted but still a good read. 😊

I hope to another book from this author.

I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Rooms of the Mind" is my first foray into Mackenzie Campbell's contemporary poetry. I went in fully expecting this to be more less similar to the kind of over hyped contemporary poems I’ve recently come across such as Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey," or "The Smallest of Bones" by Holly Lyn Walrath, etc. I found myself pleasantly surprised when this collection turned out to be a cut above these earlier examples: it was more, and in some ways, it was less.

Campbell’s writing is more substantial than most contemporary poetry which tends to emphasize style over content. While her poems appear to follow the same superficial conventions, everything from the grammar, diction, punctuation feel very deliberate. The format is an amalgamation of various styles, with some poems written in free verse forms, some following a rhyme scheme, while others read like streams of consciousness ripe with metaphors; certain emotions are personified and evolve with each progressive appearance lending the collection a sense of cohesiveness.

The poems themselves are divided into 6 rooms or chapters: In Lonely, In Fear, In Heartbreak, In Nostalgia, In Love, and In Hope. The concept behind this format is that the human brain compartmentalizes different emotions, feelings, experiences, and fears into separate rooms within the mind in order to make sense of them. In the same vein, this collection is Campbell’s attempt at revisiting these emotions.

Each chapter is also accompanied by a simple illustration of a door front to help conceptualize the state of mind each door represents. While the illustrations don't add much to the actual content, they are a cute visual representation of the themes or motifs that populate each feeling.

Below is a summation of my thoughts on each chapter, the accompanying illustration, and the themes mentioned:

1. In Lonely: Water under the door and grass growing to signify stagnant growth or passage of time.

Themes: Depression, suicide, missing an ex lover, death, grief, abandonment issues, toxic relationships, sexual assault, pessimism, over-thinning, etc.

Note: When you’ve lived with your loneliness long enough, at some point it becomes almost comforting to be one with that familiar feeling of loneliness, grief, and pain; you’re too tired to move on and feel something new.

2. In Fear: Bolted door for fear of letting your thoughts out.

Themes: toxic or manipulative relationships, sexual assault, rape, abuse, violence, non-binary or gender fluid identity, indecisiveness, fear of decision making, abandonment, commitment, love, insecurities, new relationships, new love, breakups, etc.

Note: Fear of not recognizing the person that you've become. Stuck in a sort of purgatory between what you were versus who you want to be. Yet another kind of stasis. Rooted to the present for fear of the unknown future.

3. In Heartbreak: Wilting flowers in need of water

Themes: breakup, heartbreak, memories, missing an ex, etc.

Note: sometimes heartbreak can be an insidious, creeping feeling, almost like a parasite invading your home and eating away at you till there's nothing left but the pain and heartache in place of empty memories.

4. In Nostalgia: Toys at the entrance, missing the simpler times.

Themes: the absence of things, nostalgia, hindsight is 20/20, memories of past relationships, heartbreak, breakups, etc.

Note: basically can be summed up by the one Taylor Swift lyric, “I always felt I must look better in the rear view/ Missing me. At the golden gates they once held the keys to.”

5. In Love: Door with the nameplate of the happy couple, a welcoming mat ushering you into a new relationship.

Themes: new love, happy memories, separation anxiety, fear of breakups, etc.

Note: Some of the imagery tries to capture the feeling of a love so grand, so cosmic that it can't possibly be contained. While others talk about the small things in love, the minuscule details of everyday life, the many small chance events that lead up to this moment.

6. In Hope: New plants on the doorstep promising new growth

Themes: healing, growing, learning to move on, leaving a toxic or one sided relationship, acceptance that all pain is temporary, optimism that out of this we can learn and grow, hope for a better future, catharsis, independence, self love, etc.

Note: I was having a good time when this one poem completely took me out of the narrative. When she says, “the only one holding you back is YOU” it suddenly took me back to that one disastrous appointment when my therapist said the same thing when I told her my anxiety was stopping me from doing things. I knew this, what else is new??
_______________________________________________________

As a whole, Campbell’s poetry collection is a step above some of the more shallow contemporary poems in terms of cohesiveness and content.

In some ways, this poetry collection feels very personal, like it originated out of that very specific feeling of insecurity, anxiety, depression, and loneliness that follows a very painful breakup and her journey of acceptance and healing. But that is not to say that they don't make sense individually or that it is not relatable.

The poems are evocative with its strong imagery, syntax, and distinct metaphors particularly in the first half of the collection. Especially memorable is the personification of Anxiety as a tyrant, forcefully invading the landscape of the mind in which the self is a tenant; as such you're constantly at war with yourself. As the poems progress, so too does Anxiety. Evolving into an unwelcome neighbor dropping by unannounced at the most inconvenient of times and refusing to leave. It is in playing around with metaphors and motifs that Campbell truly shines.

The poems are their weakest in its repetitive themes of love, breakups, and heartache. I found those a little tedious to read, and a little cliched, but this is a purely personal preference. Moreover, it bothered me that the poems start strong and build up the momentum with some strong imagery, only to fizzle out towards the end in a very anticlimactic manner. It took away from some of her strongest poems, and I hope that’s something her other poems improve on.

All in all, Rooms of the Mind is one of my more favorite poetry collections amongst those I've read in recent times and I look forward to exploring some of Campbell's other poems. 3.5 stars.

Loved the concept of this, wandering through the rooms of the mind. Took it slowly, reading a few poems at a time. Great new work - I’ll definitely be looking into her past and future collections!

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

I really enjoyed reading this one. I am not usually reading poems, but this particular book made me realize that I should read more poetry. The author amazed me with her creativity, her way of playing with words, raw emotions and loss. Amazing work and I can not wait to read more from her!

For me this poetry collection fell into a category of averageness, for me. Some may have found this collection very touching. And don't get me wrong, few of the poems I felt deep in my heart. But they came so rarely. Poetry is always hard to review cause it hit everyone differently: all depends on what we experiences as individuals. So I'll leave the review here, cause I don't feel it'd be fair for me to give it a lower star rating than a three; cause to me a three is average. Which is right where it fell for me. You might have more of a connection than me and that is the beauty of poetry.

I know I'm not supposed to tell you what I wished for
but I will say
It looks a lot like your hand in mine
It looks a lot like you staying

A poetry collection about lost love, heartbreak, missing a romantic partner but also, anxiety, trying to restore faith in youself, dealing with dark thoughts!
Even though I tend to not like this type of modern, more simplistic poetry, I ended up really really enjoying this one, mostly because I was in an unexpected romantic mood and thought the lyrics about heartbreak were beautiful, even though they were definitely very simple! Something else that made me very happy was the fact that a couple of poems mentioned attraction to more than one gender which I absolutely needed to see and found so, so amazing!

Rooms of the Mind was a lovely dip into the profound inner thoughts and the journey of experience. This collection spanned a wide view of love, heartbreak, and the hope that carries you along with the dark.
While I haven't delved into poetry much before, there was something missing for me. It seems to all be said before in just a different format. However it not being exactly for me, I do believe that others would enjoy it.
Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

There's a huge caveat to my review of this book today: I got an e-galley for Kindle, which was so strangely formatted as to make me constantly second guess whether I was reading a new poem or a continuation of the last one every few stanzas. This pervading doubt is not terribly conducive to enjoyment of a poem's flow, much less its message, so my apologies for any obtuseness on my end caused by this.

That said, I did find my brain mulling over the writing more than once, as Makenzie Campbell describes several different compartments in her mind. Mulling is a good thing, to be clear. She writes about very universal, relatable feelings, whether they be love or hope or fear or nostalgia, in ways that reminded me of chapters of my own life. The emotions felt very raw and true -- even if I did sigh a little at the portentous declarations of turning a heartbroken 21, like, chiiiiild, just you wait! -- and more than once, I felt snagged on a particular snapshot of feeling, and had to sit with it to ponder for a while before I could move on. Once I finished the book, I also went back and started to read again from the beginning, to see if things looked differently the second go-round. I was rewarded with greater insight on the second pass-through, as matters that had seemed opaque as I was reading the first time slid into greater clarity: this speaks to the richness of the collection.

For all that the book hangs together seamlessly enough to warrant circling back round to an immediate re-read, however, I don't necessarily think that the thematic divisions worked as well as intended. There was a lot of overlap, particularly in the last half, and just a wee bit too much repetition. Overall, it's a laudable attempt at structure that I think could have used greater stringency in (self-)editing.

In addition, there were things that I freely admit hit my pet peeve buttons in this volume. The first was the highly irritating (to me) use of adjectives as nouns. I get it, it's poetry, language is fungible, but the way words like "empty", for example, were used instead of "emptiness" in this text reminded me of the deeply annoying way popular fiction in the 21st century has replaced the noun form of "desire" with "want", not out of any artistry but because of a bizarre misunderstanding of how the parts of language work. I'm hardly opposed to the evolution of meaning but change needs to not be gratuitous, nor driven by ignorance. I actually liked the use of "lonely" for "loneliness" in the room breakdown because it fits with the way people actually speak (i.e. "I feel lonely" is more commonly used than "I feel loneliness" tho the latter is more grammatically correct, if swiftly becoming more archaic.) It fit as well as with the theme and the meter and the play of words. If only every word usage here had felt as deliberate!

Speaking of deliberate, I was also unsure if Ms Campbell meant for some of her poetry to reference/sound like popular song lyrics. Either way, I didn't care for it. Song lyrics are a step up from generic, often mawkish greeting cards, and rely on music and delivery for much of their impact and meaning. Do some song lyrics approach the level of poetry? Sure. But I expect better from poetry actual, which at its best evokes mood or situations with discipline and economy, with words alone. Interestingly, there was plenty of discipline and economy on display in Venla Saarinen's lovely line illustrations here, which complemented the text nicely.

This was my first exposure to Ms Campbell's poetry, and I think she has lots of potential, particularly since she's very good at teasing out emotions and making her situations feel universal. I do think her verse, at least in this volume, requires more rigor to consistently hit the artistic quality of poetry instead of feeling too often like random musings strung together from a microblog, or very short creative essays. Both of which are perfectly acceptable, entertaining forms of literature! They're just not poetry, in my mind, or at least not the kind of verse that is masterfully, carefully shaped by a wordsmith instead of being thrown haphazardly down on the page. Emotions are fine, but artistry requires discipline in order to approach greatness.

Rooms Of The Mind by Makenzie Campbell was published September 14 2021 by Central Avenue Publishing and is available from all good booksellers, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/15382/9781771682497">Bookshop!</a>