Not all the poems in "A Socially Acceptable Breakdown" moved me, but those that did, deserve a five star rating. Also, it's a five star cover, too.

Patrick Roche's poetry feels very current and truly relatable for people with experiences of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, difficult family dynamic. He uses metaphors in such a mature way, it's truly remarkable. Roche also has this unique skill of visually designing his poems so they can be read in different ways, creating different reading experiences, depending on how you choose to interact with them.

I appreciate that some poems were given explanations of their contexts, creating more understanding and appreciation for author's inspirations. I have never read Patrick Roche's poems before "A Socially Acceptable Breakdown" but now I am on a hunt for more. I am also planning to use some of the poems in a therapeutic setting with my clients.

I really enjoyed the opening poem, I thought it was very cleverly done. I also enjoyed the artwork on the front of the book and the title page.

However the layout of the rest of the book i found hard to read.

Thank you for the arc.

Recently I made the resolution to read more poetry, because in the end I love poetry, and in this period of time specifically I find myself represented more and more in poetry than in novels and so on.
I started with Some things I still can't tell you by Misha Collins which left me open and raw, and then this book came along and... I'm even more open and raw, if that could be possible.
A socially acceptable brakdown by Patrick Roche is sincere, incisive like a punch in the gut, it is real.
Many of us, particularly in this pandemic world, are currently struggling with their life. It being at a physical or psychological level, we are indeed struggling. A lot.
This book explores that struggle in many ways, but I recommend it particularly if your mental health is not at its peak and you feel like nobody can hear you or comprehend you and you are fighting with yourself and you own mind everyday.

Maybe I’ll come back to this in the near future but for now I didn’t enjoy this and DNF’ed for now. I struggled with getting through the poems as there wasn’t much punctuation which doesn’t work well for me. However I do think this is a personal thing and most people would enjoy this poetry even with the hard topics such as mental illness, eating disorders, grief etc.

Poetry is a difficult thing to evaluate because its a reflection of the author's deepest thoughts, sometimes more so than typical fiction. Poetry was also something I always struggled with in school, so I went into this work with some uncertainty.

I felt that some of the poems in this work were really well structured and dug deep into subjects of pain, struggling with one's mental and physical health, and being queer and dealing with societal judgement.

As other reviews have stated, some pieces weren't the best, and in comparison with the stronger pieces, felt like fillers and took me out of the headspace that I think the author was going for.

TW: mental health, depression, eating disorder, alcohol addiction, homophobia, suicidal thoughts

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really wanted to like this, but it was not for me. Most of it didn’t feel like poetry and rather prose written on descending lines. The imagery wasn’t there but I did like the simile that was brought up at the beginning with him and fairytales.

Again, this book was not for me, but might be right for someone else.

I won't rate this any lower than a two because I didn't read it, however, the first few pages didn't suck me in like normally poetry does. I was a little disappointed, but I might come around again.

Extremely deep and personal poetry collection. Patrick Roche's writing style is incredibly complex, immersive and breath-taking. The depth and the dynamic of the poems are truly fascinating. Although the title sets a very dark mood, the poetry collection is not entirely focused on the tragedy of life. The numerous pop-culture make it very easy to connect with. A lot of wordplay and poetic innovation make Roche's poem unique and ingenious. The dedications made reading this poetry collection feel more like an experience through a poet's life. The lack of sugar-coating and romanticisation cause the content of this book to feel much more raw and realistic, heart-breaking even. While the poems tend to be somewhat heavy, I do not think this is a drawback, because that ensures that all the feelings the author intended to implement in his works, have actually reached the reader. The trigger warnings include death, eating disorders, trauma, depression, homophobia, alcoholism, grief, medication, suicide and suicidal thoughts, figuring out your sexuality and embracing it, self-harm, etc. "A Socially Acceptable Breakdown" is written in a very brave way, gives a lot of food for thought and reaches the places of the soul we try our best to hide. An absolute must-read for poetry lovers.

The publisher and netgalley kindly provided me with an e-arc..

Tw for eating disorder, alcohol addiction, homophobia

There were some beautiful heart wrenching poems about queerness and about family and I was really impressed by the authors voice. However some poems were not something I could connect with so that"s why I ended up giving it three stars. As always three stars is not bad I really did enjoy it.

Thanks to Button Poetry for giving me the ARC trough netgalley in exchange of a honest review*

I came across this book by accident in Netgalley; the cover caught my attention and i thought I was on the comic/graphic novels section so I request it, when in reality I was in the lgbt genre, so when I downloaded and opened the book i was surprised to find this was a literary book of poems no less, oops.

Thankfully i'm not adverse to poetry, goth teen me liked it very much, but nowadays i don't aproach that side of literature on my own, to be honest. However, after reading this collection of poems by Patrick Roche who opens the most vulnerable parts of his life in a down to earth so everyone can take a peek at the uncomfortable aspects of dealing with depression, eating disorders, growing up with an alcoholic parent, and the innate fear and self-loath of being painfully queer at a very young age and try in no vain to hide it, I realize there's hidden gems, queer gems, inside poetry that are worth seeking out.

I've read self-reflecting works about people with mental illness before, and while many share the same struggles, the way every single one perceives it is different which makes every read not repetitive. Roche's quirky, modern analogies makes this an entertaining read albeit sobering at times.

Great discovery, now i'm curious about his past works.

<i>A Socially Acceptable Breakdown</i> (What a great title) has some nice poems. Unfortunately, not a lot of them resonated with me personally. However, I think that they will for many people who have had similar experiences as the author as well as some who have not.

This book deals with some very heavy topics, but handles them with care, tact and grace. It is delivered poignantly through the art of words. I very much appreciate the depth with which the author breaks down and constructs their thoughts on queerness and mental health. To see these topics which can be so guarded and hushed laid bare was cathartic.

I've been a longtime fan of Roches slam poetry, in fact most of the artists featured by Button Poetry have always been brilliant, so I had very high expectations picking up this collection and I was not disappointed.

A Socially Acceptable Breakdown is a journey through humanity - through our minds in it's darkest and most joyous places. Dealing with themes like mental illness, queerness, body image, families, loss, and even magic, each individual poem reached out and felt like it was addressing the reader directly in the most heartfelt and personal way.

The style was fluid and evolving throughout - this is not the type of poetry that is uniform and structured. From classic stanzas and short stories, jumping to harsh, disjointed and abrupt and then to almost dreamlike in places, each poem felt completely seperate from the others but still fit together perfectly.

Scattered with joyful references to pop culture; x-men, hocus pocus, Divine, and of course Carly Rae Jepsen - and full of other mentions of myth and magic that make you feel some level of familiarity with the words and appeal to the inner nerd in all of us. Full of witty wordplay and wickedly clever concepts, this is a refreshing and magical take on a difficult subject, one that manages to focus on the joy of recovery, the hope of a future, rather than trying to romanticise and stigmatize suffering people.

Some of my favourites were Icarus - an evocative, emotional short poem of couplets, 21 - a listed poem with a striking visual style and Self-Portrait as an Opossum which resonated somewhere deep in my tired soul. The most memorable may be 40 Seconds, a brutally honest, raw piece about the frequency and urgency of suicide in modern times - this was haunting beautiful, poignant and will be one I revisit often.

Content warnings- Eating disorders, depression, alcoholism, homophobia, death of a parent, suicideal thoughts, grief and panic attacks/disorders.

This reflective poetry book was very relatable and emotional to read. Many of the poems delt with dark topics many pertaining to  queer identities and how hard it is to live up to the stereotypes associated with gay men.
On the other hand, I did not like the flow of the book itself. I found the poems to go from depressing to talking about family and such a little too quickly without a poem to bridge then together. This was mostly on those pages that had two poems on them inwhich there did not seen to be anything relating the two poems.
All in all I deeply resonated with many of the poems which made up for the few issues I had.

I received an arc of this poetry collection from NetGalley and Button Poetry in exchange for an honest review.


Content warnings- Eating disorders, depression, alcoholism, homophobia, death of a parent, suicideal thoughts, grief and panic attacks/disorders.

This reflective poetry book was very relatable and emotional to read. Many of the poems delt with dark topics many pertaining to  queer identities and how hard it is to live up to the stereotypes associated with gay men.
On the other hand, I did not like the flow of the book itself. I found the poems to go from depressing to talking about family and such a little too quickly without a poem to bridge then together. This was mostly on those pages that had two poems on them inwhich there did not seen to be anything relating the two poems.
All in all I deeply resonated with many of the poems which made up for the few issues I had.

I received an arc of this poetry collection from NetGalley and Button Poetry in exchange for an honest review.

CW: mental illness, medication/antidepressants, alcoholism, cancer, death, dementia, self harm, hospitalization, addiction, eating disorder, suicide

Thank you to NetGalley and Button Poetry for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

In this poetry collection, the author talks about experiences and the emotions carrying them through. The poems read like short stories, not overly broken up, with terms explained when needed to provide context for stronger understanding. There is a lot of feeling here, and it comes across as raw and genuine. Though I didn't connect with all of the poems, I still felt that they were written well, and the emotional connection was clear. Some of the content is heavy, but it is handled delicately.

A Socially Acceptable Breakdown is a poignant piece of art. Roche delivers passages packed with such raw emotions that I found myself stopping to just let everything sink in.

This one does have some harsh content. Be cautious if any of these hit too close: eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, abuse, alcoholism.

Thank you NetGalley and Button Poetry for providing me an e arc of this poetry collection!
(tw discussion of eating disorders & suicide)///
This poetry collection explores many complex topics mostly living with an eating disorder, finding/accepting your own queer identity and suicide . The concept was beautiful and some of the poems were a level above the rest for example ‘every 40 seconds’. However I did think some of the poems were very clunky and hard to read as well as this the poems were very literal. This may be what some people look for in their poetry but for me it did not leave much for me to think about because it was all stated on the page, this made it hard for me to make an emotional connection to the poems. Some of the poems although literal were still very beautiful and worked very well. I would recommend that anyone who is interested in reading this book should look up a list of trigger warnings. I gave this book 3 stars.

This collection of poetry deals with mental illness/health and queerness and I absolutely adored the way these topics and especially the darker aspects of them are discussed. Even though many poems are heavy, emotional and I‘d definitely recommend caution if you‘re sensitive to explicit depiction of experiences with depression etc., the collection still left me with a sense of hope. I‘ll definitely re-read this one!

4.5/5⭐: wow! This book is so good, like I really jelled with a lot of the poetry in this collection. These poems discuss queerness and mental illness (especially depression) with such grace without trying to sugarcoat the realities of struggling in those departments. The book did deal with the topic of suicide so if that is triggering, then you might want to make note before picking up this collection. However, I thought that the topics were dealt with elegance and the word play was astounding.

I really enjoyed all the references to "classic" especially the fairy tales, comics, and the greek myths. There was a moment that I was reading where the description hit me and bam I could see the cover art in my head. I thought the poetry was raw without being emotionally draining if that makes sense. My personal favorite poems were "fairy tale" and "retcon" so look out for those. I would highly recommend reading the poems out loud as the sound work hits the spot and brings it to the next level. Honestly, the only reason this book is not a five is just down to personal preference, this book is otherwise simply spectacular.

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

This was one of the best poetry collections I've ever read and a fantastic look at mental illness from somebody who has been there. I was blown away multiple times by the poems in here and how well they captured anxiety and depression. Definitely use caution when reading because it gets pretty dark (self-harm, suicide). I appreciate that the author doesn't shy away from anything because it makes the collection hit home. Strongly recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.