I received an ARC of this from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. This collection from new-to-me poet Patrick Roche was incredible. I devoured it in two days, but am confident I'll be returning again and again for longer lingers. I especially love his two-column poems. Well done, Patrick!!

"A Socially Acceptable Breakdown" parts the curtain to expose the raw parts of mental health and eating disorders. Roche creates honest and open dialogue about how hard fighting your own mind can be. He speaks on how it affects/affected his family life, his love life, and his self image.

I appreciate that Roche did not romanticize his struggles and instead romanticized the fight to get better. The act of healing and fighting was a theme that shone through the hardship like light peeks through curtains. These poems, while speaking on hard experiences, instill a sense of hope and self-worth that we all need nowadays.

My favorite poems are "Suburbs In July" and "Couples Therapy".

What a moving collection of poetry. This hit home for me on a lot of topics, and it was at times uplifting to know someone else has experienced these feelings, and at others gut-wrenching to see these feelings laid out in text.

I've always known Patrick Roche to be an incredible slam poet, which he has proven with more than one incredible performance on Button Poetry's YouTube channel, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this collection, It did not disappoint,

These poems explore heavy themes of mental illness and suicide, addiction, grief, and homophobia to name a few. These poems all evoke so much emotion, and I believe anyone who experiences mental health problems will hold this collection close. I know I will,

A thanks to Netgalley for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Jesus. Upon the very first poem of Patrick Roche's "A Socially Acceptable Breakdown", I felt like I was thrown back and feel the weight of every sentence the author strung together. That very first poem set the entire mood for the book. I found that I needed to re-read it three times, finding more emotion between the lines each time. It told me that I needed to pay extra care to the following poems, ready to dissect each line in order to better see the image Roche created on each page. Truly, these poems shook me to my care. It was like taking all the ugly (everything we as human beings deem as flaws and unacceptable), and putting it under a microscope. But instead of hating it, instead of trying to kill it, Roche finds a way to make the reader connect to it. To see it. To know all of that, all that we hide, is okay. Because it doesn't stop you from being yourself--from being the magic that can retell an old narrative.

4.5 / 5 Stars

I have to admit, that I feared, that this book - as amazing and deep as it is - would be only a 3 star, because the writing stlye was putting me off a bit. It's the kind of style Amanda Lovelace has as well and it's never been - and never will be - my prefered kind of poetry style.

This book however, managed to win me over completly, the second I read the poem "Couples Therapy". It was such a deep, touching and emotional poem, and maybe even my favourit one of the whole collection. If you're wondering what the poem is about: Depression.
Not all the poems that came after managed to hit me quiet as hard, but that's more personal taste than anything else. Because, this collection was definitifly something else. Something amazing and something that I don't come across too often.
If you read this - which you should - prepare to feel vulnerable, exposed, sad but also, hopefull.

Truly, an amazing collection of poems.

✔️ Deeply personal

✔️ Moving

✔️ Refreshing and poignant

If you like the writing and the poetry style of Amanda Lovelace, Rupi Kaur and Nikita Gill this collection is for you.

The contents covers several personal issues about mental health, relationships, family, self and so much more.

Read one poetry at a time to feel the most what these lines are trying to convey.


Thank you, author and the publisher, for the advance reader copy.

Oh wow…I feel eviscerated.

Poet and Carly Rae Jepsen fan Patrick Roche has crafted a stunning collection of visceral poetry that explores themes of love & loss, eating disorders, depression, mental health and suicidal thoughts (so trigger warnings for all) with a verbal dexterity that is often breathtaking. Roche relates his childhood as the boy who “only got a clock stuck on midnight” with an alcoholic father, in a life touched by tragedy.
In the clever “Retcon”, he compares the practice of “retconning” (when comics and TV show writers change details in previous storylines to fit in with new ones) to being able to change traumatic events in his own life-“and I think what a luxury it would be to erase or reset
at the stroke of a pen”. That resonates so much with me, not least because of the cultural reference.
Prepare to go through the emotional wringer in poems such as the heartfelt (and heartbreaking) “Self-Portrait as Piranha Plant” or “Suburbs in July”, a poignant reminder of the things we deliberately don’t or are unable to say even to those closest to us. “Gravity” explores the twisted logic of an eating disorder whilst several poems wrestle with depression.
I could quote forever - “My father drank himself into a funeral” from “Icarus”; “I start doing homework at Starbucks/I have more meaningful conversations with the barista than with my family” from “21”, a stunning entry told in a reverse countdown; “It’s so easy to tell someone you “forgot” to eat breakfast/If you word it the right way” from “Hocus Pocus”, which begins as a tribute to the movie of the same name but becomes something darker and will resonate with readers with eating disorders. Oh wow, here’s another line from it -“What is more witchcraft than the way this/body keeps moving forward/even when I put nothing into it”.
Oh god, here’s another awesome couple of lines - “So my phone grows heavier and heavier, heavy with/an albatross of words, heavy with apologies I should be/offering…” from “Ode to My Unread Messages”.
Things get progressively tougher in the third part. “Instructions on Having the Perfect Panic Attack” is exactly that and should be approached with caution, whilst “Every 40 Seconds” refers to the official statistics of how many people commit suicide each year, and it is about suicide, and oh boy, it’s a tough one, especially if you’ve been touched by suicide, but it ends on a hopeful note - “Hundreds of thousands of people are dying in silence/because of silence/but this is saying/we can keep each other breathing”. This is the best poem about suicide I have ever read. The final poem “Open Letter to the Author”, in which Roche addresses himself, ends the collection positively - “There’s a difference between you and yesterday./One still exists.”
Gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and brutally honest, “A Socially Acceptable Breakdown” shows Patrick Roche can do things with the alphabet that will turn you inside out.

This is so unique. I haven't read a poetry book like this before. I love all the pop culture references, and this makes it feel relevant. (I don't know how quickly this will feel dated)
The poetry and prose is so very heartfelt. This means that even if you haven't been through any of the things mentioned in the text, you still feel something.
This is a book that I will read and re-read time and time again.

A Socially Acceptable Breakdown explores Patrick’s struggle with depression, evolving relationship with his mother, father’s alcoholism and death, and homosexuality. I have read Patrick’s previous two chapbooks and watched his slam poetry videos on YouTube. Patrick Roche is one of my favorite poets. His writing is always raw with emotion and incredibly eloquent. Those who have struggled with mental illness will definitely be able to relate.