4 Stars (I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

This collection is as beautiful as the cover artwork and is quite impressive given the author is male and the poems are focused from a female perspective. The ending of each poem includes some form of the lines "made of flowers and steel", which can get repetitive at times but can also be very fitting depending on the content of the poems. This was a gorgeous collection and I would love to pick up a physical copy of this book.

I am so torn on how to rate and review this collection of poems, some are great some aren't... but like others, I am super turned off by the idea of a man putting themselves in the shoes of women and writing about those experiences. I am not saying this person didn't experience these things, but I am saying the poems on some of the harder topics feel less genuine than others. Topics like rape and abuse shouldn't be taken lightly and the poems on those topics feel as though they're making light of the situation. I just can't get excited about that.

Love the theme of empowerment running through the collection. Poems look at both personal and general issues for maximum impact and reach. Great for fans of Rupi Kaur.

I truly don't know how to feel about this poetry collection. Some poems spoke to me deeply, but others just sounded wrong. By the end of the book I realised that the reason these sounded wrong was because they were written by a man.

I am not saying men cannot write about women struggles, but abuse and rape are very sensitive topics. The author could have chosen to write about them without adopting a woman's perspective.

Another reason for my low rating is that the poems were way too literal and lacked the metaphors and flowery language that I enjoy in poetry.

they are literally
just sentences
written
in verse.

I went into this collection of poetry with high expectations and I did enjoy a lot of the poems in this book. I think the premise of writing poetry to celebrate women and uplift them is such a wonderful idea and I would have loved to seen it explored by a different author.

I felt many of these poems were very literal and on the nose and while I found the “flowers and steel” motif charming at first, it became so repetitive towards the end.

But my biggest problem with this book is it’s author. I’m not saying that men cannot write about women’s issues at all but in this case I feel a bit lied to. It wasn’t until I saw the “about the author” section that I realised it was written by a man and it doesn’t appear I’m alone in this. With the constant use of first person pronouns (me, I, us) I think it was natural to believe this was written from the personal experiences of women. But it wasn’t. And I actually find a man writing about young girls being molested to be really unsettling. The fact that he attempts to rally women together but referring to “us” as one really makes my blood boil. And side-note, it is not just “us women’s job” to teach men not to assault and harass women.

Really disappointed.

Rating: 5 🌟
First and foremost, I'd like to express my gratitude to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this copy.
Disclaimer: This review is solely based on my own opinion.

Trigger warning: Rape, molestation & domestic abuse.PLEASE DO READ THESE WARNINGS BEFORE READING THIS Collection Of poems, AS IT CAN BE VERY DISTURBING.

why does
no one ever tell us
we need to get old enough to not need our mother?
mom, you were made of flowers and you were made of the loveliest steel - GOD ON EARTH

This is the type of poetry book where I read the first poem and immediately know I'm going to award it five stars. Many of the poems captured my attention and heart. And I was astonished to learn that this was written by a man since I had assumed it would be a woman based on the author's name. HUHU, I FELT CATFISHED.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

This book is okay. I have no such feeling for most poems, especially when it is written by a male. Some of them are okay.

Actual Rating = 2.5 stars rounded up to 3

This was a cohesive collection in that there was solid thematic consistency throughout the pieces. That's not easy to pull off, especially given the volume of poetry in this work.

Unfortunately, I found the poems to be very literal, lacking a lot of the imagery and metaphor I enjoy in poetic works. This is at least partially a personal preference issue, so I didn't let that lower my rating.

CW: mentions of rape and domestic abuse

wait a minute… not me finishing this and finding out it was written by a man!?

okay i’m not saying men can’t write about women and our struggles. BUT THIS BOOK TALKS ABOUT RAPE AND ABUSE!!!? like i feel like i’ve been catfished or something because there were poems where i almost teared up and connected with. but then there would be others that sounded so cheesy and cliche. I was almost not going to rate this because I don’t like to rate poetry or nonfiction low. since they’re normally so personal. But idk how I feel about this now that I know that this was written by a man…

P.s. It annoyed me how every poem ended with some kind of variation of "I am made of flowers I am made of steel..."

thanks you netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book.

I gave up around the 50% mark. I was really weirded out by this not only because this is not good poetry (I will maintain that a lot of things belong to tumblr and diaries) but also because this was a made, writing about assault from the perspective of a woman? There was also this line about how women have to raise better men that really bugged me; like dude, do your own raising.

There are better ways of being an ally than trying to capitalize off female experiences.

Es un buen poemario. It was hard to read sometimes but it was good enough for me.
At the end of every single poem, there was this phrase about being made of steel and it was tedious to read.
Despues de eso, habla sobre el empoderamiento y el aceptarce a une misme, cosa que hizo qeu remontara la calificacion.

This was a tough poetry collection to read and review.

Mainly because it was written by a man. That wouldn’t be an issue at all except that there are ‘poems’ about what it’s like for a woman being raped, harassed, having a miscarriage etc
I must admit the author did his research and this was written with the best of intentions. But instead of feeling inspired and empowered after reading it, I felt uneasy and disturbed.

Now, would I have still felt this way if I hadn’t known the author was a male? I can’t say exactly. Which I understand is unfair but unfortunately, good intentions or not, I feel there are some things men shouldn’t try to write about from a females perspective.

Because while this is fiction it’s also very, very real.

I applaud the author for what he tried to do and for the effort he took in trying to understand how it is for us. But I think this was the wrong way to spread his message.

I understand how this may seem sexist and I don’t want to discourage men from trying to understand and support the plight we as women face. But it just fell very short for what is supposed to be an inspiring book.

Made of Flowers and Steel had some beautiful work in it but they were grossly overshadowed by the more graphic poems from a female perspective.

A poem about rape shouldn’t contain the line “it is up to us women to raise better men.’
Or
“For Women to be strong and capable.”
Another one that left me feeling uneasy was the “grow a vag”

All in all, I only finished reading this as I received an Arc from #NetGalley and because the author put in so much effort.

I debated reviewing this for a while because I wasn't sure if I could do so without being outright rude, but I feel like something needs to be said. This is probably the most demeaning, sexist attempt at empowering women I've ever encountered. I was hesitant going in because it's written by a man, but I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. It has a beautiful cover and a very promising title.

Unfortunately, the good things about the book stop there. It's incredibly repetitive, and not in a lyrical way. It also features countless clichés, some sex-shaming, and what I feel is trauma porn. This comes in the form of several poems from the points of view of women and young (kindergarten aged) girls who have been raped or molested. Some of it is slightly graphic and not at all empowering.

I think the premise is a good idea. The repetition, if done well, could have worked. But the author should maybe stay away from writing about young girls being molested and let women who have actually experienced that write about it.