This one was okay. I didn't really relate to it. People who relate will probably enjoy this a lot more.

Meaningful and detailed literary work. I appreciate this poet’s skill and authentic sharing, and would gladly share this collection with others.

This poetry collection focuses on eating disorders and other mental illnesses/traumas. I found that this poetry connected to me even if I hadn't experienced the exact ED the author did.

It is very important when reading these poems to ensure you are in the right headspace due to the triggering material within. As someone who has been physically recovered from anorexia, it was still a difficult read as I remembered the way my brain used to function. How parasitic my thoughts could be. However, sometimes reading the experiences of others can help us see our own clearer, and bring a sense of peace knowing that we truly aren't alone. Somehow the voice of Ana or Mia don't change greatly between their victims.

I do recommend reading this if you are in a space to. It was beautiful and cruel, thought provoking, raw...it was something that made me analyze my own brain.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions, ratings, and critiques are my own.

The Number 12 Looks Just Like You is a stunning poetry collection that focuses on the narrator's struggle with body dysmorphia, eat disorders, and the impacts that those have on a body, mind, and spirit. While the poet does recognize that not everyone will understand not having had the same experiences, there is a sympathy in reading this collection. It still manages to bring your mind to a place where you are analyzing your own setbacks and traumas, and how this has transformed everyone in some way. It's an important collection for anyone to read.

A really dark but deeply compelling collection of poetry tackling eating disorders. As someone who does struggle with this issue myself it was really moving. I would advise readers to be mindful of open discussion of disordered eating would effect them in their healing journey though.

These peoms were eye-opening & simply divine. Perkovich's writing is impactful and necessary in so many ways. This collection deserves to be seen and will be heard.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for this arc through netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Beautifully evocative works dealing with some of the most hard to face realities of our society. There is such a sense of pain and strength in this collection that truly deserves every readers undivided attention.

This book… yeah.
A tough cookie.
I hope that others who read it see something else in this book.
I honestly hope no one else finds this book as relatable as I did.
I hope no one sees themselves in those pages.
Then again, if that is you too, if that is your experience also, I hope this book finds you, I hope this book validates your experience, I hope this book makes you feel seen, heard, and understood, I hope this book feels like a hug of acknowledgment that you are not alone. That there are others out there who have been and are suffering the same (or same-ish) way. As cruel as that might sound now, it helps if you know that you are not alone in your suffering. That there are at least some people out there who know what it is like.

Ok, back to what this book is: this is a raw and exposed struggle with an eating disorder in print (or on Kindle).
There are short chapters, filled with everything, absolutely everything and anything. Beautifully written. Mostly beautiful because of the raw nature of what is written there.
This is not a book I am ever going to be gifting anyone for Christmas or birthday, but this is a book I will be telling about the few people who I talk to about those shared experiences.
Also, did I say that be book is beautiful? It is absolutely breathtakingly beautifully written.

“no one knows how to lie quite the way the mirror does”

4 stars

A great collection of poems centered on disordered eating. My favorite was The body prepares for a riot. I just wished the collection was a little longer, or maybe with a different ending. If the subject matter interests you, I would try this collection out.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautifully written book of poetry. The poems basically is about eating disorders. Eating disorders are still around and basically teenagers are the ones that get in trouble with them because of peer pressure and how people say about the teens body. I know a lot about eating disorders because I am anorexic. Fully recovered though. So I basically understand what the author is writing about. This book needs to be read by eeryone. Its worth the read .

I received a free copy of the book and is voluntarily writing a review

"I am the space that I fill, and it has always been too much, though I am still somehow never quite enough." ("Whelm", loc. 140)

Perkovich's poetry chapbook explores themes of body image and eating disorders, starving and purging and shame. Some poems are more concrete than others and some more experimental, and this is very much a collection for readers who want to work for their poems. For once my favorite piece is the shortest, "How to Become a Micro Poem"—it's one of the most straightforward but even so the title alone could be enough fodder for an essay. See also: the title, and the tattooed Barbie on the cover; take a picture-perfect, coiffed Barbie, perhaps, and then peel off her dress and her armor and see what is hidden underneath.

Chapbooks are by definition short—"The Number 12 Looks Just Like You" clocks in at fifteen poems, most of which are about a page long. I admit to struggling somewhat with chapbooks (a personal problem, and one not specific to this particular book) because of their length; it's harder to build up a narrative arc when your total word count is measured in the hundreds rather than the thousands or the tens of thousands. I'd be curious to see where this would go if expanded to a point when the body is a riot, when it's past the cycles of emptiness and haunting, when the vacant map begins to be filled in.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

The Number 12 Looks Just Like You is a collection of poems and reflections on eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Powerful and painful to read, yet it's so important for us to talk about mental health and eating disorders. As someone on the other end of this spectrum (food addiction), this was eye-opening to me. Perkovich has a gut wrenching way of reaching your soul with her words.

[Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!]