I never finished the book, which is my own fault.
I guess this brand of poetry is just not for me. I couldn't understand what the author tried to tell and thus lost all interst in reading.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity

Not my cup of tea

This was a decent book! As I said in many of my other reviews, it's hard to earn 4 stars from me. This was still a very good book though! I loved the writing and felt like it was definitely well-planned out with symbolism and other things about it. Overall, great book!

This poetry collection had some evocative imagery, particularly with graffiti, color, and light. I liked “//holyhome,” “under the bridge,” and “sun eater” the most. They had the biggest impact on me and left me thinking.

However, I found most of the other poems vague and somewhat repetitive in the imagery used. I usually rate poetry collections by how many poems I enjoyed or felt were strong, and there were just too few in this collection for me to recommend it.

The book as a meal: My meal today was a cigarette, and I kept it in my mouth after it burned out
The book left me: Reflecting on my teenage years and the problematic relationships I had

Why did this call out to me?
Something about the cover just screamed "you will relate to his, you will be depressed by this, but you will enjoy it"

Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?
Pick-up-able, I simply swalled the whole book in maybe 20 minutes


Progression?
Improves, it started somewhat depressing, but became optimistic the further I went. At least thats how I read it

Issues:
Formatting migh be a little jarring and hard to read

Good things:
Diverse selection
Got me feeling and thinking from poem #1

How did it feel to read?
I am a teenager again, I am with my first love, I am not happy in this relationship, but it will get better eventually ...right?

What mood would I read this in?
I am at the end of a depressive episode, and this might either make it worse or better, but we aim for better

Where does this fall in my tier list ranking?
This is more so a B, simply becasue it is a little short and also it awoke memories I thought I had buried a long time ago

Favorite poems:
Your Bodies
pretty places
//holyhome
invocation

Very insubstantial collection. The formatting felt like a pretension rather than a well thought out artistic choice.

im still unsure what to rate this book. as with every collection, each story/poem/part is different in itself and one's enjoyment will fluctuate. some poems are hits, others are misses, and only the author knows whats hidden behind the lines. the main issue i had with the book was the formatting/the delve into free verse. in his attempt to get their point across the author sounds like another rupi kaur or gabbie hanna. when every word is given lots of meaning, the overall picture becomes more and more meaningless. i did love some of the metaphors tho, "why i dont talk to god" and "andthe snowsun meltsme" absolutely broke me.

Beautiful metaphor clashes with near inscrutable form in "sun eater." Levant has a way with symbolism and style but the form and verse can be off-putting for new or casual poetry readers. Despite that, the collection boasts hopefulness and resilience in a world that can feel dark. Worth the read if you like this style.

My favorite poems are: "and what is violet", "//holyhome", "under the bridge", and "a lily is a paradox."

I got this as an arc on Netgalley. This book of poetry was short and sweet, the type of poetry you find yourself reflecting on afterwards. Interesting sentence structures and ways of describing things.

not much that stuck with me. just did not feel like a strong collection. formatting and layout felt distracting rather than stylistic, which is to say the formatting did not enhance the poems directly