I didn't feel like this had any ties to Taylor Swift lyrics, but I feel like that's a strength for it. The poems are well organized, touching, and meaningful.

I really enjoyed this Taylor Swift-inspired curation of poetry, much of which I was unfamiliar with, but ended up loving. It's got a great, varied mix of classical poets, themes, and forms. It might have been nice to include some more modern poets within the different themes, but nonetheless, still an educational and thought-provoking collection.

I'm not sure *how* connected any of this poetry is to Taylor Swift (we can only lightly assume she's consulted poetry in her songwriting?), but I think it's a unique idea, and we can connect a lot of the themes from the poetry included to those in her songwriting. After all, Taylor's discography is full of the universal themes of heartbreak, revenge, folklore, and peace. It's also a timely tome with the recent release of TTPD. Another thing this book and Taylor Swift songs have in common? You'll need to keep a dictionary nearby. ;-) It's a way to include more scholarship in our pop culture, and I really enjoyed connecting with these poems.

I especially loved "The Sparrow," "A Noiseless Patient Spider," "Joy," and "Nature is what we see."

It's a book you want to buy and spend time with -- a book to pour over, muse, and find meaning in. A book to read and come back to. Also, it's a great gift for any elder millennial Swiftie!

Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. POEMS FOR TORTURED SOULS is out 9/3/24.

Love this book, so much…. Listed on Ink-a-Dink Bookshop Storefront so far, linked below. Spotlight Review upcoming date TBD, will be sharing on Goodreads, Amazon, Ink-a-dink.com and socials. Girls’ Life coverage TBD. Thank you for sharing this book.

This is a beautiful collection of poetry, perfect for fans of Taylor's discography. While the selections definitely felt like they were uniquely picked, I'd have liked more information on why they were chosen.

This was cool as I'm a big Swiftie. However, I guess I'm not too into Old English types of poems.

I adore this cover, and the poems fit the chosen themes, which is awesome. I did like that it gave me a chance to reread the poems I read in college getting my literature degree, but sometimes my brain doesn't work too well with less modern English.

For those who love classic English literature and poetry as well as Taylor Swift, I will recommend this to them!

I loved the title of this book and was so excited to read it but it was a bit of a disappointment to me. I liked some of the poems in the revenge section but for the most part I didn’t find most of these classic poems particularly tortured or spectacular. And with the exception of The Raven, not a single one of my favorite poems that I would classify as perfect for tortured souls were in here — The Highwayman, Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight, Annabelle Lee, To Lucasta, Going to the Wars, On Being Brought from Africa to America, We Real Cool, anything by Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath… Sorry, but all chapters but one were rather meh for me.

I read a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.