3.25/5. Read this back in 2016 and did not review it back then. I don't remember enough about it to give it proper feedback.

I received a copy of this chapbook for free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I don't entirely recall why I first requested this book of poetry. I'm not a massive fan of James Franco, and couldn't even tell you what he particularly looks like or anything he's been in or done. I do like poetry, but I've not read a great deal of it in a while. I had aspirations of making movies when I was younger, and friends in the entertainment business over the years as I floated around the edges of it...

This was a good book of poetry. Coming in relatively blind didn't hurt my enjoyment of the contents at all. Franco has put together meditations on identity - the self that we show the world and the self we actually are. Which is the real self? It's a complex question, and one that fills most of the poetry and conversations within the chapbook.

Although slender, the poems tend to stick with you. The question of why we persist in labels rather than simply accept what is before us...

I'd happily read more of Franco's work, and am curious what else he'd released in the intervening years.

James Franco's chapbook explores his sexuality and the different personas he plays on-screen and in reality. The poems have themes that focus on identity, and in these poems James explores each angle of himself, trying to discern which part of himself is real, and which has been written.

Honestly, I wanted to give Franco the benefit of the doubt. I just couldn't. While I can't disagree with his choice of theme, his execution was just terrible. As an avid reader of poetry and a writer myself, I wanted to throw this book against the wall only ten pages in.

The poems read like an entitled egoccentric teenager caught in the middle of his angst. Despite this, I can see why people find solace in this little chapbook, but only for the theme that it explores. For example, one of the pieces included is an interview to Gay James, conducted by Straight James.

I can't say that others wouldn't enjoy this book, but it definitely was not for me. I found his writing style cringy and muddled. If anything, I finished this book disliking Franco even more than I already did. (Which I didn't know was possible.)

I give this book 1 out of 5 stars. 

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great read, it transitioned nicely throughout. Some of the poems I feel should have been more of an essay, but interesting throughout, and if you're a fan of Franco in general you'll enjoy this.

I read it because it's James Franco but I never read any of his other books before. I did not know what to expect. I'm not particularly a fan of poesy.

I simply did not enjoy James Franco's poetry. I think that I may not have been the audience for it.