This is a weird review because I love Rupi Kaur’s work and her writing style on Instagram but as a book, it wasn’t for me. I love the individual poems. As a book to flip open when you fancy some beautiful words it’s great, but reading them too close together it quickly becomes very samey. Maybe I’m just odd in the way I read poetry books and most people do just have them out and read one as and when.
The poems themselves, by and large, I found emotive. They cover some very difficult but important topics, they capture emotion and the human experience in a succinct but moving way.
Her TED talk remains one of my favourites of all time. It’s a heartbreaking and empowering performance which I doubt will ever lose its power. If you’ve not seen it before, I highly recommend it.
Video CW: sexual assualt, rape.
So this is no slight on Kaur’s work. She’s a talented poet but, essentially, I think her work is suited to the medium that birthed it. While it is a beautiful collection of powerful poems and did inspire me to try writing in her style, I didn’t feel it translated well into a book.
3/5 TeePots.
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