Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry

I was not expecting this. Usually artists and celebrities don’t produce the best written work regardless of how talented they are musically or elsewhere. Halsey broke that mold. My pages were stained with tears from reading some of these poems. She talks about love and loss and addiction and miscarriage and motherhood and dreams and the industry— this book moved me and i would gladly give it 10 stars if i could. No gimmicks, just art.

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shewantsthediction's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

2.0

Disclaimer: I'm only a casual Halsey listener and like a few of her songs. Most of these were pretty bad and amateurish, but I think that's to be expected from a poetry collection by a celebrity. A handful were really good, though, and offered some insight into her life that was both moving and very sad. (She has a lot of trauma in her past: rape, abusive relationships, etc.) Her writing has that "lost teenager in love with the wrong people" vibe about it.

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amoscreates's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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angel_kiiss's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

I actually vibed with a lot of Halsey’s poems, but if anything I think that says more about me and my relationship to my angst-filled years than it does Halsey. However, I strongly respect the criticism that this collection has garnered because it does deserve it. Like many have pointed out before, the poems are strong in foundation but feel as if they are drafts in the making. Some don’t flow well or are a little too clunky or have several out-of-topic lines that don’t read well with the rest of the poem. It’s good but it needed more time in the over, as they say.
She’s a lyricist and it shows, almost every fifth line hitting as if it’s a kick to your soul. She even includes the poem she read at the Women’s March in 2017 which is, honestly, spectacular. Every third or so poem reads like a diary entry and not a poetic stanza but that’s okay only if your a big fan of Halsey, which I am, but doesn’t ring the same if you came here to read her poetry, not a Dear Diary post.
It’s also littered with the poems that either inspired or began a lot of her songs from Manic and some from Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Many are taken straight from poem to lyric, but there are some which differ ever so slightly and it’s cool to see the different stages of the writing process. My favorite lines from Clementine are seen in the original stanza in Stockholm Syndrome Pt. 1 and as a fan that was enjoyable to see.

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