dvdpcp's review against another edition
4.0
Would have given 3.5 if able I think. Had written an entire paragraph working through my thoughts but my phone restarted & it got deleted. Was feeling pushback initially because this type of femininity that’s trying to finding meaning and identity outside of male desire isn’t something I experience and I think to be so dismissive of something I wanted for so long made me feel anger, which is stupid and either misogynistic or sad or both. But I worked through it while reading and was able to just sit with her emotions and let mine go and I really liked the abstractness of the imagery, and the titling of the poems. A lot’s happening in cars! That felt very LA to me. I liked how the descriptions of intimacy felt dissociative and clinical in a way I don’t experience, that felt very interesting. The feeling of being comforted by death was also a persistent undercurrent that is foreign to me but I understand. Overall liked but I think it didn’t speak to a truth I have and have tried to articulate, I was just absorbing someone else’s experience
jonathan_lee_b's review against another edition
5.0
I Will Never Be Beautiful Enough to Make Us Beautiful Together is a cold shower that gets warmer but cold again.
cameronbcook's review against another edition
Not everything works, but what does work is so good it’ll make you stand up
tyardley's review against another edition
1.0
Well if I had known I could take my blog posts from high school and become a published poet, I sure would have. I’m not exactly a poetry scholar, but I’m confused about the definition of “poetry” here.
I picked this up at goodwill because it was cute and small and had the word “fuck” in it. I am likely taking it back there because my bookshelf will not allow me to shelve this teeny 1/4” paperback.
I picked this up at goodwill because it was cute and small and had the word “fuck” in it. I am likely taking it back there because my bookshelf will not allow me to shelve this teeny 1/4” paperback.
zachwerb's review against another edition
2.0
It may seem unfair to compare this to others books in the recommended reading category, but it feels (justified?) to me. Alone with other people (Gabby Bess) deals with a feminine perspective combined with sexual experiences and the insufferable void that is our emotion with attachment to the internet, but does it in such a genuine and stylized way, that reading this fell short of that experience. Mira Gonzalez prose usually begin I, I, I, and although this is her choice, constantly saying I did something, I felt something, I ate something, does not constitute creating empathy (at least in my mind). This these actions could be taken as meaningless, but she constantly interacts with men and shares thoughts that I guess are meant to be vulnerable and become sort of shallow. Even when she talks about sex, its not taken to a raunchy/vulnerable place and it's so disassociated from any emotion the poems force the reader to view her in a sexless, sexual manner. She does not share her life, she takes action so she can have something to share to the reader.
meghan_is_reading's review against another edition
I didn't like this, if only because it dwells on thoughts I think when I'm in a shitty mental place and I much prefer not to dwell.
glitterandtwang's review
2.0
i'm not sure what other people saw in this. there were two or three interesting images and turns of phrase, but it otherwise read a lot like some relatively well-written livejournal entries. a line break and lack of punctuation do not in themselves make a poem.
More...