A review by amylittleford
Nineteen by Makenzie Campbell

3.0

3.5 stars.

Firstly, I'd like to thank NetGalley, Central Avenue Publishing and Makenzie Campbell for gifting me an eARC for an honest review.

I feel like each chapter in this book got better and better. I wasn't really getting much from the first chapter but as I continued reading I felt that I could relate more to each piece. The title Nineteen is a reference to how old Campbell was when she wrote this book. Being 19 only a few years ago I could really see where Campbell was and how her poetry was important for people of that age group. When I was 19 I finally decided to take my writing seriously and accepted and embraced the road of becoming an author, however successful. I really saw this message nearer the end of the book which I think is a very positive message to put out into the world.

This poetry collection covers a wide range of topics, for example: heartbreak, love, loss, war, peace, and healing. I think that it's a great poetry anthology but maybe the writing needs some work. It felt very simple at times when I just wanted a little more. It was a very emotional and abstract book which made it hard to picture a lot of what the poetry was about. Maybe if Campbell focused on some concrete images in her poetry it would work a little better for her readership. I did enjoy the cute art work that was scattered throughout the book by Hannah Juth.

Amy x