A review by gabbyreadswithtea
Explorations of a Cosmic Soul by Allie Michelle, Jill Wintersteen
3.0
Rating: 2.5
I’m not a big poetry reader, but every now and then I like to pick up a collection. I found this one on NetGalley and the cover and title instantly drew me in.
I think the easiest way to format my review is like this:
Things I liked:
- The font used (yes, this is important to me)
- The foreword about Astrology
- The Second section of the collection (Allie Michelle’s newer poems)
- The explanations after some of the poems about how the poem came to be
Things I didn’t:
- The poems in the first half
The first half of this collection, which were re-published poems from Allie Michelle earlier works, honestly read like badly sung rap songs. I skim-read most of these.
- Random blank pages after every poem in the second section of the collection
- The lack of images / illustrations (aside from occasional constellations)
- Allie Michelle’s handwriting after some of the poems (was super difficult to read)
There is a huge difference in readability between the first and second section. I feel like Allie Michelle has really grown as a poet since publishing the first section of this collection. I wish we’d gotten a whole new collection with only their newer poems.
I also loved the idea of descriptions / explanations of some of the poems written in their handwriting throughout the collection, with how the poem came to be. Except for the fact that they were super difficult to read and I didn’t get the full experience from them.
The small second section (maybe a quarter of the collection) really saved this for me. I enjoyed these poems, and wonder if there were meant to be illustrations with some of these as every page after one of the new poems was blank.
Overall, I would be interested to try some newer works by Allie Michelle, as there was definite growth between the two sections included in this collection. I still feel like some readers would enjoy this collection entirely. So if you enjoy a broader range of poetry (and aren’t as specific in your tastes as I am), I recommend you give this one a try.
I received an e-copy of this collection from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I’m not a big poetry reader, but every now and then I like to pick up a collection. I found this one on NetGalley and the cover and title instantly drew me in.
I think the easiest way to format my review is like this:
Things I liked:
- The font used (yes, this is important to me)
- The foreword about Astrology
- The Second section of the collection (Allie Michelle’s newer poems)
- The explanations after some of the poems about how the poem came to be
Things I didn’t:
- The poems in the first half
The first half of this collection, which were re-published poems from Allie Michelle earlier works, honestly read like badly sung rap songs. I skim-read most of these.
- Random blank pages after every poem in the second section of the collection
- The lack of images / illustrations (aside from occasional constellations)
- Allie Michelle’s handwriting after some of the poems (was super difficult to read)
There is a huge difference in readability between the first and second section. I feel like Allie Michelle has really grown as a poet since publishing the first section of this collection. I wish we’d gotten a whole new collection with only their newer poems.
I also loved the idea of descriptions / explanations of some of the poems written in their handwriting throughout the collection, with how the poem came to be. Except for the fact that they were super difficult to read and I didn’t get the full experience from them.
The small second section (maybe a quarter of the collection) really saved this for me. I enjoyed these poems, and wonder if there were meant to be illustrations with some of these as every page after one of the new poems was blank.
Overall, I would be interested to try some newer works by Allie Michelle, as there was definite growth between the two sections included in this collection. I still feel like some readers would enjoy this collection entirely. So if you enjoy a broader range of poetry (and aren’t as specific in your tastes as I am), I recommend you give this one a try.
I received an e-copy of this collection from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.