It’s always really hard for me to review poetry, especially when it’s not formal verse (so, you know, most English language poetry these days). So much of it is feelings and vibes, so I guess that’s what I’m basing my impressions on, in big part.

This felt a lot like reading a personal diary, to the point that it made me vaguely uncomfortable and I had to remind myself that no, I hadn’t somehow stolen a secret notebook from under one of my favorite singers’ pillow, I’m allowed to read this. There were some extremely poignant lines, as well as some small parts of otherwise meandering poems where suddenly a mixture of rhythm and rhyme showed up to create clarity and shine a light on an idea. Those really stuck with me.

The way certain imagery showed up across various poems both did and didn’t work for me. Sometimes, those persistent motives linked snippets of life and emotion together in interesting ways, other times, I was a bit like, “Can’t you use a synonym just this once, for variety?”

I think I prefer Halsey’s lyrics to their poems, but this was an interesting experience still. I especially appreciated the poems that spoke about her relationship with creativity and her mental health.