I loved Light Filters In when I read it earlier this year, and was excited and surprised when I happened upon a copy of When the World Didn’t End hidden in a display at my secondhand bookstore. I hadn’t realized Kaufman was publishing a second collection, and I couldn’t wait to devour it.

Kaufman is excellent at writing about difficult topics in a beautiful yet eloquent and down-to-earth way. Several poems throughout this collection really resonated with me, and as per usual when reading poetry of any sort, I sped through this. However, in my opinion, this one wasn’t on the same level as her debut. I felt that some of her poems didn’t really make sense, that the words didn’t really go together. There were a few pieces that didn’t feel like poems at all, but diary entries or rambling text messages. Maybe that was intentional, or maybe I missed an important point or hidden message.

Despite that, though, I enjoyed this poetry collection, and I hope to see more from Kaufman in the future.

CW: mental illness, suicidal ideation, self harm, disordered eating, sexual assault (taken from the author’s note)