A truly beautiful and heartwrenching collection of poetry focused on mental illness, eating disorders and self-harm to name a few. I related so much to these and could not love them more!

I have seen clips and videos of Blythe Baird's poetry online for years through Button Poetry, and I have always felt that she completely emulates the experience of growing up a queer woman in the early to mid 200os. Baird's poetry covers topics from insecurity, body image issues, eating disorders, coming out and the aftermath, and trying to make it through. She is relatable in a way that made me want to say, "Yes! This is what I have been feeling all along!"

Each poem is like a new cathartic punch to the gut as she steadily peels back layer after layer until you're filled with raw emotion.

A perfect book for any readers who are after a quick, easy and light read, and enjoy poetry.
Deep and meaningfull poetry that i enjoyed.

This collection was truly a beautiful glimpse at Blythe Baird's life and emotions. She shared so much with the audience as a way to destigmatize issues and normalize them. She talks about mental illness, mother issues, abortion, eating disorders, and toxic friend groups. It's instagram style, but very unique. Her voice is perfect for this generation.

5/5

Real. Relatable. Raw. Just a few adjectives to describe what I thought of Blythe Baird’s second poetry collection, “Sweet, Young & Worried.”

I’m always so grateful for poets like Baird who can put such deep emotions into words for people like me to read. It is a gift, a talent and a skill not many have. Baird has a magical way that allows the reader to hurt when she hurts, cry when she cries, learn when she learns, and fly when she flies.

Within this collection are themes of self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, sexual identity, and abortion to name a few. Baird does an excellent job of taking the hard subjects and layering it with notes of sweetness and forgiveness and understanding. Though some of these subjects might be hard to read, if you get through it you will be rewarded with hope and realization and love.

I feel you, and I see you.

Wow. I have been a fan of Blythe Baird for many years and I really enjoyed this collection. Tough subjects are always hard to read about but Baird writes in a way that makes the reader feel safe. Thank you to Button Poetry & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of content.

"The body I threw stones at
is the same body
who is still determined to write love letters to me."

I am a big fan of Blythe Bairds poetry and this collection didn't disappoint me.

I already knew that a few poems will include heavy topics and there were a few poems after which I needed a moment to collect myself and to sort my thoughts. I also could connect with a lot of the different poems.

The poems were about her life growing up and the struggles she faced in the day to day life.

If you want to read this collection, make sure to check the trigger warnings beforhand! A few I would name are: Suicide, Depression, Self Harm, Abortion and even more I can't think of right now.

I really enjoyed this collection but I liked her other collection a little bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Button Poetry for this Arc!

A personal, cutting collection of poetry. You can tell Baird's creation is best read aloud but even on the page they still pack a lot of emotion.

Poignant and gritty. This volume of poetry peeks behind the veil of the challenges faced by many young girls struggling with self-image woes and the pain of silence. As a teacher of the middle grades, it is a stark reminder of how tough the teenage years are.

A breathtakingly honest portrayal of the author's struggles with mental illness, eating disorders, abortion and coming out as queer. This is my first dive into Blythe Baird's work and I couldn't help but be entranced by her lovely verse interspersed with ruminations on dark topics such as death and loss. I was punched in the gut by lines I never even thought I would ever find myself relating to and, overall, this was simply a stunning love letter to Gen Z queer mentally-ill girlhood. Highly recommend this sophomore collection - I definitely plan on checking out Baird's debut work!

5/5 stars. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-ARC!

This was the first book of poems I've read by Baird, and it wont be my last.

Their sense of lyricism and language on the page is absolutely stunning, drawing out emotions buried deep inside of me and invoking a rich sense of understanding. Baird's strong imagery made themselves known and painted a realistic picture of abortion, eating disorders, self-harm, and other difficult topics. How their poems are formatted on the page, too, is reminiscent of the complexities and intricacies of the poems and their topics.

Highly recommend this book!

A very straightforward & raw collection of poetry that comes with a long list of trigger warnings.

This was extremely difficult to read at times due to the subject matter but also validating and eventually empowering. Due to the content of these poems, it wasn't something I could linger on for too long or contemplate due to the negative impact it had on my own mental health.

Outside of the content, the poetry itself read as very surface level and wasn't exactly poetic. Learning about the author at the end revealed she is "one of the most recognizable spoken word poets today" which makes me think the poetry written out does not have the same impact as when its performed.

I appreciate the author being so open about her life experiences which can help others in their recovery journey to heal, but this collection of work sadly didn't touch me in that way..

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for making this available..

‘One day, the urge
to write a poem

became greater
than the urge

to write

a suicide note.

And so,

I wrote this poem’

I couldn’t connect with this collection at all. It feels like the author is trying to edgy and their writing style within the poems where kinda cringy..

i thoroughly enjoy blythes spoken word poetry and i love poetry button. i did feel though that her poetry didnt translate as well on the page, i think her previous work was better and i felt it more but that could have been due to it being read to me. maybe an audio book would have been better

I enjoyed that this book touched on real life problems, it's also really relateable to me and my friends so it created that sense of understanding and comfort.

If My Body Could Speak is one of my favourite ever poetry collections, so I couldn’t wait to dive into the author’s next collection. I didn’t love this one as much, but I still enjoyed it, and it still reignited my love for reading (and writing) poetry.

I love poems that tell a story and that’s why I love Blythe’s work so much. She has an incredible gift of drawing you in and keeping you engaged, capturing small details and telling a story in so few words. I’m excited to see her work progress and grow in the future. Thank you netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

This collection had an incredibly strong start, I loved the imagery used. I would love to see this author explore more topics too.

Lovely slice of life poetry. I could relate to many of the poems I read in this collection. I especially liked her ones about mental health/eating disorder/disordered eating as I could relate to those the most, as something I have lived experienced with.

I swear, every poet I have come across knows how to capture everything I have been through. The first set of poems brought me right back to middle and high school where I struggled so much with self love and just the act of wanting to live. These poems made me feel things I had learned to block out. Baird writes with such raw emotion and knows how to put herself on the pages for everyone to see. Absolutely stunning and heartbreaking.

This poetry anthology was deeply personal, dealing with many difficult subject matters. Owing to the extremely personal nature this makes it difficult to write a review as others interpretations of the work is very subjective and will be received by others in a variety of ways but will always be extremely important and meaningful regardless.

I found Sad Girls Club, to be particularly impactful and have stuck in my mind, as I too fell prey to the early 2000s tumblr era.

What to Expect When You are Not these lines in particular stood out to me:

"It's not your job to fix it, honey

4.

But it feels like it is

my job to fix it,

honey."

At times I felt the spacing to be a bit jarring rather than contributing to some of the pieces. Some of the shorter poems I did not necessarily connect to as much, nor found they flowed as well as the longer ones, but appreciate them all the same.

Overall this was a great collection. I appreciate how raw and open the writer was and look forward to reading more.
I also liked the inclusion of the birth chart at the end of the book, that was cool to see.

3.75/5 rounded up to 4 here.