An amazingly unique collection of poetry.

"Images are closer than they appear and not as pretty as they seem."

I am so impressed with this book! I have never seen poetry set out so uniquely! This book was very well thought out despite the fact that the poems are repeated twice in this book. When I got to Part 2 of the book, the way I interpreted the repeated lot of poems was totally different to the first time. I finished this book feeling amazed that much a small book could have such a huge impact.

I liked the mixtape format, and a lot of these "tracks" were very good. After a while though, the poems started to feel repetitive and that caused them to lose some of their impact for me.

Okay so… I’m really glad I got to read some poetry collections I loved before reading this one, because if this was my first one, I would’ve ended up never reading another one ever again. To be honest, I found this one to be so boring, so unoriginal, that throughout its course it made me feel approximately nothing. And if the first part was a 2-star read for me, then the second part was pretty close to zero.

I don’t know if it was just me being unable to connect with the author and their thoughts, but every line I read made me feel like I had already read about this before, I already knew that, yawn yawn can we please move forward now? At the end of each poem there was a currently listening to query and most of the time i had no fucking clue how this particular song could have inspired this particular poem. Now, I do believe that this played a major part in why I didn’t enjoy this book: as a person that deeply loves and values music, seeing no obvious connection between the song and the poem made me feel disoriented, convinced me that the author and I were not on the same page – maybe we weren’t even on the same book.

As for part two, it’s probably the most poorly done blackout poetry I have ever seen. Sometimes the “verses” didn’t even make sense. It seemed a bit lazy, a bit hazy, a bit sloppy. It did, however, inspire me to try blackout poetry of my own this summer, so props to that! A pretty disappointing read, overall.



**An ARCopy was provided via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review**

I received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unpopular opinion:This poetry collection is a miss for me.

The concept of poem and music is interesting. I even like the song choices and the topics tackled. Despite it's a quick read, I'm emotionally detached towards it. I'm quite disappointed because I heard wonderful things about this book. The poems in Side A didn't work out for me. Most of them are forgettable and bland but I slightly like Side B with its blackout poetry. Overall, it's an okay read.

I found this book to be very compelling with interesting characters and an engaging plot but it would be difficult to adapt this to a classroom setting.

I seem to be very much in the minority here, but I didn't find this collection particularly moving. Normally I love this style of poetry, and I did enjoy the use of a mix-tape format with songs at the end of each poem, but the writing itself didn't really do anything for me. I wasn't overly moved but I wasn't left completely without feeling, mostly they were just words on a page to me.

I have to applaud Alicia Cook, however, for crafting this collection and pouring her heart and soul into it. Although it's not for me, I can practically feel the emotions of the writer pouring off the page, and I think anyone who reveals themselves like this deserves a medal. I think it takes a tremendous amount of courage to reveal yourself so thoroughly in print, so that in itself is something to marvel at

Well, what can I say? I an speechless and happy. Speechless, that I don't have enough words to express all that I am feeling after reading this, and happy that I decided to read this book despite having no information about it at all. It was just a cover choice for me as the cover is so unique. Though I read and ebook, but I kept imagining how beautiful it would look when I'll have a physical copy of it.

This was my second poetry this year and I can say now that I love poetry. This book was very unique, right from its cover, to the writing and the presentation. It is divided into two parts - Side A and Side B (same as a mix tape) and each side has various tracks (similar to a tape). The other unique thing was that each track was associated with a song. I must admit here that was not familiar with any of the song but I really get the essence there and I have created a list of all the songs to listen later.

Side A was full poetry, while Side B was something different. It was black-out poetry of the poems from Side A, and I didn't expected it at all. The writing of the book was really simple and you can easily get into it. While reading it, I felt as if each track is speaking to me and what I sometimes feel is written out there. My favourite track, however, was track 46 on Side A.

The poems depict love, loss, healing, warmth, problems of growing old. Each track has its own charm. But you'll be surprised by seeing how flexible these poems are. You can make your own versions out of these. Some poems will make you feel that you are in great pain, your heart is broken, while some of them will make you realize that you are healed and you have to live your life to the fullest. They teaches you that pain is not permanent, it has to go away one day. They appreciated the beauty of people around you, talked about the importance of your home and more personal things.

Every poem felt personal to me. I loved the writing style of Alicia Cook. The author is also doing a great thing by donating all the profit from this book to Willow Tree Center and I really appreciate her.

All in all, this was a great collection and definitely is now one of my favourites. I would recommend it to every poetry lover out there. I seriously want to write many more appreciating things about it, but I am really out of words now.

A mostly enjoyable book of poems about the highs and lows (sometimes very low) of life. I liked the 'B side' selection better.

Powerful series of poem...made even more so with the blackout poems of side B. So many of the poems felt real and relatable.

Poetry is a literature genre that I have been slowly delving into and I am always looking for books to add to my TBR list. I noticed this book awhile back on Goodreads and when I noticed it was being released with a second part and was being offered as an ARC on NetGalley, I had to request it. I wish I would have liked it more but it was somewhat of a disappointment for me.

The Good:

The concept. I thought it was nice to accompany each poem with a song. It went well with the concept of having two sides to each poem, just like a cassette.
The Bad:

Overall, there was nothing special about the poems. I feel I have read it before, whether it be in another collection of poems or on some aesthetic blog on Tumblr.
I noticed that a lot of the songs did not compliment the poems. For example, there was a poem that talked about how people are strong when they make mistakes etc. The song companion to this poem was 50 Cent’s “In Da Club.” I feel if the songs actually matched with the message of the poem, it would have left more of an impact.
The blackout poetry in Side B was not my favorite. Some of the words were hard to read and I felt everything was being repeated again.
This collection of poems was not bad but while I was reading them, I felt so detached to them and I just wanted to get it over with and finish the book. It was stuff that I’ve heard time and time again. Honestly, for me, it does not stand out as an impactful piece of poetry. It’s pretty basic, to be honest.

This is the second poetry book I have read this month. I've been completely intrigued with this genre and I've been scouring every book source for more poetry books to add to my TBR. I actually ran across this on one Netgalley and I was so excited!

I've never read anything by Alicia Cook before (she has one other book-not poetry though). I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a super quick read and I read it within an hour or so.

The setup/format of this book is so unique and I freaking love it! I'm pretty sure that's part of what makes this book special.

This book was so wonderful, but I really enjoyed Side B of the book that was the Remixes of her Tracks in Side A (blackout poetry). This was my first experience with blackout poetry and I really loved it!

The tracks on Side A definitely touched on some pretty raw and sensitive subjects which made Side B so much more enjoyable. I loved the blackout poetry, which I kept referring to as the hidden messages.

The only reason I didn't give this book a full 5 stars was because I felt like Alicia Cook hinted at some deeper emotional issues but never elaborated on them. I think I would have like a little more detail to expand on those things. Yes, I understand it's poetry and it's supposed to be short. But that's just my opinion and something that could've made the book a little bit better. I wanted to know exactly what made her damaged and not just hints of things that happened.

I'm pretty sure Alicia is working on book #3 and I'm so excited to see what she has in store for us next! I swear I can never get enough poetry books on my TBR and I honestly think they need to be promoted more so that authors are more willing to publish theirs!

In my opinion, what makes this book a great one is its structure and style. In the first part (aka side A) there is a collection of 92 poems, and each one of them is connected to the song the author was listening to when she was writing. But my favourite part is side B (the remixes), which includes amazing pieces of black-out poetry based on the poems we find in the first section of the book, but connected to different songs. I think this is very original and unique.

Moreover, "Stuff I've been feeling lately" is much more than a compilation of poems. It's a book about grief, about growing, and finding the person you want to be (even if it isn't the person you used to be). Also, I love the way Alicia Cook emphasises that recovering is a journey, that it takes time, and that there are bad days... But there are also good ones. And I think this is important.

https://hellyreads.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/stuff-ive-been-feeling-lately-by-alicia-cook-review

This was an absolutely beautiful and brilliant collection of poems. It was deeply heart warming, thought provoking and inspirational. The words were so meaningful, placed with careful consideration, thus to fully comprehend what just happened I felt like I had to reread sections. The words carried emotion, conveyed a story in such a short amount of time. Throughout the collection I've been asking myself "How did someone thread these words into a lovely piece of art?" I loved the mixtape aspect: side A with all the author's poems and side B with them again, but as blackout poetry. All the songs that were "Currently Listening To:" tied in wonderfully with whichever poem was created. All in all I'm glad I decided to pick this up and read.

I feel like this is a good collection for people who don't normally like poetry, but people who are very interested in poetry might not be as interested. It's an interesting idea - each poem is linked with a song, and in the second half of the book (called Side B) it uses a technique called blackout poetry. It's not something I've seen very often, and I'm certain it will be new for many. The poems are very approachable and easy to relate to. The book was written to benefit a nonprofit.

Overall, perhaps this would be a good introduction to someone who doesn't really care for poetry.

I loved reading this book. The first part is relatable and honest. The second part is a fun black-out poetry of the first part. Each poem is accompanied by a song and the author's taste is impeccable. Some songs I've already listened to and some artists I've already loved. Definitely one of the best poetry collection I've read.

Every once in a while I like to cleanse my reading palette with a little poetry.
What I really like about modern poetry like this is that it feels so genuine, like the author isn't trying so hard to make themselves sound good, and instead are just typing their emotions right onto the page.
I was pleasantly surprised with how many of the songs referenced in this collection I actually knew, and I think this made me feel more connected to the story because I felt like the speaker and I were on the same wavelength.
The first section was very lovely and painless; then part two came around and I grew even more pleased.
I think blackout poetry is the coolest thing and I love how Alicia Cook "remixed" her poems into completely new ones in this unique and aesthetically appealing way.
I flew through this. It is a great option if you're looking for some light, yet meaningful and interesting poetry to read in one sitting.

***I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

An innovative collection of poetry.
Even though I feel , that is more like 2.5 ⭐ish, but I gave it 3⭐ , just for the sake of the new technique used so beautifully.
This was my first venture of black out poetry and I loved it.

Part One, was just fine. Like the poetries seemed more like a dialogue than a verse.
Being an English Literature Major myself , I know poetry is not about rhymes all the time. And to be honest, I wasn't expecting rhyming words either, but it was like it was too draggy and did not felt like poetry.

Though some lines were really beautiful. Also, I'm suggestive of the thought that the poet, could have used less poems , I mean it felt a little more because of which every poetry seemed similar, even when it was not.

This has motivated to write black out poetry.

I would recommend this book for its innovation and thought full ideas.