Andrea Gibson's Take Me with You sounded very interesting and I hardly ever read poetry although I write poems myself. Perhaps it was the LGBTQ approach that peeked my interest, even though it wasn't the driving force in the book. First and foremost I have to congratulate Gibson for the wonderful cover and the visuals of the book are awesome too. The font is perfect and how the poems are visually constructed along with the art. There could me more art though, since it fits the book and style. 

The first third of the book is more poetry-like actually and light and grave at the same time. This is because the theme is love and Gibson surely has some interesting analogies and such, which were very poignant. When we moved from love to other things the book kind of loses the grip. The style changes and the poems are more like mini essays with somewhat cliched views. There were those awesome points too, but when the poem-structure breaks, the content loses focus too. The themes varied and the love one was the best. The political ones were slightly out of place, but I did like the ones about being and feeling different as well as loving the same gender. I wish there had been more of this inner turmoil and thoughts instead of mundane stuff, since Gibson nails that. Still, a good collection.

To be honest, I regret requesting an ARC of Take Me With You. Not because of the poems, but because of the type of reader I am. I struggle reading poetry because I don't pick up on metaphors and hidden messages. I know for a fact that people who read poetry regularly, would've enjoyed this much more than I did.

Having said that, I highlighted many quotes that I liked. The illustrations were a nice addition as well, so I'd suggest buying a physical copy once it's released. 

Do be aware that these poems contain mentions of ableist language (e.g. use of 'insane'), the slur d*ke, violence, religion, anxiety (descriptions of panic attacks) and gender (the author prefers they/them pronouns).

I am a fan of Andrea Gibson and I've even seen them perform when I was in college. However, I found Take Me With You to be only okay. There were a few poems that I liked, but the majority were very short and seemed only surface level. There were the type of things you would see shared on Facebook or Tumblr - they sound good but there's not much there. If you enjoy that type of thing, I'd recommend this collection. Otherwise, I fear there are much better collections.

Reading an electronic ARC I missed the white space the printed page would give. I assume each wee poem or aphorism will appear on its own page in the final form. On my eReader (phone) they appear to be on a long, single page, all running together, and the mix of fonts distracted, especially the middle-of-the-word caps, e.g., FIght. Those bothered me the most and threw me out of the book each time I came to one. I had to stop, re-read, decide what I thought she was saying, and determine whether or not it was misspelled.

This book, as I read it, is a mix of good, bad, and so-so writings. I felt it was un-polished, and perhaps not up to her normal standard of writing. Even so, I could relate to much of what she wrote.

Andrea Gibson's poetry is smart, passionate, and strong. This book is beautifully hopeful. A short but empowering read.

I usually dislike poetry books but this one was the exception to the rule. I loved it.
This is a collection of poems that made me smile a lot. (I wish I could quote some of them.)

I cannot say much more than this: Thank you Andrea Gibson for writing this. I just read a book filled with love and I can tell the author put her heart in this because it moved me. 

I encourage everyone to read this piece, I promise you won't regret it.

Take Me With You is a collection of LGBTQ poems written by Andrea Gibson. And is divided into three segments: Love, The World and Becoming, through which it explores themes of love, gender, politics, sexuality, family, and forgiveness.
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Few of the poems were really well written and touches your heart. But many were just, Just Bad. Among which some were too cliched and some cringe worthy.
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(I would have quoted some of the poems from the book so that you all could decide yourselves but I'm not allowed to do so with my ARC.)
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I will still give it a '3 star' rating as few of the poems were excillent. But again, the all over experience was disappointing. Honestly, reading the title and the blurb I really expected to like this poetry collection.

Even though I'm not a lesbian, I can relate to the way the author talks about love. I love her writing style and all the illustrations. It's a very beautiful book!

This was a really nice and cozy read for me. Especially the second part, made me smile and made me think. I enjoyed it.

** I got an E-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**


I loved this one pretty much. Once I opened up the very first page, I thought that it would be my kind of book to read, and yess. it was. You'd find lots of illustrations inside, like those made the book so much prettier than having no pictures inside. :3

I loved the way Andrea jotted down words as well, it's simple and understand-able. So you don't have to re-read it to make yourself understand. And yess, the story was pretty relatable to our lives. That would make another extra wonderful point out of this lovely one though. :))

So, finally, if you're a big fan of poetry, I highly recommend this book to read, considering this one will be on the store next year, just wait and see for it. Or you can as well request it on NetGalley. :))

Truth be told, the title and the author is really interesting -- but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. 

There are poems that are just too cliche/mainstream and I just can't seem to find the author's voice when she wrote those, it's almost as if she's just reiterating them. When it comes to choice of words, most of the poems appear weak and lacking (and the "run... for president" joke is a mood killer tbh). Im not also a fan of how they used ALL CAPS all throughout the book because for me, it made the poems sound monotonous. There are poems that will just make you say "i think i've read it somewhere" and/or "i saw a tweet just like that" and it's disheartening.

On the bright side, I found one poem that actually made me stop, close my eyes, and shed some tears. It's the last poem she wrote. It took me that long to actually here her voice.

Lastly, It's also hard not to compare it with Rupi Kaur's "Milk and Honey" (which im also not a big fan of) because they actually marketed it that way saying something like "for readers of Milk and Honey" and as a bookseller I've seen people buy M and H then return it a day after. Considering the titles this is going "against" with (like r.h. Sin's newest book), it wouldn't be wise to hand sell this one...

I really want to love this book and it's author, but I just can't.

Take Me With You is an exploration of life through poetry. It covers a wide range of topics, all starting with personal experience, but expanding ideas to be universal. 

In terms of subject matter and its relation to the poet, this collection seems to come from the Rupi Kaur School of Poetry, which is a big trend right now. However, where Gibson differs from Kaur is that the collection isn't really a bunch of pieces put together, but seems to be a single entity because it's hard to tell where one piece ends and the next one begins. 

What I did enjoy the most about this collection is that while there are plenty of line drawings to check out, there is also a variety of fonts sizes, text color, and bold emphasis that help to transform the poetry from the page. I could imagine the way a voice would interpret these text changes into a moving performance. And although a lot of this collection is written in paragraph form (which isn't my favorite way to read poetry), the breakup of the text like this helps you digest each thought.

I would like to begin this by saying that Andrea Gibson is nothing like Rupi Kaur so to compare the two in the synopsis is quite simply doing injustice to the former.

Andrea Gibson's word has always been something I carried with me. Tucked in my wallet. Between the pages of a notebook. As drafts on my phone. Their words are always there. Always comforting.

So to give this such a low rating was just sad. So much cringe worthy moments and eye rolls while reading this that at it times it was hard to believe it was all the same poet. Some pages I enjoyed and some lines were some of their most known ones and the illustrations added a nice touch but over all it was disappointing.

This collection had a mixture of poetry and beautiful illustrations. The illustrations really bought out the emotion in the corresponding poem. Though many of the poems were beautiful and heartfelt, the layout of the collection made reading really confusing. I found it difficult to differentiate the begging and end of different poems. While I enjoyed this collection somewhat, the reading experience was not that enjoyable.

I really thought I was going to like this collecting of poetry but unfortunately did not. Not to say out wasn't well written or was bad, I just was not a fan of the layout and the distinctions between poetry and illustrations. Even though I didn't enjoy it I do feel others that have the same sense of style will like it very much.

This book has beautiful imagery and gorgeous illustrations.
The poetry, though, is another story. If you are a fan of poems that actually rhyme, this book is not for you. I, for one, do not mind non-rhyming poetry. The imagery was pretty good here but the poems are too fragmented; I felt like I was reading the musing of someone's chaotic mind. I would not have minded more organization in this book. To be honest, I was confused during most of the poems and the sudden shift from one thought to another caused my head to spin. I hope the author can organize her poems in a better way before publishing. 

But what d I know? Maybe that effect was intended after all.
Anyway, it is a solid read for poetry lovers.

Thanks for the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.