Here's the deal: this type of poetry is very popular right now (especially on the internet and social media platforms). That doesn't necessarily mean it needs to have a derogatory connotation, but I do think it's true that most things written in this specific niche genre are trying to live up to the poets who originated/paved the way (like Rupi Kaur, for example). I liked these just fine. I think it's actually perfect to read on a phone screen or as an instagram post, just didn't need an entire collection of it if that makes sense? I will say, however, that there are many young adults and teenagers who eat this stuff up, and I think it would be very well accepted by some of my students.

Madisen’s style in this book is relatable, very raw and vulnerable as she focuses on important mental health issues. She definitely knows how to write pieces that pull at the emotional bits of a person. 

I haven’t read her first book, but was so moved by this one that I will definitely be checking out that one as well.

She also includes some interesting journal entries scattered in with the poems. I like how this gives structure and depth to the book. Madisen gets time in these entries to really show her vulnerability here and that’s something that we all could use more of. So cheers to her for showing us her heart and being a mirror.

I enjoy poetry. I was definitely looking forward to it. I enjoy parts of this more than others. Some poems were just better than others.

I really enjoyed all the poems. They were all personal but still relatable, and beautifully written. They were all also about discovering who you are which is always relatable to me.

This is a well-written collection, but I was not able to get into it as much as other collections. I’m not sure why. Some of the poems fell flat in comparison to others and it read like a diary entry. This is not a bad thing by principle, but I felt it took away from the collection. Stream of conscience writing is a hit or miss for me and this collection missed for me.

My final book of May was a Netgalley arc! It was a poetry anthology called Please Don't Go Before I Get Better by Madison Kuhn. I thought the collection was well written(even if the poems were more like journal entries). However, I feel like Please Don't Go Before I Get Better definitely has a target audience that I am not apart of. I could easily see how it would be easy for lots of people to love. The style is very "aesthetic-y" and "tumblr-y". I gave it a 3/5 stars because although it wasn't my cup of tea, I was able to appreciate it.

Beautiful poetry! I should have read this sooner - it was so simple yet complicated. Complex emotions, simply told.

This reads a whole lot like a very poetically written xanga from the early 2000s (or maybe I'm just remembering mine and my friends' that way). It's alright for what it is, but I'm having a hard time really getting into this or connecting to it. It's pretty clear the author is nineteen, not that there's anything wrong with that. I might be interested to look into this later on, and I know I'll recommend this to a few younger women in my life, but I don't think this is particularly for me. It's very journal-y, and not really poem-y, and I know there can be overlap, but this one really doesn't for me all that much.

This is an amazing poetry book for many reasons but for me, I like that the poems are personal while still being relatable. I enjoy many lines from this book that I bookmarked and can't wait to go back and read. 'Please Don't Go Before I Get Better' also has quite a few long poems, that's something I don't get to read that much these days, I didn't love every single poem, however, I did enjoy most. Something that I don't see much in poetry is the time and growth change, in this book, you see that chances from teenage life into adult life; I want to read most poetry books like that. This book is very self, without being self-centered. Self in the way of self-discovery and self-reflection. 

Her word choice paints in such strong, bold colors. The cover reflects the poetry, that is also a plus for me. Poetry is one of my newest favorite things to read, I can't wait to read more by Madisen Kuhn, and thank her for sharing her words that are meaningful.

To me, this book was half poems I really liked and half I didn’t. I really loved the poems about mental health and felt that they put words to something super hard to describe. The other half felt like reading an inside joke you aren’t a part of. Like you had to be there. I didn’t love it, but if you are super into poetry you might enjoy it.

I can see why someone might name-drop Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace in conjunction with this book, but I wasn't as personally impacted by Madisen Kuhn's words as I was by Kaur's and Lovelace's when I'd read them. A lot of this collection feels less like poetry and more like a diary. Maybe you have to be a young woman lacking the life experience I have to fully appreciate this collection.

That said, I'll still recommend it to reluctant poetry readers, especially those in early adulthood, who might better appreciate poetry when seen through their experiences.

This was almost like opening a time capsule for me. It's very much a snapshot of a particular time of life for young, sensitive, and analytical girls. It was like reading an old diary of mine from undergrad in a good way. I think that because the writer is so clearly describing what's it's like to be a young woman with Feelings, Thoughts, Ennui, Love that it could be difficult for some people to relate to it that are no longer in this phase of life or simply did not experience it in a similar fashion. 

It's a book I would feel comfortable recommending to those who enjoyed things like HBO's Girls and/or Rupi Kaur.

This was a great book. I have never been a big fan of poetry books in the past, but this book changed by mind. I want to venue more into the poetry world because of this book. The book was insightful, easy to read, and relatable. It is a book about life, love, and hope. Also, the cover for this book is really pretty.

This is the second collection of poetry I have read by Madisen Kuhn, both times I have thoroughly enjoyed the poems in them. This collection in particularly has a lot of recurring themes throughout it and Madisen is very capable of painting a picture with her words. Also, I adore the cover art.

some of these poems were actually amazing. but some were not my cuppa and at points it felt like a struggle to finish this book. I wish i felt more of my own problems/emotions in this book of work i'd love it more, but i'm aware that can't happen with every poetry collection you pick up. Over all i really enjoyed her writing style and would recommend this book to a friend.

Madisen Kuhn has written my favorite poetry book so far. I’d never related to more stories, pain and growth like I did with this book. Some pieces were just too accurate and others were just what I needed. Illustrated with simply amazing drawings Please Don’t Go Before I Get Better is a heart wrenching book filled with poetry pieces about loving, hurting, knowing that sometimes you are hard to love, how you’re loving and sacrificing things for someone who might not love you back and learning to be alone.

One of my (many) favorite quotes reads:
“we can sit in silence
while the world around us buzzes
with all its certain chaos and
my soul will find yours
in the space that rests above
this mess of existing”

Please Don’t Go Before I Get Better won its way up to my favorite poetry book because it’s incredibly real. It’s not only about loving and getting hurt, it’s about being flawed and learning to be alone, which is something I’ve struggled with for a while now until I read the pieces in this book. I now want to go out and dance and be myself and take on the world without loving who doesn’t love me back. I don’t feel like a new person after reading this book, I feel like my own self with a new, better, mindset.

I thank the stars for putting this book in my path and Madisen Kuhn for writing the book that helped me see life with new eyes.

I've always adored Madisen's writing and I'm so glad her latest book didn't disappoint! Please Don't Go Before I Get Better focuses on the transition from being nineteen to twenty and all of the obstacles in between. As I read the book, I felt like I was her best friend, hearing her thoughts and feelings as she falls in and out of love with others and even with herself. Paired with relatable illustrations, "Please Don't Let Me Go Before I Get Better" follows her as she meets new people, as she moves through different parts of the country, and as she searches for a place that feels like home. Having this book felt like having a delicate, fragile journal in my hands and I'm so grateful Madisen chose to share her heart-wrenching and personal style of writing in this second book.

I gave the book four stars instead of five, because I found some of the poems to feel like "fluff" or fillers, rather than thought-provoking or emotional verses, which is inevitable in majority of poetry books. The synopsis also compared Madisen to Rupi Kaur, which I did not entirely agree with. Madisen's style is definitely more complex and descriptive, and much of the prose was written in journal-style form versus Rupi's simple "instagram caption" poetry.

2.5 stars

I was really looking forward to reading this, and I was really excited when I got accepted on Netgalley to read this [even though it was only a day before the release date I saw I had gotten accepted, but that's beside the point]. Now, I wouldn't say I was let down, however, I was disappointed in this, nonetheless, and it did not meet the expectations I had set for it or that it had blatantly set for itself. 

I didn't get much Amanda Lovelace or Rupi Kaur out of this, as the synopsis says this was perfect for fans of. I got a lot more Instagram poet-esque. Not to mention, about 3/4 of the poems read more like journal entries than actual poems.

This didn't really speak to me as I really was hoping it would and really wanted it to. [How many times can I use the word 'really' in a single sentence - A GAME!] There were a few that stood out to me, but there weren't any that spoke to me. 

Even though I enjoy poetry a lot, this really wasn't for me. There is definitely an audience for this, but I was, unfortunately, not apart of that audience. Honestly, I thought [and hoped] that I would be apart of the audience that rated this five-stars and added it to their 'favorites' shelf, but, nope. 

I thought the formatting of this was nice, and I liked the little illustrations on some of the pages that coordinate with a poem. They were simple, and, as much as I hate this word, very Tumblr aesthetic-y [ew] 

Kuhn being so young, I can tell that she has an immense amount of potential to be up there with poets like Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur, but, for right now, she is not up there with me. 

I would like to, at some point, get Kuhn's first poetry collection titled eighteen years as, from the poems I have read from it, seems a lot more up my alley than Please Don't Go Before I Get Better ended up being.

It was National Poetry Month and I didn't read as much poetry as I should have, but this was my favorite collection by far. Kuhn's writing reads like a combination of Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur - gorgeous and light imagery, but with heartache, trauma, and optimism. If you like poetry, I

Cannot open file. If it were a Kindle supported file, I could have; as is, the encrypted PDFs do not open. 

Would have loved to review it but no luck on the document! :(