This is an ARC I received for an honest review from NetGalley.

I’ll be honest, mixed poetry books usually mean mixed reviews for me, some you love, some not so much. This one was definitely a diverse collection, and some might need trigger warnings (even more so after this last week), but this is where we are, for better and often worse this is the reality of women from diverse backgrounds and the struggles that are shaping us.

As a big poetry fan, when I saw this title on Netgalley, It was an obligation for me to pick is book up! Unfortunately, I even if I enjoyed some poems, I did not enjoy the whole book. I did not understand where most of them leads. This is a pity because I was really interested by all the subjects on it: racism, sexism, body positivity and a lot more.

Nonetheless, this is book is important, because it gives voice to women to speak their truth. And I love this fact, I just think this book was not for me.

Finally popped open this galley at a mostly timely time. Ladies, feeling defeated right now? Get this out and rage.

This is a short review. It's full of awesome poetry - the kind of stuff you want to stand up and read out loud and definitely the stuff I'm gonna pass around to all the women I know right now who are outraged. I'm giving it five stars because it makes me feel so good, even if the galley itself is an ABSOLUTE DISASTER. Yo, Netgalley, what a mess. I'm literally having to sort out some of these poems myself and hoping I get 'em right. I've never had a digital ARC that came through so messy.

You know what else that means, though? I'm gonna buy a copy. It's worth owning.

I really liked some of the poems included in this collection, but sadly most of them weren't able to make me feel anything. I had higher expectations and sadly, they weren't met, but I'm sure other people would enjoy this book more than I did.

Like any poetry collection, some of these landed with me better than others but overall it was moving and strong. Here are a few favorites:

-"Female" by Kimberly Johnson
-"An Open Letter to the Protesters Outside the Planned Parenthood Near My Job" by Elizabeth Acevedo
-"To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall" by Kim Addonizio
-"The Children's Chorus" by Jacqueline Jones LaMon

Good gift for the women in your life who like poetry.

In times like these, the poems here spoke to my soul. They bring out all the emotions. They made me smile and brought tears to my eyes. I fell like they speak to deep feelings and made me angry all at one.

I'm' not typically a big reader of poetry, but I really enjoyed this collection. Some were definitely stronger than others, but I liked how the style differed dramatically between selections. It's inclusive, empowering, and powerful. I am definitely glad that I picked this book up!

A feminist poetry collection that discusses race, gender identity and sexuality. I really enjoyed the variety of poetry styles that each contributor used. There's a variety in content and form. I am not sure each piece is beautiful and exciting. The collection encompasses the works of a diverse range of poets who I'll definitely want to check out. I don't read that much poetry, but this collection of works from such inspiring people was indeed a hidden gem.

This is an important read, and a good one at that, but it missed the mark with me a little. Poetry is highly subjective, and whilst there were a few poems that really resonated with me, I found that it wasn't necessarily my preferred style for the most part.

That being said, the diversity of this book and the content within it is absolutely amazing! It was definitely a case of 'it's not you, it's me.' The anger, the passion and the talent for words, all in a collection of feminist poetry? Of course it's gonna be good!

Overall, I enjoyed it enough, though it wasn't entirely my thing.

Enjoyed this greatly, but I would have wished it would have been easier to read. The formatting for this advance copy was oddly made. However, the content was enjoyable.

This collection of poems is empowering, heartbreaking and all around badass! I was cheering, crying and getting pissed at various times during this collection.

4.5 stars! Thanks to Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange of my honest review. I really liked this collection of poetry. Each of these parts brings courage and many other motivating and inspiring elements.
I recommend this collection to everyone!!

DNF, I couldn't read the entire book, I didn't like it.
I didn't enjoy a lot of the poems, and the ebook version was so messy that it was really hard to read on it.
I did enjoy some of the poems, but they were a few.

Whoa, I got goosebumps all over from reading this book. The words of poetry in this anthology bleed truth and stories that are timelessly appropriate. I was very invested in reading this because from the beginning I found parts I could relate to.

I admit there were some parts I did not fully comprehend, especially towards the end of the book but overall this book is amazing. The fact that all of these people are speaking out and writing about what is important is amazing.

Books like these help us to open our eyes further and look around to something other than ourselves. Women of Resistance helps us to realize we are in a world full of people who are willing to resist the labels and titles given to them stereotypically, and the question I found myself asking was where do I stand? Beautifully written and haunting.

Women of Resistance is a beautiful collection of feminist poetry that cuts across ethnic, gender, and sexuality borders. This poetry is absolutely beautiful and magnificently thought provoking. A must read for lovers of feminist literature. The beautiful cover helps of course.

Women of Resistance is a new collection of feministic poetry from a variety of different poets. The collection is a reaction to the 2016 Presidential election but it includes a variety of different cultural experiences. It is a celebration of the complexity and diversity of feminism and its objective is to combat racism, sexism and violence.

Poetry is difficult to review. It’s difficult because everyone experiences poems differently (and that’s what is so fantastic about poetry). We even vary in our experience of a poem according what kind of day we are having. In my opinion, poetry induces more diverse experiences and opinions than any other format of literature. Therefore, I can review this collection but my review is only reflective of my subjective experience. I might not even agree with myself if I were to reread this collection. But isn’t that magical!

My favourite thing about this collection is its diversity. It is diverse in cultural background, gender, sexuality, and religion, and that is something to be celebrated in its own right. As a bookaholic feminist, I have devoured quite a few books about feminism but way too often those books are about and for white, straight or gay women from Western countries. Lately, feminism has received some much needed celebration of colour and sexuality but for some reason, gender is still rarely acknowledged. Women of resistance includes feministic poems by men and about men. Which kind of makes me confused as to why the collection is named the heavily gendered ‘Women of Resistance’ instead of just ‘Poems for a New Feminism’. Although I do admit that Women of Resistance sounds catchy.

Women of Resistance should have been a poetry collection to cherish for years. A poetry collection to come back to whenever in need of a little soul therapy. Unfortunately, this collection did not do that for me. There are close to 150 poems in the collection but I went through a powerful experience with only 9 of them. That said, those 9 poems well perfectly worth reading through all the others and they made me mentally scream “FIVE STARS, FIVE STARS”.

For the most part, this collection just did not stir me into any direction. It’s not that I hated these poems, but I lacked feeling overall. Which, I must admit, is one of the worst things to happen when you’re trying to enjoy poetry. My lack of feeling was partly induced by the format of poems; I happen to dislike abstract, long-form poetry, and I would classify quite a few of the poems in this collection in that category. I prefer short poetry in which you say little but mean a lot. Sorry if my categorisations make little sense! It's hard to label poems haha.

I would not recommend this poetry collection for someone new to poetry because of the largely abstract content. However, if you have read a collection or couple and you’re looking for something new, this might be the one for you. Remember that your experience of it might be the opposite of mine.

“i heard a woman becomes herself the first
time she speaks
without permission
then, every word out of her mouth a riot”

Be still my beating heart….

I know that this is a terrible place to start with a book review but I love the cover of this book, it is beautiful and one that I will be adding to my physical copy bookshelf ASAP, especially now that I know what a wonderful poetry collection this is.

With massive movements such as Times Up it could be easy to believe that feminism is alive, well and understood/supported by the majority of people, however, there are a lot of people that while they support Times Up, don’t really understand the complete need and the complexities of feminism. Which is where this gem of poetry collection comes in. It is beautiful, powerful and inspiring. It shows the incredible breadth of feminism and what women from all walks of life deal with every day.

Real rating 2,5
When I saw the cover of the book I knew I wanted to give it a shot. Lately, I’ve been almost scared of books about feminism because I’ve read a couple of books who took feminism to an extreme point, which I don’t want to label as feminism anymore.
This book cover gave me the vibes of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, it looks approachable for a young adult audience and deals with more than women alone.

I was left a little disappointed. The colourfulness and approachable factor of the cover are nowhere to be seen in the book itself. There is really pretty photography, though it is all quite dark. The poems itself were interesting and had a good point of view, but it all felt kind of dry.

I did love how they included the variety of women in such a beautiful way. It was a beautiful thing to have many different poets as they all could give you a new point of view.
It sometimes lacked the cohesiveness that I would’ve liked because of it, which might also be the reason why it didn’t always hit me the way I hoped.

I need to put a little disclaimer for my review.
The e-arc that I received was not formatted in a way that made it comfortable to read. Which might have influenced my rating unconsciously.
Poems were squashed together and lines weren’t spaced out properly, a layout was non-existent. On top of that, every other page had a “NOT FOR SALE OR REDISTRIBUTION” note that was placed with no care if it would cut into a poem or not. This made for a really uncomfortable reading experience. I don’t want to adjust my rating because of that, because I’m sure that the actual book will have a gorgeous layout, but I am sure that it influenced my reading experience in a negative way.

I received an e-arc of Women of Resistance from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review

I have not read poetry in years, generally it is a genre that I do not enjoy reading. This piece of poetry and commentary pieces are a staple in any modern females collection. This would make a fantastic gift for the proud feminist in your life. Some of the pieces were better than others - and like someone has already said, poetry is subjective. Some completely missed the mark. My favourites were those that told truths of the struggles of the here and now; Trump, rape, how women dress and so on. Overall, I wish I enjoyed more of the collection, but I still appreciate it for what it is.

This is a fine collection of poets, men as well as women, speaking out against patriarchy and for the power and dignity of the individual. The focus is, as suggested by the title, on women but the poets also speak out about race. Some of the most interesting poems concern the intersection of different identities.

The poets represented include some of my favorite poets now writing: Ada Limon, Anne Waldeman, Tyehimba Jess, Mary Ruefle, Rachel McKibbons, and Kwame Dawes. But it is a collection of many extraordinary poets and really every poet contributes something valuable. There are so many poems of amazing strength.

The editors say that the anthology serves a multitude of purposes, "part love letter, part manifesto, part confession, part wish...[i]it is also a meditation on grief." The project began in response to the 2016 election and is, amongst other things, a protest against all the needless limitations we have had placed on us by an oppressive society. Many of the poems deal with violence against women and children. But just as present are poems celebrating strengths and triumphs.

Denice Frohman writes (in "A Woman's Place") in the opening poem of the collection: "all the women i know are perennials--marigolds,/daffodils/soft things that refuse to die." and "I'm a better woman now that I'm writing poems." There is strength in vulnerability and openness. And I also believe we are better when we write poems, speak to each other and listen to each other ("And the listening/seems to take no time at all.", Lauren Clark, "Vortex Temporum").

This is a volume worth taking the time to read, to listen to these voices crying out in anger and in joy. A book worth celebrating.

I thank NetGalley, OR Books, and editors Danielle Barnhart and Iris Mahan, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.