** I was provided an electronic ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

This was painstakingly -- and painfully -- amazing. This is a honest, unvarnished tale of self-discovery. It's so starkly personal you cannot help but be in the speakers corner, finding your own name and life, lights and hopes and griefs in those words about their own life. The illustrations were also such a neat touch and I liked looking forward to them being there at the end of each little section.

Almost Home is a raw and honest tale of self discovery. Madisen beautifully writes about letting go of expectations and finding hope in who you will become. It’s a wonderful set of poems about growth.

I loved this book of poems by Madisen Kuhn. A collection of starkly personal poems that seek the meaning of home. What she wants a home to be and what she doesn't want a home to be. What it means to be at home in relationships and what it means to be at home in your own skin. How to be at home with your past and how to establish a home for your future. Finding home is a struggle, not only because of past experiences of not being home, but also because she does not yet know what home is. Her use of language is immediate and accessible and vivid. Highly recommend you grab this book and explore the meaning of home with Kuhn! Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Almost Home," Instagram poet, Madisen Kuhn's newest collection of poetry was both painful and powerful. I felt pieces of my own story unravel as I read her words. I could feel her pain and hear her cries. I related to much of her story and her poetry.

While some of her poems didn't resonate, I was able to move on quickly and find some deep poetry that stung my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Her collection is a quick read, but also something you can come back to again and again, explore the words, and your own heart.

This collection was filled with new favorites like, "Mojave," "Vanilla," "Deep Down," "Intimacy" and "Romanticizing the Unromantic" to name a few. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and would love to share it with all of you.

I received this eBook free of charge from Galley Books via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

This is the first work I have read from Madisen and I found it so heartfelt. So much feeling comes from the pages...such sadness and emotion. It tugged at my heart! I enjoyed the illustrations tucked in after a section of passages. They gave me the chance to breathe and reflect.

This collection didn't get me the way Kuhn's previous works have. There were pieces I really liked but more that were just okay to me. Her writing is still lovely and I will still recommend Almost Home to those who seek new poetry books. It simply wasn't my favorite.

A very interesting poetry collection to say the least! I loved it. It was raw and heartfelt and everything I look for when I'm reading poetry. I will definitely be buying a copy when this comes out.

For someone like me who has been on the move since I was born, reading a book that explores the meaning of home was very relatable. What’s the difference between a house and a home? And how do you know when one feels just like a house and what makes a home a home? The poetry is very heartfelt and emotional. For some home is a physical place or location, while for others the meaning of home is a person. What makes us feel at home? Ultimately, it’s the place where we feel safe.

One of the most poignant lines was, “I am jealous of what you have but not of who you are. Regardless it withers me.” I’m sure many people have often felt this way, feeling envious of what someone may have but not being particularly keen on the person in question.

Many of the poems explore the meaning of finding a home within a person. I think that we all yearn to feel at home with someone, although oftentimes that is merely a mirage and we’re far lonelier together than when we are alone.

This poetry collection really hits a nerve for me because of my incessant search to feel at home. If you’re a fan of Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace, then this book is for you.

#NetGalley #Almost Home

5⭐️’s

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an advance readers copy of this poetry collection. Let me first start off by saying this is my favorite collection of poems I’ve ever read. I could feel the pain and suffering through the pages. And the struggles it takes to look at life differently each and every day. I fell in love with this collection. Everyone should read this. Whether you like poetry or not. We all can take something from this. So thank you for making me feel a deep connection with each poem.

ARC eBook provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating: 4.75/5 stars
I absolutely adored this poetry collection. Covering issues like past traumas, love, loss, having a difficult childhood, self-reflection/self-discovery, and more, this collection offers such a variety of subjects that readers are bound to connect with at least one. I personally connected with several of the poems on an incredibly deep level, but even the ones I didn't feel a personal connection to were beautifully written and constructed. I loved this collection, and I'm now planning to purchase it and Madisen Kuhn's other works.

The world
is spinning
and it has
nothing to do
with me

I love this poem and it is one of the defining poems that Madisen includes in this book. Had been interested in this book as I am a fan of Madisen's work however the poems in Almost Home were lackluster for me. There were a few good poems but most just didn't tug at my heartstrings or move me in the way that her other collection of poems did. I would still recommend this to any Madisen Kuhn book lover though!

I really liked this collection but I didn't think it was her best. Ive read her first two books and I have to say I was disappointed. It wasn't bad, but I've just read so much better by her that this was kind of a let down. She had some strong poems.

i suppose someday
i will find the courage
to not fear
my own humanness.

what i was born from.
what i will inevitably make.
what will hopefully
turn out beautiful.

Almost Home is a tough poetry collection to rate. First of all, I personally am a big fan of this poetry style: the capitalization-free, minimal-punctuation storytelling is easy for me to relate to, and the stream-of-consciousness narrative works really well with my brain in particular.

i have always been soft
when i should've been hard
and hard when i should've been soft.

I say all of this to tell you: I'm not sure why I didn't love this collection. Honestly, it's the sort of thing I "should" have really adored, and I did LOVE many poems in the collection (with these that I've quoted being my favorites). It's just that so many of the poems in between fell flat for me due to repetition, or more often than not, simply being too long. One of the reasons this style works so well is because the poems are typically done in short bursts, but many of these are 3 solid pages long, and I feel like the "punch" of the story she's telling begins to feel watered down once you've spent that many paragraphs re-wording the same emotion.

i am happy and lucky
to be here.
it makes my heart heavy
to know that i must
remind myself of that
so often.

That said, if you like this style, too, it's definitely worth giving a shot, because there are some real gems in the collection. The last section of the book is about self-love and appreciating the world around us, and after 150+ pages of discussing trauma, mental illnesses, and (I mean this kindly, not to throw shade) self-pity parties, it was a huge breath of fresh air to hit the poems like this last one I've quoted. Those alone were enough to make me feel like, despite this not firing on all cylinders for me, Almost Home is still the sort of collection I could happily recommend to other readers.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

**Many thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Pocket Books for the chance to read this collection for an honest review**

ALMOST HOME is an intimate examination of the structures within Kuhn's life, whether brand new or battered -- lost or found -- and it resonates with our own search for a place to call our own. I particularly loved "When I Wake", "My Old Self", "Prism", "When I'm Alone/ In A Coffee Shop/ I Find Myself," and "I Am Grateful You Are Not Me". I loved how intimate these poems were -- and how bluntly honest they were without bitterness or anger.

I guess the largest reason I enjoyed this collection is because so much of it mirror my own experiences, and it felt as though the poet was speaking of our shared pain, confusion, and moments of triumph or joy along our journey.

Madisen Kuhn has been one of my favorite poets for a while now so I was ecstatic to get an advanced copy of her new collection Almost Home! The first third or so touches on a subject I’ve never had to deal with; the divorce of her parents and the instability that followed. My parents are still together and have only lived in two different houses since I’ve been old enough to remember, but even with the differences in our childhoods, I was still drawn to her words. The remainder of the book touched on several emotions I was more familiar with: first loves you know won’t last, questioning yourself, finding yourself through old books and copious amounts of coffee and learning gratitude. Life isn’t always easy no matter our upbringing, but Madisen continues to use her poetry as a life preserver for all of us in our twenties. We can all find something in these pages.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the afterword!

Almost Home is a wonderfully written collection of poems about what it means to truly belong. Whether the belonging comes from family, lovers, or just yourself, Kuhn hits home with beautifully crafted language about her struggle in finding a place she can call "home." Broken up into different sections of a house, each part deals with different areas of life ranging from divorce, family, love, and self-acceptance. Each poem seems to reach out and grab the reader like it's asking "please hear what I am saying" which I find incredibly exciting and enticing. I'll definitely be adding this not only in the library collection, but also my own!

I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book. It's in the same vein as Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace. Madisen Kuhn is an Instagram poet (the blurb even describes her that way) so you know what you're expecting with no capitalization and fairly simple free verse. That's my favorite kind of poetry, though, because it's so accessible and easy to read.

The poems didn't blow me away...and the thing about Instagram-style poetry is that the writing style isn't always remarkable. I know that sounds harsh, but that's the great thing about it. There isn't much fancy writing so that it's easy for the reader to digest and for the emotion to come across clearly. So if the emotion or subject doesn't touch the reader, the poem isn't going to have much effect. I would say that maybe a third of them struck me as especially meaningful, and that's why I didn't give it higher than 3 stars.

I'm certainly not diminishing the realness of the poet's emotions and experiences. Many of these poems were truly lovely and made me stop and bookmark them. Here's a list of my favorite ones:
panic/overcome
undying
how should i define these smudged edges
i do what i'm supposed to
float away
thirties
soft
how to love
my dog is my role model
give yourself a break
july will be better than june
i hope you live (a letter to my future self)
so it goes
i don't hate february anymore

This was an honest and revealing look at the author's life, and if you're a fan of this style of poetry then I encourage you to give this collection a try.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
These poems were beautiful, sad, emotional, funny, heartfelt and so much more. This lady is a very talented writer and I love her way with words. Keep up the good work, Ms. Kuhn

I really liked this one. This poetry it right down my alley and something I always enjoy reading in a bookstore.