This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy her work and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

Letters to the Person I Was by Sana Abuleil is a heartfelt journey of healing and self-discovery. The book's poetry beautifully expresses raw emotions, making it relatable for those experiencing heartbreak. However, the poetry's depth can be challenging to follow, and the collection reads more like a personal journal than a structured poetry book. While it didn't resonate completely, it offers comfort to readers seeking solace in their healing process.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The cover is simple but unique. It gives us an inside look at to who the author is.

I have a soft spot in my heart for poetry. Not everyone does it right or well, but Sana Abuleil certainly does. I feel like I KNOW her after reading this book.

I'll definitely be looking out for other work by this author.

I'm not sure this poetry collection was really my cup of tea; it's very much in the style of Rupi Kaur, Amanda Lovelace etc, that unstructured, unrhyming free verse which has the potential to be either brilliantly evocative or just vapid. Abuleil's writing definitely isn't the latter, but I'm not sure it was often the former, either. It's a book of poetry that left me feeling slightly empty, but then again, I'm not generally a fan of this style of poetry. I'm very willing to concede that I might, in fact, be the problem here.

Super love this book. I enjoy reading it. Never thought I’m going to love it.

It was moving and heartfelt. A must read.

I really like the art for this story. It's intermixed with the poems which were fine. I don't read a lot of poetry so it's hard to judge it for that one way or another.

I loved the idea of the structure of her poetry collection, and at times Sana is able to capture a beautiful picture within the writing. I found little bit of myself in some of her poems, as well. Unfortunately, it reads too much like a formula that other poets like Rupi Kaur follow, and I think that Sana has the capability to reach higher.

This collection of poetry was absolutely phenomenal from the time I placed this book in my hands and started reading it I fell in love! The writing really spoke to me in many volumes and I felt like I really could connect with the poet. I loved the bits of artwork that were inside of it as you read it. The writing as a whole inspired me during the time in my life that I’m going through right now. I feel like more people should read it!

It was painful to read, but in a good way. Achingly real. I have a friend who is going through these exact troubles it feels and all I could think of was her when I read it. The poetry isn't easy to read, this isn't simple to comprehend, but it's raw. It's powerful. It's worth your attention.

That said, I struggled with the poetic style of "letters to the person i was" and while there are moments that struck me hard such as:

<i>my poems are all
starting to sound the same.
they blur into each other
the way the traffic lights do
when they reflect on the street
after a rainstorm
and the whole city
lights up at night
and it makes sense
because lately it's
been rainstorm after rainstorm
so why wouldn't these words
get washed into each other?</i>

There are many more where I would find myself rereading page after page just because it could be hard to follow when the poems are so long and there's so little punctuation. There's effort involved. I would still recommend it though just for those brief moments that struck hard. Just don't expect this to be a collection that you can read in one sitting.

Read a while back. The poems are very reflective, too dark for me. Very reminiscent of rupi kaur. Good overall, definitely need to be in the right mindset to enjoy. (2.5 star rating)

This overall is a solid poetry collection, a decent read, but it didn’t quite work for me. It had moments that were both relatable and emotional. And although I empathized, I didn’t really connect to it as much as I had hoped. I did however like how it was a series of letters written to her younger self, and I did enjoy the illustrations as well.

This is an incredible and emotional book for me. I resonated with a lot of the poems in the story and they really touched me. Her poems touched on important issues like self-love and self-healing which I think would really inspire many readers that there and that is what is magical about this book.

While I didn't love all her poems, I really enjoyed the book overall and I would recommend to everyone, especially if you are struggling with these issues. Hopefully, you will find some inspiration, motivation and hope from the author's poems.

These poems were so beautifully written. Some of them even felt relatable to me. The writing style is amazing. I really like the illustrations in this one. I would recommend this to everybody, just give it a try. I personally liked these poems a lot.

I have no particularly strong feelings about letters to the person i was, that is, I neither adored nor hated this poetry collection. Nonetheless, I found this little book to be quite refreshing: a much-appreciated breath of fresh air from all the romance-centered poetry found in most contemporary collections. A nice, warm hug even.

I really think that I read this collection at the perfect time. Some of the pieces really resonated with me, and I was able to connect with them in ways that truly surprised me. Many of them were centered on self-love and self-healing, and these are themes that are so, so important. I loved the ringing sincerity of Sana Abuleil's works, and I loved the hopefulness shining throughout this poetry book.

Although some of the poems in letters to the person i was fell flat, the collection still boasts some pretty thoughtful pieces that are perfect for self-reflection. letters to the person i was is not the best poetry I've come across, but I do think that it makes a great read if you're feeling blue, if you're feeling lonely, or if you generally just need some comfort.

Recommended!

I received a review copy of #letterstothepersoniwas from #NetGalley

This book is broken up into an introduction and four parts, and the poems themselves are "titled" with dates. There are also simple but appealing doodle-style illustrations throughout that add a little more personality to everything. I understand how writing this was likely therapeutic to the author, but the poems didn't particularly speak to me and I feel that they could have used some further editing to get ideas across more clearly and with stronger feeling to the readers.

It is fairly short though, so it's worth a read (just in case!) for anyone who is interested by the description.

This is a solid poetry collection with reflections on experiences, emotions, relationships, and self. The poems varied in degrees of rawness. I appreciated my time inside the author’s head, heart, and words. I read this via NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the copy of this book. It means so much to me to read a heartfelt poetry collection by a new author and I am so glad I got a chance to get to read this book on time. I am currently going through some similar issues that are mentioned in this collection and I am somehow feeling humane that there are others who feel the same.
Even though I appreciate the themes tacked in this collection is important and need to be discussed and expressed, I felt like most of the lines kept me hanging. Maybe it's just the style of the author or maybe the lines needed to be complete like that.
However, I will be looking forward to more such collections by the author. I could relate so much with her.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was incredible, I loved it. The writing was so raw and incredibly done. It's deeply personal and tough to read at points. I'd add trigger/content warnings but I don't think I could get them all. I'm say, off the top of my head though: depression, anxiety, emotional abuse.

It's written in a string of almost diary entry poetries, and I just have to say for some reason that really worked for me. And I also really liked the split sections. I took it slow, as I do most poetry collections, reading a bit at a time to process it and I'd definitely recommend it for this. Or reading them out loud, they had a good cadence to them that I really enjoyed.

I'll definitely be looking into more by this author.

Oh wow.

I picked this up after being thoroughly disappointed with another collection of poetry from what I would describe as a similar poet the day prior. I longed for poems that would evoke a myriad of emotions and feelings in me and oh my gosh, did this collection deliver. Abuleil deals with your typical subjects such as mental health, heartbreak, longing, self-worth and healing but writes with such conviction and honesty in a way that I rarely see in today's poetry.

If you are looking for poetry that will break your heart, make you cry then fix you back together and leave you feeling all-round lighter, then look no further. If you enjoyed Rupi Kaur and are looking for a similar vibe, then look no further. If you're new to poetry and want to dig into some real heart-felt writing, look no further. If you've been left longing for poetry that makes you feel something (like I), then look no further.

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC!
A great book for fans of modern poetry. It's beautiful to see how we all feel the same, even if we come from different countries, different cultures... I can relate so much to the author.