DNF @ 27%

um... I might be a ~little~ dumb. I took a WHILE to realize that in each page was something continuous...smh...
When I finally noticed this, the book made more sense but definitely not enough to keep me going. I was already pretty bored.

I was only able to read half of this before the ARC expired. I enjoyed what I read and it brought back so many emotions of my own bad breakups and how bad they make you feel in the moment. I wish I could have finished it but time got away from me.

DNF @ 40%

I Hope You Stay is generously vulnerable and empathetic through its poems, but its bland writing failed to project well the beauty it could've been.

I got a review copy of this book because of the adorable cover and its title that gleamed with ache and longing. These two things made me wonder how they related to each other and the book's content.

The writing was straight forward but very shabby, as if they were random thoughts scribbled on the edges of notebook pages. There was no apparent creative structure to the poems and the way they were arranged. It was difficult to keep my interest on anything I've read in this book. I don't even remember any of what I've read. Sadly, this book didn't make me want to stay.

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC!

Great collection of poetry and prose. It's the first book I read by this author. It sounded a little like a self-help book sometimes, which isn't something that bothers me, but it's not really what I expected. Still, I could relate to so many pages, I share those feelings too... So yeah, I think it deserves 4 stars. :)

I’m not a big fan of poetry, but I really enjoyed Courtney Peppernell’s Pillow Thoughts collection, so I wanted to read this book.

The collection is divided into 5 parts: You will ache, You will dream, You will love, You will heal, and You will rise. These covered many subjects, from falling in love to breaking up with someone. I especially liked the final section, You will rise, which was about feeling empowered.

There was one poem about how women should stick together and support each other, which really resonated with me. Sometimes we judge others, without thinking about how we can help them instead. The example she gave in the poem was whispering to a woman to tell her she has lipstick on her teeth. We should look out for each other, rather than trying to bring each other down.

This is another great poetry collection by Courtney Peppernell.

Thank you Andrews McMeel for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"I Hope You Stay" is a poetry book written by Courtney Peppernell. I've had my eye on her for a long time and this was a great opportunity to try one of her books. This poetry collection is mostly about healing, growth and self-love. It shows us that it's okay to step away from people in order to heal and become aware that you are enough and that you matter. I totally recommend this book to everyone - from people who have been through break ups and might need some help to everyone else who is simply interested. Rating: 4/5 stars

I frequently read poetry. And most commonly I get to read free and open prose, which requires no rhyming or synchronisation.
This work is about depth, despairs and complexity of human relations.
It shows deep longing in face of stark betrayal and chaos.
I liked the angles of life captured by the author.
It is surreal, emotional and impactful.
It is decided into sections featuring different stages of development of a bond.
It is full of pain and has ruminations of an aching heart.
It also gives message of triumph of perseverance.
A good book but I liked pillow thoughts by the same author, a little more than thus one.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review copy.

Thank you #NetGalley for the review copy of #IHopeYouStay

The illustrations were consistently amazing and I'd give them 5/5 stars. That said, the book itself was not an enjoyable read for me. I appreciate the concepts the author is trying to convey, but reading this felt more like looking through side notes in a personal journal or captions for social media posts, and didn't have the depth or meaning that even simple poetry typically does. I could see the contents of this book being used as song lyrics, and I think if these words were put to music that would add that intangible piece of emotion or connection that is missing from the text.

Sooo... I didn’t like this book at all.

Here’s why:
- Weird formatting doesn’t make it poetry
- It was repetitive
- It tried to seem more empowering than it was

Overall the only thing I liked about this book were the illustrations and the cover. They were cute

This book of poetry is amazing and rejuvenating. For any soul willing to delve into the renewing and raw words of Courtney you will not be disappointed. I feel so blessed and thankful for all the feelings that the poems invoked from deep within.

I encourage anyone who wants a healing and motivation book of poetry that you’ve found it.

Contemporary poetry is its own beast, one that I don't automatically enjoy as much as fiction, but that I can normally groove into. This time, sadly, I really struggled to get started, get through, and ultimately finish the book.

Most of the book consists of what, ideally, would be poems told in prose (sometimes, but not always, including some rhymes within the paragraphs), but what often felt more like diary scribbles or motivational messages than poems. Not to get into an argument of what poetry in general is, but rhythm is even more important to me in poetry than rhyme, and I found the rhythm in these poems much too "normal", for lack of a better word, to really elevate them.

The poems are sorted into five thematic "chapters" named "You will ache/dream/love/heal/rise", but I'm not sure they necessarily help structure the book, as the poems within them often seemed only loosely connected to the overarching topic. Adding to my confusion were the frequent POV switches (1st person vs. 3rd person, but also the 2nd person sometimes addressing another person and sometimes seemingly depicting the narrator talking to themselves).

All in all, though I appreciate some (not all) of the messages it sent, I couldn't really connect to this book, neither in its storytelling nor in its poetry.

+1 star for the otter illustrations, though, because they were just adorable!

3.5/5☆~

Overall I enjoyed this collection! I'm a fan of modern poetry & the short formatting of pieces. I did feel like a few of the pieces in this collection could've been together as one instead of on their own pages, lengthening the book length. But still, I can see why Peppernell is a popular modern poet! Will be picking up her other works in the future for sure.

2,5 stars!
A good poetry collection. I found some of the poems meaningful and empowering. Poetry is subjective and I’m sure some people will be able to relate to the poems, but personally, most of them are not for me.

I liked how the poetry collection is separated into five sections. I really enjoyed the “You Will Rise” section the most because I resonated with almost all the poems. Peppernell captures all her emotions really well and the illustrations are stunning!

The one problem I had was that some of the poems were one-liners that sounded like inspirational Tumblr posts. That did not sit well with me because I like poetry with more substance.

Overall, I appreciated the messages the poems were trying to convey but I found the writing style to be lacking.

“I feel like I am sinking back into the soil, while everyone continues to grow, sprouting new buds and blooming, long before I can feel my roots”

This poem spoke volumes to me because I feel this in my soul. Everyone else my age is moving forward while I still feel stuck in the same spot. This poem was in the “You Will Heal” section, which to me reminded me that we all feel hurt and lost but eventually you will, indeed, heal.

“You Will Rise” was my favorite section.
“You don’t need to drink to feel confident
You don’t need to do drugs to dream
You can be high on yourself”

Favorite poem in this book. You are your own happy, your own dreamer, your own confidence.


Peppernell’s poetry makes you think, not only of yourself but if others. She reminds you that other feel just as you feel. That you are not alone in this crazy messed up world. She tells you that this messed up world needs you. That’s what I love about her poetry.

This one wasn’t my favorite of her books but I still loved it.


I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I cried at the beginning, but the rest was meh/kinda repetitive/not powerful nor resilient (even though it was its intention). i read her past books and i think they were kinda better.



some stuff that made me cry:


I hold all this blame
about how badly
things between us ended

I dream so vividly
of our conversations
late at night

But despite all the reason
I shouldn’t think of you
I still do
 


It was just bad timing
I told myself
But bad timing happened
time and time again
And after all the pain
maybe it wasn’t the timing
maybe we were just two people
bad for each other.

I’m not sure what possessed me to request not just one, but two ARCS of poetry in February (given that I'm anything but a regular poetry reader), but if there was one month to do it, it might as well have been the month of love. 

"I Hope You Stay" begins as a collection of poems about heartbreak and those you love leaving you behind, but blooms into a beautiful collection of love poems accompanied by equally cute and gorgeous illustrations of otters in space. I can see why people would connect to Peppernell's words in both categories, and there were plenty of times that I found myself nodding my head in agreement with the words on the page and highlighting passages that I felt strongly about.

What sets this collection apart is the way it's written, the modern style which this follows has become very familiar, but whereas I’ve seen prose told through verse, I’ve never seen poems told through prose, which is what a majority of this book tries to do. This definitely caught my interest, and I enjoyed it at first...until I realized how plainly everything ends up being said. 

The messages in this work are powerful to read but they don’t hold the magic that can be sparked by the imagery, ambiguity, allusions, and other strategies used in most poetry. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any of the common literary devices usually utilized in verse. This ends up making the collection feel almost more like a journal, a series of thoughts, or perhaps a collection of notable quotes. Still powerful messages, but poetic...questionable.

In a more story-like structure, one might expect that the strength of this collection to be the overall narrative, unfortunately, the poems didn’t seem to follow a clear path from start to finish. Instead, they appeared to be gathered up when finished and bound together as they were.

This was only furthered by the fact that the poems switch between who is narrating and who is being addressed, sometimes using ‘I,' sometimes ‘we,’ sometimes ‘you,’ which all seem to be interchangeable at times, but not at others. This makes it difficult to discern who the main character is and our relation to them as readers. 

I rated "I Hope You Stay" 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Another collection of modern poetry where I'm not a hundred percent sure where the actual poetry is.


I don't say that this book actually bad is. It isn't. When I started to read it, I even thought these so called poems could raise the feeling inside me that somebody narrated them to me, I could actually hear the low but strong, alto voice of a woman in my head - which isn't exactly poetry, but is like the next best thing.


With time I got a bit bored while reading, though. There's structure, there are thoughts (though to me mostly average wording), but I felt like it lacked real substance and depth.


I must say, though, that I love those little otters, or whatever they are! They're adorable.


All in all, I should say that this collection is very typical modern poetry. If it's your thing, this book is for you.

Verses filled with vivid emotions. A few grammatical errors but some lines are absolutely wonderful, i saved them as quotes.

Beautifully written poetry piece about love, self love and acceptance. The book progresses through accepting the love of yourself and how it can impact others and the relationships you make. Truly impactful to me and my personal journey through self love as well. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I Hope You Stay isn't the first book by Courtney Peppernell I read. I read all her previous poetry collections, and enjoyed them.
Since she’s a queer writer, I managed to relate to a lot of her poems, in her previous books.
Of course I couldn’t resist the opportunity to read I Hope You Stay before its release date.
I thought the cover very cute.
The book itself is written in 5 different parts.
Poetry is, of course very, subjective. The ones in this book, I could relate a little less to, and that made me not enjoy it fully. The poems I enjoyed the most were in “You will dream”, it was my favourite part.
The writing style, I really loved.

All over, it wasn’t my favourite book of hers, but I appreciated it nonetheless.