Alicia Cook is a beautiful and raw writer. She has a way of saying exactly what I’ve been feeling, like she can look into my mind and soul. She portrays anxiety, depression, grief, breakups, and other struggles in such a way that allows her readers to relate universally.

I found reading the B Side remixes a bit challenging to follow which words she was circling, which made it difficult to follow the ebb and flow of the poetry, but I appreciate how she shows the evolution that a poem can have, and how she also pulls positive lines out of previously more dark poems. I do wish they were side by side for a comparison read, as that diminished the overall reading experience for me.

The light from the darkness theme is prevalent throughout the book of poems and in the end that is what I always take away from Cooks writing. She puts mental health, addiction, and relationship issues in a light that doesn’t trivialize or romanticize them, but that shows them in a real relatable way. She writes what she knows, but also makes it accessible, especially for people who might have never struggled with these things. Overall, I really enjoyed this book of poetry and i think it would resonate with anyone who had experienced these things or wished to understand the issues she addresses better.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back by Alicia Cook.

First off, loved the format. Short poems each followed by a song. I will most likely be going back and writing all of these songs down and then I'll have a delightfully angsty listen.

But I don't want to snark about this book, nor it's content. I think it's really easy to write off teen depression as just moodiness, or drama. Each of these poems shine a harsh, yet beautifully worded light on how it feels to experience depression and anxiety, and I felt a lot of them in my very gut. I think my teen self would have felt them even harder since there was a lot of romantic heartache as well.

This was a quick, but refreshingly unique take on a tough topic, but I think it could be useful to so many who struggle with this tough ailment.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"We are in repair, never beyond repair,
We are healing, never healed."

This was beautiful.... The author's accounts of anxiety, hurt and life were heartbreaking, and so relatable and sad and frustrating and necessary, it was beautiful, and it was everything.

Really an artpiece on feelings was born from Alicia Cook and I'm very glad I read this. This made me feel understood as a person as only (great) poetry can achieve. For each poem there's a song related to it at the end, and that makes it so much more personal (specially since I knew most of them :). Lastly, the author makes "remixes of the poems, doing something so, so visual and different, it reminded me a little of Leminski's work. I didn't know if I cried or if I called my best friend to say hey - this is f*ing everything! I need you to read this because we both need this!

Many thanks for letting me read this.
I was better because of it.
I hope others will love it too.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I found the content a little lacklustre and struggled to keep going. There is definite merit in her work, it sadly just didn't gel with me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and of course, Alicia Cook for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely loved it! I was mostly drawn towards "Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back" because the title is SO ME (I mean, it's a given for a millennial introvert.)
I am not normally a fan of this genre of poetry, but this was an incredible experience. I loved the concept of it, and how it was executed. As someone who visits depression and anxiety frequently, "Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back" hit me in some very crucial parts of me, and I resonated with it very much. I especially loved the "mixtape" structure and how each poem (called tracks here) ended with a song recommendation that fit the vibe. I listened to them while reading and my reading experience was definitely heightened.
But my favourite part of the book was "Side B" where the poet utilised the black-out poetry format to "remix" the poems on Side A to create almost new, smaller, more intricate poems within. It was fun to decipher them, and also made me a bit emotional after I read the outcome. I truly loved the uniqueness of this book and the rawness and simplicity in how Alicia described her emotions.
"Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back" is due to be published on the 6th of October 2020.

'Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back' by Alicia Cook is a powerful poetry collection, in which Cook continues to bring a uniqueness to modern poetry with the structure and format of her collection. As a fan of her previous collection, 'Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately', I knew that this poetry collection would be incredibly moving and raw.

'Sorry I haven't Texted You Back' explores themes of anxiety, depression, love, heartbreak and family, just to name a few. Alicia Cook writes so powefully concerning mental illness. The poems discussing anxiety and depression shattered my heart because my experience felt seen - even the title of this poetry collection is a statement I relate to. Cook's ability to put feelings, to write how crippling anxiety and depression can be, is absolutely masterful. Cook's poetry has so many layers and I enjoyed peeling back the meaning of each verse; there was such a beauty in her poetry that still reached down within the crevices of the human experience, to showcase the gritty and oftentimes, ugly, aspects of real life.

Side B, the 'remixes', so to speal, utilises the format of 'black out poetry' to create almost new poems out of the poetry read in Side A of the collection. I have to admit, Side B was my favourite only because it was an incredible experience to read the original poem and then read the black out version which makes you feel so differently, with a different theme being explored. It was marvellous.

Though not one of my personal favourite poetry collection, as there were a few poems that didn't connect to me personally, I found it powerful and beautiful with one of the best explorations of anxiety and depression I have read.

4.5*

This is an incredible, emotional book of poetry from an extremely skilled writer. Alicia Cook expresses pain, grief, love and mental illness in a way that pierces right to the heart - my personal favourite was Track Seventy-Three on Side A which was like receiving a sucker punch straight to the heart. This is the most impressed I have been with a writer all year and I'm excited to see what Cook does next.

I did have to knock half a star because I thought the sheer amount of poems (over 100) in the book was a bit overwhelming. When most every piece is so deeply emotional it's easy to become fatigued, and because of that the reading experience suffered somewhat. Still, this is a truly great book.

this is my first read from this author, and i am genuinely amazed by the works inside this book, some got really close to home and some missed, but still a very solid read and a breath of fresh air from previous poetry books i've consumed

Honestly, I really enjoyed this one. It felt very raw and emotional reading about living with mental illness and how it affects our day to day life, our friendships, our relationships. It talked about difficult topics, but there still was a glimmer of hope.

The format of this poetry collection was a very strong point. Side A was basically the poems, written normally, and side B of the "tape" was blackout poetry on the same exact poems as side A, revealing some secret messages. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.

I devoured this collection of poetry in two sittings. ⁠⠀
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Depression, anxiety, grief, and loss are portrayed so masterfully and accurately that at times I felt like Alicia Cook's words had been plucked out of my own heart. I felt seen, understood, and as though someone had finally put to paper thoughts and feelings that have floated around my brain namelessly for years.⁠⠀
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Each poem is accompanied by a song, and I was happy to see a number of my own favorites featured in this book. And if that wasn't enough, the entire second half of this book is "remixes" of the first half of poems using subtraction poetry (one of my favorite forms of poetry!). ⁠⠀
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"Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back" is available October 6th. ❤️ I highly recommend this collection to anyone who has lived through depression/anxiety/loss or anyone who loves someone who has lived through these things. ⁠⠀
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

I loved the concept of this poetry collection. It's a breath of fresh air from most poetry books. I liked Side A more than Side B though, since I felt a lot of emotions reading entries from that part of the book. A lot of the entries are so raw and real that I can personally relate to some prose.

These poems were really beautiful written. And some of the vrese hit so close to the heart.
Thank you netgalley for providing with e-arc in exchange of an honest review.
Absolutely liked this book

This was the first poetry book I read by Alicia Cook and I really liked it. I loved the concept of the book: a poetic mixtape. The poems were divided into two parts (side A and side B), and out of the two parts, I especially liked reading side B.

Sadly, the first part of the book did not contain many poems that really spoke to me and because of this, I went through it pretty slow. However, part two totally surprised me! In part two, the poems from part one got mixed-up to create new, smaller poems. I've never seen this in a poetry book before and absolutely loved the uniqueness of it.

All in all, I'm glad that I was able to read and review this book and I would recommend it to anyone who's struggling or has struggled with depression or anxiety.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read Alicia Cooks poetry before. I seen her other collection with the cover identical to this one and I was always on the fence about because a little part of me thought it wasnt gonna be any good. Amazon is filled to the brim with poetry books whether they're self published or not. So Its always kinda like finding a needle in the haystack when it comes to the ones that's actually pretty decent or even good for that matter. So that being said this collection was decent. A good amount of the poems I really resonated with and really got on so many levels but some of the others seemed like they were just saying the same thing over and over again. I also felt like some of them were just a little too long and just dragged on. The author would mention a "you" in the poems but it would be a little confusing because sometimes it sounded like it was the same person and then it didnt the next minute. I think my favorite part about the whole collection was Side B The Remixes. I thought that was really cool. I did really love how this collection was formatted. I really enjoyed the whole mix tape aspect of it expect for the "currently listening" I think that could have been left off these poems. I didnt really see that they added anything to the collection.


Thank you Andrew's Mcmeel Publishing and Netgalley for my arc to read and review.

I would finish a poem and not remember a single thing I had just read - which suggests to me that there was no spark in any of the lines. I might have skimmed a lot of them, but I have no way of knowing? A successful Instagram post does not a talented poet make. The whiplash from the extreme emotional shifts from poem to poem was painful and confusing - so many poems aimed at a “you” who never seemed to be the same person and yet maybe was?

There’s feelings wrapped up in these poems that needed to be written, but I don’t know if they needed to be read by the mass audience.

I liked the idea of using black-out poetry to shift the meaning, but 92 poems to get through meant that by the time I reached “Side B” I just wanted to the whole thing to be over. They came too little too late. (And even when they did arrive, they felt very elementary school art project, rather than publishable work…)

Even if I liked a particular poem, I couldn’t tell you which one it was because each poem is labeled as a track, which makes them all blend together. Additionally, the use of the “currently listening” felt very out of date - like someone picking a “cool” song for their MySpace page. It didn’t add anything to the poems and there was hardly enough time to go look up the song and then come back and read twelve quick lines. It felt a lot like someone should have nixed that idea.

I loved this poetry collection. I've read a few that missed the mark for me, but I can surely see myself reading more from this author. The poems were beautiful and relatable and reading some of them felt very comforting, knowing I'm not alone with these thoughts. The second part, in which the first poems were the base for blackout poetry was quite interesting, but some of them were really hard to read. Overall, this was a solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a copy! The title immediately drew me in as I find it extremely relatable. Thrilled to find this beautiful book of poetry and can't wait to buy the hardcopy. The added mixtape themes gave a fresh take, adding to every emotion the poem invoked and positively contributed to my experience. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the poems and will keep an eye out for more from Alicia Cook!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this collection.

Let’s start by saying that this collection was well done, I particularly loved the way it was formatted. It was definitely different from anything I’ve seen so far and it was honestly genius. I do feel like some poems were a little too long, and kind of dragged for me. I think that they could have used trimming. And then side B was honestly better in my opinion. I tend to get bored or not paying attention to longer poems. But I still think that this was a beautiful collection

This really resonated with me. It was amazing to see something that I related with so much. So happy to have read this little gem and can't wait to recommend to all my friends.

This was an incredible piece of art! Alicia Cook took a book of poetry and made it so much more.

I read this book because the title described my life. I could completely relate to some of the anxious and depressive tendencies of the author.

The collection of poems is divided into two parts: Side A and Side B.

Side A was standard poems about life and love, anxiety and coping, and depression. Each poem was finished with a music track that was being listened to. I loved how relatable the poems became knowing the songs and contributing more feeling to the poems.

Side B, however, was completely different. It was remixes that changed the poems and gave a whole new meaning to them. I loved it!