I personally have never come across a collection of poems based entirely off popular movie and TV shows, so I thought this was really inventive and refreshing. The poetry was beautiful - I'm not sure what the two poets' creative process was but you can't tell that two minds worked on it, its absolutely seamless. My personal favourite was Black Fire Ballad (I Feel Most Evil in my Mother's Gowns). A lot of the poems in this book were oriented around family but they weren't monotonous. All in all, this collection was exactly my cup of tea, and I'd love to see more from these poets in the future.

I immediately loved the concept of this poetry collection when reading through the description.

I think the concept of cartoon characters Gen-z grew up with as inspiration was well-executed. The individual works themselves were each a bit different stylistically but cohesive enough to belong in this collection. The individual works are beautifully written, reminiscent of 'The Princess Saves Herself in This One' by Amanda Lovelace.

I enjoyed the quick read immensely and would recommend this work to those who enjoy contemporary poetry from Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC copy of this work in exchange for this review.

Dear Azula was such a fun collection of poetry to read! I am a twenty three year old who grew up around watching Danny Phantom and I really appreciated the tie in's to my childhood! I flew through the poems and enjoyed every single word I read. I loved the aspect that songs and other media were also included besides Danny Phantom too because it reminded me of other aspects of my childhood as well. This collection definitely could be seen as lgbtq+ representation depending on how the reader interprets some of the writing. I recommend this collection to absolutely anybody!

This was okay! I don't really have any strong feelings one way or another about it. This collection definitely had its standout poems (Dear Azula and Refration were my favourites) but I think they all kind of fall flat as they feel more like a re-telling of the emotions from the original media as opposed to adding new layers or new nuances to the conversation. The Zuko related ones definitely fell into this trap for me as I felt like I'd already read the same ideas before just not in these exact words. This isn't necessarily a problem it just didn't work for me and for what I wanted to get out of this collection. Overall, I liked the concept but I don't know if the execution really worked for me.

Thanks for the review copy!

*3.75/5

This is a short collection of poems inspired by cartoon characters, such as Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Shego from Kim Possible.

What picked my interest, was definitely the title, since I am a big geek and the cartoons mentioned her are some of my all time favourites.

This was a very easy and quick read, and I loved how vulnerable the creators were and how they used their childhood faves in order to project/talk about their own trauma and their own personal issues, such as experiencing racism, questioning your sexuality or your gender identity, among others. I find that idea to be so unique and relatable. And despite being very picky when it comes to poetry, I like it when poems aren't only smart but talk about something I can relate to while using language that is easy to understand.

Another thing, the creators used some lines directly from the tv shows mentioned in the poems or by other poems altogether, which I completely overlooked, but they did mention them in the end and don't take credit. Good for them.

The collection was good but not perfect. In my opinion, some poems did not hit as hard as others, some had only a few strong lines and some were a little longer than they should. But still, I am glad I read it.

Also, high five to my fellow geeks! Isn't it cool when our interests (our love for animated tv shows in this case) are heavily featured in other media we consume?

If you made it this far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)

This was such an interesting and creating concept of poetry. It was a fun read but I definitely enjoyed the poems that referenced the shows I had more actively watched as a child. I found myself more intrigued about which shows would be referenced rather than the poems themselves. Overall, an enjoyable and quick read.

Dear Azula, I Have a Crush on Danny Phantom is a beautiful collection of fanfictions.
Amazing poems and nostalgic feelings in a very quick read,

Danny Phantom is THE CRUSH. We love him.

If you loved 2000s animation, you would love this book.

Thanks for this arc. It was awesome.

3 stars (coming out June 22!!!)

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
#DearAzulaIHaveaCrushonDannyPhantom #NetGalley

Pros
+ poetry collection from a duo, Azura Tyabji (she, POC) and Jackson Neal (he/they)
+ queer elements throughout
+ pop culture references from my childhood (Kim Possible (Shego), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Azula, Zuko), Teen Titans (Raven, Blackfire, Beast Boy), Danny Phantom (Danny), The Emperor's New Groove (Yzma), Mulan (Mulan), Shrek (Fiona), The Lion King (hyenas), and The Incredibles (Mrs. Incredible))
+ I definitely also had crushes on Shego (and Kim), Raven (and Starfire), Azula, Zuko, and Danny Phantom.
+ My favorite poems are: "I Have a Crush on Shego" (and yes I was also a Buttercup fan from Powerpuff Girls), "Dear Azula," and "Dear Azula, Farewell."

Cons
- loved the references more than the poems themselves

TW: patricide, parental abuse, partner abuse, self-loathing, burning, scars, generally implied violence

I really liked this collection of poems exploring personal themes through the lens of millennial and gen z cartoon characters. They were well crafted, but did depend on knowledge of the source; the poems where I'd seen the shows impacted me much more than for those where I had no clue about the characters.

As someone who grew up watching all of the TV shows mentioned in this book, it is a must-read! If you loved 2000s animation, had a queer awakening watching Shego and Kim Possible fight, or have binge-watched Avatar: The Last Airbender several times in quarantine then this is the poetry collection for you. It perfectly captures the nostalgia I have for all of these characters and a time in TV history of heavy queer coding without actual representation. I felt so seen by these poems and I think many other readers of my age will as well.

I think the dual voices in this collection made it a broader read but still complimented each other enough that it felt like a single voice. I couldn't immediately tell who wrote which poem and I loved that. It didn't feel like two people just decided to write a book together, but the authors thought a lot about how their work worked together to push a larger theme.

It is definitely the more modern type of poetry (a la Rupi Kaur), but I do think the poems generally transcend the reductive view of Instagram poetry. The poems feel modern while still capturing that nostalgia. They offer new thoughts on characters I have known for years and treats the "villains" of my childhood with respect and nuance. All in all, I gave this poetry collection 5 stars and would recommend it to anyone my age.

This was such a nostalgic poetry collection for me to read! All the cartoon characters and pop-culture references included in these poems were so easy for me to pick up and identify. I think this is super fun to read if you grew up watching these cartoons in the early 2000s (Kim Possible, Teen Titans, and Avatar the Last Airbender just to name a few).

These poems are sweet and short (and didn't take me long to finish them all), and each of them is told from the perspective of a cartoon character. My personal favourites were 'Murder Ballad, Raven: Patricide' and 'Dear Azula, Farewell'.

In general, these poems explore love, trauma, acceptance and queerness from some of our most loved 2000s cartoon characters.

Highly recommended.

At once painful and healing, Dear Azula is a complete window into the soul of queerness through the perspective of someone raised in the age of cartoons. Wordplay and poetry techniques work in tandem to create an extremely relatable collection.

I think this poetry collection had a very interesting idea. In my teenage years I had crushes on a few of these characters and the exploration of their POV and trauma felt surprisingly personal.
I'm familiar with all of the fandoms, though I'm not sure how I would've enjoyed the poems without knowing them. My favourites were Mulan and Beast Boy.
3,5 Stars

4/5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Button Poetry for providing this e-arc!

This was a quick and fast enjoyable read. Heck, I think it's one of the first times that I actually genuinely like the poetry that i'm reading. The writing is pretentious but not exhausting. I'm not the most familiar with every poem's original reference but it didn't make me completely bored. The voices were great and I wouldn't mind reading more from the poets! Also what a pretty cover!

Reading this felt like the deconstruction of my mind. As if I physically took myself apart and put the pieces back together in the best way possible. In winding bits of words that carved themselves in my brain, I finished this book within a few hours. It was such an intoxicating read, with its intricate pieces and thought provoking connections to childhood and growth. I am still mentally processing how each piece of writing hit somewhere different, somewhere deep.
Inspiring wouldn't begin to sum up how I feel about this book of pure art. I'll have to read it over again tomorrow. My final thoughts on reading it are that this type of writing should always be read more than once to fully grasp what you as a reader can take from it. I'm sure that when I read it again I'll experience entirely new emotions and inspiration from its pages.

This was such a fun collection of poetry! I LOVED the media references, as they're lots of shows I've grown up with. Quick, easy read.

Thanks to Button Poetry & NetGalley for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a short poetry compilation following numerous fictional characters found in film and television.

I particularly enjoyed the Black Fire Ballad, Fiona Choses To Be An Ogre, Murder Ballad, Raven: Patricide., and a bunch of others. I didn't really like the Danny Phantom one, sadly. They can be hit or miss depending on the reader, but as a life-long animation fan, this was really fascinating to read.

A short and fun collection of poems for the 2000s kids ie. Gen Z and younger millennials, those that grew up on Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. Each poem references a different character to explore themes of childhood, puberty, relationships, and the existential notions of who do I want to be, who do I want to love, and what do I want to contribute to this world?

I don't think this will have as wide of a reach outside Gen Z, but those that these do speak to will have a lot of fun reading them!

Wow, I dont even know what to say.

Like some poetry books, this was a very quick read, but often I found myself choosing to reread poems and rereading lines because of how brilliantly they were written. I loved the poems. I was wary about how good it would be considering it sounded like some form of fanfiction but I would HIGHLY reccomend this.

I commend Tyabji and Neal for so expertly interweaving beloved cartoon characters with hard hitting issues, and the metaphors that run throughout the poems were just incredible. My favourite poems were without a doubt both the zuko and azula ones, as well as "my mum and mrs incredible have the same haircut".

I would 100% (and already have) recommend this to a friend and I'm glad I took the time to read it because it felt meaningful and it just felt worth it.

I hate to be writing this as I really wanted to enjoy this book however I did not connect to it like I usually do with the poetry books that I love. I appreciated all the references that the book had however I felt that it was not enough for me to really say that I liked reading it.