Poetry is so subjective, and it's interesting to see how others interact with collections. Personally, this one wasn't for me. I haven't placed my hand on what it could be, maybe a disconnect in the topics and themes, or I didn't catch the rhythm of the cadence.

This didn't work for me at all but I think this may have been on me so I won't make a big deal out of it. Let's say I didn't feel the emotions the author was trying to convey and I felt like I was witnessing a performance of the feelings instead of said feelings.

Couplets by Maggie Miller

Rating: 3/5

Overall, I enjoyed this for what it was — a novel in verse. Told in couplets and split into four parts, this book follows a woman’s experience leaving her relationship with a man to embark on her first queer relationship.

It's an exploration into the ways we define ourselves and what this says about human connection and relationships, and I appreciate how much is packed into this little book! It covers themes of identity, desire, love, and loss, and in a manner that is simultaneously poetic and succinct.

While this isn't necessarily a perfect book. I found it to be a creative and compelling debut, and I can't wait to see what Maggie Millner does next.

Thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for the digital ARC!

Couplets takes a fascinating form for readers who enjoy both literary fiction and poetry. The story that unravels via precise yet playful prose is intriguing, stimulating, and surprising, The NYT Book Review described it as "queering all binaries"---which really says it all.

I had REALLY high expectations for this book, and I admire what the author tried to do but it didn't quite happen as intended.

There were lines that were meant to "hit", to land and give you that "oof" moment, and while some of them were creative or at the very least, unexpected, they felt to "curated" to be impactful. At times this felt like a collection of interesting one-liners, but the surrounding words drew away from them, or perhaps just highlighted how average some of them were.

I did see potential, and I hope to read Milner's future works and see improvements.

told in rhyming couplets, this short novel follows a young woman as she embarks on her first queer relationship. reflecting on her previous boyfriend and the woman she’s now seeing, the book follows along on a series of vignettes exploring queerness, power, loss, freedom, desire, identity, art, love, and at its core - relationships. it begs the question whether we are shaped by every relationship we have, whether we are vessels which hold the ghosts of all our previous lovers inside of us.

couplets is a fast-paced, cerebral, and creative little book which plays with the form of both the novel and poetry. you can easily fly through it in one sitting.

✨ARC courtesy of @netgalley @soft_boilt_egg & @fsgbooks✨

i am so grateful to have been gifted this book in exchange for an honest review📝

this collection of poems was absolutely incredible🤩 millner is going to achieve amazing things, i just know it🥺

i enjoyed the diverse use of verse & pov’s🧍‍♀️it felt as thought i was really getting to know the characters personally, which is such a great feeling🥰

millner’s use of language to describe love, sexuality, sexual desire and hurt was just so refreshing❤️

and although definitely second to the form because it was just WOW🥳 the storyline was addictive and easy to follow🤍

The obsession is obvious within the lines of this book. The need to be wanted and praised by someone else when you cannot distinguish your own identity. I did not really see the point in breaking it up into 4 chapters ("books") because there felt no difference between them (maybe other than time?)

Very powerful and always here for queer literature. Wish she kept the cat, though ha!

The writing is just as stunning as the cover. Millner unravels a messy story about complex, queer city love through couplets. As a bisexual woman, I found myself relating to the narrator. What made this entire read even more enjoyable was the structure. The poetic devices and language elevated the storytelling to a whole other level.

This is a great read and pretty quick. The poetry aspect of Millner’s work isn’t daunting either— so don’t be afraid of diving into this if you aren’t a poetry buff.

This was such a strong debut. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the eARC of <i>Couplets</i> by Maggie Millner in exchange for an honest review. I had such a great time reading this and so much of this resonated with me. We are constantly discovering more about ourselves as we get older. This is a beautiful story of a queer woman coming of age in her late 20s as she comes out of the closet and starts a relationship with another woman after years of thinking she’s straight. I thought this was smart, tender, and emotionally evocative. For such a short read, it was nice to be able to transport me into this person’s world. The writing is excellent, and I think I didn’t give this five stars because of the heavy references to other writers. Still, this is a lovely little read and I can’t wait to pick it up for my library.

So good, I loved the length of this book! It was so quick to get through and a really fun format that switched it up from the other books I'm currently reading.

Overall it was creative, fast paced, and a really enjoyable read. Thank you for the advanced copy!

I really liked the premise of this but most of the poems seemed unimpressive and repetitive. Thank you for the ARC!

Gorgeously written! I look forward to sharing this with my creative writing students. They are going to love how Maggie Millner uses couplets in such a fresh, exciting way to tell her queer story. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book!

3.5 stars. what a weird little book. the sentence-level writing could be intensely good, but at other times, I felt weirdly detached from the narrator. overall, I liked the set up of the couplets and vignettes, but felt a little lost with some of the overwritten sections

This is another short book, but I picked it up with the specific intention of reading it slowly. It’s a coming-out story about sexual, artistic, and self discovery told primarily in poetic verse. I really loved this book for its marriage of form and theme—Milner’s sense of play in her use of a restrictive meter in the couplet is mirrored in the journey her protagonist undergoes. There are some really lovely lines in this one and I enjoyed reading for rhythm and rhyme in a way that felt accessible and meaningful. If you think a Sally Rooney book in poems sounds appealing, this might be worth your time.

This fell a little flat for me, which is such a shame because it seemed so promising. I thought the poetry style was interesting but didn't lend itself well to getting to know any of the characters; they fell a little flat to me and I didn't feel invested in the relationships at all. The short length of the book also worked against it, the story felt rushed and by the end I didn't feel like I had truly experienced something.

This didn't factor into my review, but I will say that reading it on my Kindle made me feel like I was missing something because I knew the formatting was messed up and I couldn't tell how important that was.

Couplets is such a fun, fresh take on the romance genre -- I really enjoyed Maggie Millner's unique storytelling style and the novel within. The representations of queerness, kink, and polyamory really spoke to me -- I just loved it!

I loved this collection! I found the writing so engaging and I really really enjoyed it! It was a quick read.

One of the most amazing original books I have ever read. As someone who can struggle with poetry the way Milner uses poetry to tell stories of love in innovative ways is stunning.

I enjoyed this book and found some of the poetry quite beautiful. It's been a while since I'd read a novel in verse like this, and I found the structure refreshing. It also made me consider love and how that love manifests itself even when the relationship is over.
I felt a slight detachment from the poems. It's as if the style and structure were prioritized over the content and a lot of the emotion was taken out of it. I just finished the book last night, but I'm having a hard time remembering any poems in particular that stood out to me.
All in all, I did appreciate reading it, and might revisit at some point to see if I'm being too harsh!