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!

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced reader copy.

This week’s headline? To use a couplet seems like a sure bet
Why this book? It’s been a minute since I read poetry
Which book format? ARC
Primary reading environment? Train
Any preconceived notions? Not really
Identify most with? “I became myself”
Three little words? “show my poems”
Goes well with? Edna St. Vincent Millay (she was the epigraph)
Recommend this to? Those looking to find themselves
Other cultural accompaniments: https://delphicreviews.com/review-couplets-by-maggie-millner/
Grade: 3.25/5
I leave you with this: “I stayed in utero, for instance, two weeks after I was due, then came out so decisively and fast I couldn’t breathe. I spent my first night on earth alone inside a tent flushed full of oxygen, the event from which (my dad believes) have sprung like fires all my weird anxieties.”

📚📚📚

This is a solid poetry and prose collection. There’s some really poignant phrases here. I didn’t really care for the second person point-of-view sections as some relied on references or citations - another Maggie (Nelson) utilizes them in a more interesting way, but that’s just a personal preference. That being said, I might check out Milner’s future works.

Couplets will be available on February 7, 2023.

3.5. some phrasing I absolutely adored. the section about being tied to the bed was beautiful. The method of storytelling (mostly through poems, but they don't really rhyme it's more just oddly presented text) had no effect on me and that seems to be its selling point. one of those books I definitely did like but I'm not sure I would have kept reading it if it was longer

I really enjoyed this mix of prose and poetry, looking at the author go from a heterosexual relationship into a homosexual one with another woman. I felt her longing, her unease even when she is firmly in the new relationship. Her writing captured the feeling of something possibly ending at any moment in a new relationship.

This story is one of sapphic awakening during a quarter-life crisis. Couplets and prose made for an engaging way to move through the story, but overall, I preferred the prose. While exciting in its form, it could have been a more compelling story. This was a quick read, and it lacked any real semblance of a plot for me. Miller’s writing was so close to something satisfying and moving, but I feel like it sacrificed some of its beauty to be complex. Lots of big words for big words’ sake that felt unaligned with the story being told. I don’t see myself picking this up again.

This book is ambitious, smart, and incredibly creative — and for me, it fell a little short of what it attempted. Still, I absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for a fascinating challenge of a book, or a look at queer characters who come out in adulthood!

COUPLETS is the story of one woman’s queer awakening, coming-out, and dating in her adulthood, told mostly in verse (with prose vignettes sprinkled throughout). I was entirely charmed by the premise (in both plot and form). but the verse itself, unfortunately, is where the book fell short for me. The author limited herself so severely in form that the poetry sometimes felt awkward or stilted. most of the couplets didn’t scan, and the rhyming was haphazard at best – some full rhymes, a lot of slant rhymes (on a sliding scale of "great" to "I'm not so sure about this") and a few which were maybe slant rhymes, if you squinted pretty hard.

The prose vignettes, on the other hand, were lovely: written in easy, lyrical prose, and the way they “slipped” back into couplets at the end of each chapter was really nicely done. In general, I also thought that the characterization and shape of the story were very compelling — messy and queer and often charming. The narrator’s voice and personality comes through very strongly, and she makes for an excellent main character.

All in all, I think this book is absolutely worth picking up: it’s a fast, engaging read, and wonderfully creative and ambitious. Though the story’s form missed the mark for me, I know that won’t be the case for every reader, and it’s certainly worth reading to see for yourself. Thanks so much to FSG and Netgalley for the advance copy!

next to the expression queer messiness is standing this book

the whole scenario was well-thought, a love story following a queer woman having her first queer romantic experience all written in poems? I love the concept and i was drawn to it, immediately

but i wasn't that convinced when i read the actual book, i couldn't connect with the writing, which for me felt flimsical and too experimental in a way you don't get if you aren't the writer yourself. but it might just be me

ratings: 3.5/5

As with many others like this, there will be readers who connect very well. I found myself getting distracted, but I appreciated the uniqueness of this one in that it wasn't just Instagram life advice. It was a story told in a specific way.

An absolutely stunning story told mostly in verse (couplets, duh!) that explores queerness, monogamy, gender, and connection. This was beautifully written and filled with references to contemporary artists that further enhances the story. The last section lagged a bit for me but overall this was a fast-paced punch that played with form so effectively.

This was fine- some of the poems are pretty good but by in large blend together with no really innovative images or themes. Somehow makes falling in love with a woman for the first time pretty boring.

I tore through this book in an evening, and a week or two later, verses from it are still richocheting around in my head. The effortless infusion of rhymes like bagels/kegels (an all-too-familiar moment of 30-something NYC life!) into a matrix of literary allusion, the way that the modern quest for authentic, durable love is triangulated through bondage-play to (and through?) cheap IKEA furniture, creates a textual world that also feels remarkably live, and lived.

I was initially annoyed at the prose interludes interrupting the seamless stream of couplets, but I have since read an interview with Millner in which she so compellingly defends this choice, aligning the formal uncertainty of the book with the speaker's anxious and ambivalent amorous couplings, trios, and triangles, that I have since come around.

I can recognize that this was at the very least well written but I found it a little convoluted at times. There were entire chapters (passages?) that left me wondering what the fuck I just read. My eyes would glaze over and I was taking in words without comprehension because it seemed as though they were picked at random. But the parts that I understood, I really enjoyed. So 3 stars, it's just *fine*.

The format of this book (use of couplets) was unique and was personally different for me as a reader. There were parts of this read that I enjoyed but overall was unable to reach a point where I was captivated and invested. This was a quick read.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC

What an incredible and inventive debut from Maggie Millner! I was hooked on Couplets from start to finish and loved the honesty, rawness, and ingenuity of it. Millner's self-awareness and ability to own up to her experiences and decisions are impressive, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

What a darling little book! I read this very quickly, wanting to find out what happens to this woman coming into her queerness. As a woman who is bisexual and poly, I related so strongly with many of the scenes. It's rare that I read something that I feel deeply represented in. Will be recommending to my whole queer/poly family.

“All my life I’ve shown up late” Maggie Miller explains in her poetry collection Couplets. The poems here are captivating and engrossing. I didn’t want to stop reading, I wanted more.

And it seems Miller wanted more. She explores this in her words. Miller wanted something she didn’t even know she wanted, and that was to be with a woman. She honestly chronicles the struggle to inhabit one’s true self, all the power, loss, freedom, and uncertainty it entails. And that is something, queer or not, we can all relate to.

Thanks to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, and Maggie Miller for the honor to read and review this work.

Genius mode. This book is staggeringly good. A story of a queer love affair that becomes an excavation of identity through playing with literary form. A blend of poetry, prose, and criticism that is constantly reconsidering and morphing on each page despite its adherence to its structures (most significantly, couplets). One of the most singular reading experiences I've had in a while... one of those brain melting reads we constantly search for but so rarely find. I may or may not have read passage 1.8 no less than ten times… Interview with Maggie Millner will be up on my channel on Feb. 7 for pub day (Reading the Room Podcast / The Bar and the Bookcase).

Maggie Millner's debut COUPLETS is vibrant and sexy and breathless -- what a read! I loved this exploration of the geometry of relationships and the heady rush of new infatuation, of intellectual connection, of exploring the possibilities of one's sexuality. You'll read this in one lush sitting!

The deal: It’s a “coming-of-age, coming-out, coming-undone” story told in alternating chapters of couplets and second-person prose. It is also exceptionally short. (I got an ARC from NetGalley.)

Is it worth it?: How do you feel about rhyming, generally? I thought I had no strong opinion, and then I read this book. I think Millner generally succeeds in what she set out to do — there’s no doubt she’s a strong writer — but it turns out that any more than one rhyme and the reading voice in my head goes full Dr. Seuss and stays there indefinitely. This is a me problem.

Pairs well with: Garth Greenwell, Elif Batuman, etc.

C+

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC for this title.

Couplets is a special, daring, and sexy novel told in poetry about coming of age, coming out, first loves, and navigating relationships with yourself and others.

Millner manages to capture the wild and reckless feelings of tempestuous love in the prettiest little couplets that are a delight to read. You ache with the narrator and find yourself relating to the scenarios and situations she experiences.

I'm not sure if this is just my interpretation, but this novel does switch back and forth between timelines. During the verse chapters, you learn about the narrator's love romps and tumult, and experiences with her partners. And then chapters of her reflecting on her life in the present day are interspersed throughout.

*NOTE* I have not verified these quotes with the final version of the novel, but I wanted to share because I think they show the beauty of Millner's words and how they describe love and sex and self-discovery so beautifully.

"How else could you articulate a wish that you yourself couldn't understand–a wish that seems the most obscene hypocrisy? "I want the safety and solidity I used to know." "I think I'd feel more free if more constrained." "I wanted out, now I want in." "How dare you do to me the very thing I did to him.""

"I just can't give you what you need, it might have been the first time we'd agreed."

"In poetry then, let me say that love has been, above all things, the engine of self-knowledge in my life–and even after everything is still what makes the rest worth suffering."

I feel like if you're in love, lovelorn, not looking for romance, or just enjoy books that give you a snapshot look into relationships, you will love Couplets.

: