Contemporary poetry is a genre I’m still getting used to, but Couplets served as an excellent gateway for me. Beautifully written with many quotable lines to which I’ll be sure to return when reflecting upon my own experiences, Couplets reads more like a short story than a collection of poetry, with the poems and prose connected by narrative rather than by theme alone. I thought the idea of writing a story about a woman’s experience with romantic relationships through couplets was creative, particularly with our narrator’s gravitation toward monogamy, and I appreciated the author’s use of second person POV as well. Couplets is as honest and vulnerable as it was enjoyable to read, and it has encouraged me to explore the contemporary poetry genre further.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an ARC of Couplets in exchange for an honest review.

This is an intriguing little book, which manages to split the differenced between poetry and prose and doesn't get irritating (except for the rhyming couplets at times but I can forgive Ms. Millner for that). This piece ends up being about Ms. Millner realizing she's bi, breaking up with her long term male partner over it, and her first lesbian relationship, Definitely worth picking up when it comes out in February.

A really special work. Millner's couplets are interspersed with bits of prose detailing the beginnings and ends of her romantic relationships, and the revelations of queerness that they bring about. One of the best works of poetry I've read in recent years--- a gift.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of “Couplets” in exchange for an honest review. I appreciated the references and explanations in the notes section. I enjoyed the second person perspective and thought it was well-used. I enjoyed how the collection flowed and that there was essentially a plot to follow rather than tropes or themes.

Written in verse, but reading as more of a short story, Couplets packs a punch in its slim pages. Each poem flows into the next and there were lines that made me stop and grab my highlighters, I loved Millner's references to other female writers throughout her poetry, they were like fun little easter eggs that made me fall down a rabbit hole of other works I find enjoyable.

Couplets tells the story of a young female writer amidst a somewhat complicated life transition. Our narrator decides to leave her long term boyfriend to embark on a whirlwind romance with her first female lover. Navigating these unknown waters has its fair share of ups and downs and overthinking, which leads to beautiful and layered introspection on desire, self discovery and what it means to be human.

"Like cells, it's still miraculous to me.

Love found me twice, at once. If it never
happens again I'll still be luckier

than the moon. Breathing, typing these lines,
texting a friend, checking the time,

thinking it wouldn't always be like this,
but still, sometimes, it was. It is."

Thank you, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for allowing me to read Couplets early!

I don't enjoy poetry as much as prose, but from time to time I find these small gems which radiate such brilliance and Couplets falls in this category. I was moved. I cried. I loved this book dearly,

Of all the modern poetry I’ve been reading, this was certainly different. Different in a good way.
Practically a novel, or at least a short story, told (mostly) in couplets with some freestyle poetry prose interjection.
The plot of it like the plot of so much good poetry is love. Specifically, a love story. Specifically, a particularly torrid passionate affair between a young woman and her first female lover.
It’s about love, but also about gender, sexual orientation, and (mostly) about our expectations from a relationship, from our partners emotionally, physically, mentally.
Pretty heavy lifting for a structure as airy as couplets, but the author manages.
I’m not really a fan of modern poetry, but this book stood out to me. In quality, in structure, in execution. It rides on a feeling; that desperate maddening feeling of a love that can’t, that won’t stay, and it rides expertly, creating a compelling read.
I can’t say I loved the characters, but then again, the book is too quick of a read to require an engagement on that level. It’s more of an artistic appreciation sort of thing. And it was appreciated.

“Couplets” is a stripped down poetry collection that seems to be written so simply yet every stanza I read I come to question how I can resonate so deeply with words that seem so simple. Each poem spills sincerity, with dwellings on female relationships and pleasure feeling so interpersonal. It’s a great power wielded by Millner, to be able to say something so deeply fresh and novel yet so simple and accessible.

This quick but rich novel in verse tells the story of a narrator who falls in love twice. I was reminded of Women by Chloe Caldwell, which I also tore through in one sitting, for its themes and beautiful language. My favorite part of this novel was its references to works of fiction and theory by women writers. All are vague in the text but explained or identified in a note at the end of the book — so much more to dig into!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.