Look I Bought Plants

A witty look at life through the eyes of a couple of millennials. While I may be a Gen X'er myself, I have to admit to feeling seen many times on my enjoyable journey through this book of small, but perfectly formed poems. Similar in style to the likes of Amanda Lovelace - if you're looking for perfect rhymes, flowery language and poetic flourishes, then you've come to the wrong place. This is brutally frank, realistic poetry that holds a mirror up to the best and worst of our thoughts. A highly entertaining read.

This entire collection spoke to me on a personal level- you got the millennial experience perfectly. An absolute laugh out loud read while also making you feel a little warm and also full of fear because wow, we really do be like that.

A book of short hilarious poems about love, life, and queso:

"why are you confused?
all i want is for you to
compliment my body
without reminding me
of societal pressures
to look a certain way
while also objectifying me
but in a hot way
not a condescending way"

These poems are brilliant both for the way that they lampoon the overwrought, over-line broken instagram style of poetry and because they make me want to travel back in time to when I was in my 20s and early 30s and slap some sense into myself.

"My cell phone rings
who could be calling me
at this hour
or any hour
what the fuck is wrong with you
text me bitch"

I wonder if wisdom is really just knowing now what you're going to look back at and shake your head at in disappointed disbelief.


"i think about
Double Stuff Oreos
far too much

more
than any person
i have ever slept with"


All that to say, read this book and eat some queso. You'll thank me later.

"oh no
my phone is dead
how did that happen
you don't think
no
it can't be
because i'm on it
every hour
of every day?"

I found this poetry quite fun. It was light and at times relatable, but I also had a hard time reading it. Some of the formatting of the poems and the colors that were used also gave me a headache, and I often found I had to reread some of the poems. I would simply gloss some of them. Overall though it was quite enjoyable and the poems were quite short.

Was this written explicitly for me?! Like did these authors go “Hm, I think this poetry book would be perfect for Megan!” because that’s what it feels like!!!

I LOVE this collection. It’s blatantly satirical and straight up the most relatable thing I’ve ever read, just in general forget about poetry versus literature. It has everything from Thai food to broadway to anxiety and even “I’m a gemini / sorry.” THAT’S ME!!

The format feels like it’s kind of joking, since the broken sentence poems have become much more popularized today. It’s basically overdramatic but at the same time really relatable and even deep in some pieces. There is no explanation for the pieces, they exist within themselves and they get straight to the point, in your face, without chopping down the bush. This makes it much better than other poets in my opinion because it isn’t overly stuffy or trying too hard to be deep. It just is and that makes it much easier to relate to.

Poetry doesn’t need to be flowery and make me float (or confuse me) to be good. This made me laugh and squeal; it made me so happy.

I can see myself rereading this collection for years and years to come- I really want it to come out so I can add it to my collection.

This book of poetry reads like the mean popular girl from high school’s Twitter feed, and said mean girl has an obsession with Rupi Kaur. One or two of these poems was okay, but the rest were pretty mediocre or cringeworthy.

As a fellow millennial, I appreciated this book very much. It is the most relatable book I've read this year, which, in some ways, deeply saddens me, but I read another poem, laugh, and it's all better. I love the simplicity and core belief system of the authors. Note: not appropriate for boomers. Or Gen Z. (I suppose you'll have to read the book to find out why...)

A collection of brief "poems" seemingly targeted at fellow millennials, presented in a minimalistic 20-minute read. Though not particularly new ideas, these humorously deprecating entries will remind you of yourself... or your friend... or your ex.

Thank you to NetGalley, Chronicle Books, and Taylor Garron & Eva Victor for the ARC!

Look I Bought Plants is a collection by Eva Victor and Taylor Garron about everyday life, friendship and dating.

That being said, I don't really know how to review this collection. As a book and as poetry, this isn't very good. The texts (I don't know if I can call them poems) are short, unoriginal and unremarkable. The collection read more like a Twitter feed. And not one I would follow, but that's subjective I guess.

"i never feel more sexually empowerd
than when i am wearing an olive green
beanie

i will not explain further"

Well.. I this book wasn't for me and I will not explain further.

If you are looking for surface level millennial feminist's cliché ‘poetry’ you’ve heard in some version a million times, you may enjoy this collection. It almost felt as though I was scrolling through an angry girls quote page on IG. A couple in the beginning section made me chuckle, some were just kind of gross (like who talks about vaginal secretions/smells in poetry?), but most were just plain painful to get through. Oh ya, and the title is 100% buy bait, because exactly one poem even mentions plants, but plants are insanely popular and the authors are monopolizing on that. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sorry to say it's just not my kind of humour. Or my kind of book.

I enjoy weird books. I know it's meant to be some kind of funny, weird read but I just couldn't continue on.

Thank you for the copy.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #ChronicleBooks for sending me an eARC of Look, I Bought Plants by Taylor Garron and Eva Victor. While I would call this comedy rather than poetry, it is classified as poetry and is a hillariously relatable parody of Insta poets like Amanda Lovelace and RH Sin. I personally don't like that type of poetry but tbh the format lends itself SO WELL to comedy! This book was a load of fun.

I have long known that poetry and I tend to pass like ships in the night. The occasional flash of light makes its way to my awareness and I can glimpse for a moment how others are using those words to travel on.

I sometimes give poetry another go. Maybe it will buoy me this time. Four years working on an undergrad degree in English didn’t manage it, but maybe some lighter fare will.

The title of this collection caught my attention exactly one day after I felt like a mildly competent adult for purchasing some nice plants (bonus moral points for buying them from a small local store struggling to keep doors open in the cess pit of 2020). It sounded like poems for me.

Now unsurprisingly to me, many were not quite the fit I’m struggling to find, but a good handle worked their way into my consideration quite effectively. Forgive my lack of terminology knowledge—I’ve already admitted to not paying proper attention to my poetry units in school—but it seems that this...observational? Slice of life?...style of poetry has been gaining popularity over the year. Small and unstructured and unrhyming, but seeking the poetry of the aesthetics of observation.

So... the butt crack hair poem? Not for me.

But, then we hit:

“Why
Would
I
Ever
For any reason
Professional or personal
Leave my bed?”

And you know what? It’s not particularly profound, but in the absolute decade this past year has been, I have spent the majority of my days working from home, in my bed with a laptop and tea and no desire to ever return to the office (though a strong desire for the return of linear time and safe social activities).

“i want to fall in love
deeply in love
with someone who is okay
with not being my first priority
or even the second or third
i want a lover i don’t have to love
and maybe who listens to bright eyes“

So here at the end of this very quick read I’ll say that poetry and I still don’t get on. However, if observational wit is your jam, you’ll find some gems in here.

It is so hard to review poetry bc it is so personal! This book of poetry is entertaining and there were some poems I really enjoyed. However to me it seemed that the author was trying really really hard to be “hip and relatable” to millennials! That being said I definitely know a ton of people that would love this book!

If you are looking for deep, profound poetry go somewhere else. There are plenty of other options for you.

This collection is hilarious and light-hearted and extremely millennial. I honestly wished it was longer.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book seems unfinished and unedited.
I am usually a big fan of the modern “Instagram” poetry style. When I read the description, I was very excited to find it was about going through adulthood while not knowing what you are doing – using a comedic relatable tone. While we can indeed find that theme and tone in this book, it is only in a few poems. The title poem “Look, I bought plants” is the best example of this, and the best one in the book.
The poems are divided in four chapters – “living”, “friendship”, “dating”, “and every other damn thing”. This division could have been fun, but some poems didn’t fit in the section they were in. In fact, some poems didn’t even fit in the book, and I struggle to even call them poetry, as they seem more like something you would tweet at 3 am while drunk. They make this book feel much longer (and boring) than it is. The best poems were in the “dating” chapter, which was by far the most relatable and witty, and the “living” chapter had the most poems with deeper meaning. However, in the “dating” chapter, some poems did feel like the feminist equivalent of a 30 year old white man getting on stage, saying “I hate my wife” and expecting laughter – I know the authors can do better, being that they proved in other poems they are able to be funny. The chapter that seemed most useless was “and every other damn thing”, being that it was just random things in life with no real meaning. This is the chapter where we could find the most “tweet poems” that should have been scrapped out in editing.
This book seems unfinished because it doesn’t really read like a book at times, more like a compilation, like we're mindlessly scrolling through someone’s Instagram and seeing their posts. It lacks transition from one theme to another – something that could have been easily done, since all the themes can overlap with one another. Something else that lacked was illustration. In this type of poetry books, good illustration is crucial. I appreciated the green flowy aesthetic, that fits with the title of the book, but some pages felt too empty. The illustrations that did exist were small and oddly placed. The only good ones were, again, in the title poem, and in the “please/ sir/ let me ghost you in peace” poem. They both managed to fill the page and be as witty as the text they accompanied. The other illustrations were too few, bland and simple.
In conclusion, this book is good if you want a very light read and something you can post on your instastories. Witty at times, but more often than not, both the comedy and poetry fall flat. Would give it 3 stars if many unnecessary short “poems” were cut and if it didn’t have so much empty space.

This book reminded me of Amanda Lovelace's "the princess saves herself in this one". However, if Lovelace managed to write small texts that could resonate with teenagers dealing with bullying or eating disorders, I can't really picture with whom these texts would resonate. I liked the pretty layout and two or three points the authors made about racism and dating. But the rest of the book looks like a compilation of Snapchat's captions, not poetry.