my rating: ✦✦✦✦ — 3.75 stars, rounded up

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“what do you think about / while setting your face with powder, / and inspecting the subtly blushed canvas? / Because what I see is a stunning work of art, / and I’m afraid that you only see the paint.”

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favourite poems: choreographed conversations, new york accents, dancing in manhattan

a beautifully-written, charming poetry collection, behind her city eyes is a highly underrated poetry collection that should be read by all lesbian yearners. i liked all of the poems, but the ones that stood out to me more were either lushly descriptive or painfully accurate. the feeling of experiencing unrequited love — by just standing and staring at the girl you’ve hopelessly fallen in love with, and hoping that someday, you’ll have the courage to shoot your shot — is wonderfully conveyed by sarah erin.

p.s. the subway-style directory serving as a table of contents was super cute and creative, as well!

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note: this arc was provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. thank you to netgalley and 21 chieftans press! (this was apparently first published in 2023, so i’m not entirely sure why it showed up as “recently listed” on netgalley a few nights ago.)

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stats:
spice 🌶️: 0/5
emotion💧: 3.5/5
memorability 💭: 3/5
thought-provoking-ness 🧠: 2.5/5

Now these are what I call love poems.

Feelings are already hard to encapsulate regularly, but when twisting them into poetry and turning them into a story, that’s the most difficult.

I automatically have respect for those who write poetry, to put your feelings out there like this, but wow was this one amazing. When authors put in the effort to have the words actually move on the page, make shapes, and so on, it adds to the story.

I think the point of poetry, to me at least, is that you aren’t always going to quite understand what the author is trying to say, but you can feel it more than anything. And boy, did these make me feel things.

My absolute favorite was the very last one, “When a Poet Loves You”. All felt like stories being told, from memories made, and I think that’s what makes them even more special.

Beautiful.

Behind Her City Eyes is a beautiful and moving poetry collection. Sarah Erin's work is deeply relatable and hopelessly romantic.