Coffee Days Whiskey Nights

2 1/2 stars. cyrus parker seems to not be one for metaphoric language, or quite frankly- anything out of the literal. there is heart felt content, but the writing felt shallow and tumblr-esque.

This poetry book wasn’t what I expected at all, but I really enjoyed it. Each poem flowed into the next that had the book feeling more like a book of verse than a collection of poems. The formatting is really clever, but perhaps doesn’t come off as well on an e-reader. I’ll definitely be purchasing this book so I look forward to seeing how it translates onto paper. The juxtapositions between the feelings felt in morning and night were very powerful. I suffer with anxiety and depression and found myself really resonating with some of darker sections. The poems where anxiety specifically were mentioned made me feel like I’m not alone in my feelings, as you can sometimes feel you are. I read it in one sitting and I really liked how it ended uplifting and positive.

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review A perfectly middle of the road poetry book. Most would classify this under the genre of "instagram poetry" and while I despise that label it's what you will expect from it. Unlike others in it's category it falls just barely short of hitting the "wow that made me feel something" factor. The words are beautiful but lack the emotion needed to really paint the imagry we see in many poetry collections.

** spoiler alert ** Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for providing me with the opportunity to review this ARC. coffee days whiskey nights is the second collection of Cyrus Parker's that I've read. I adored this collection, and also was really appreciative of the content warnings at the beginning of the book. Parker's words were ones that I needed to hear; ones that felt so familiar like I'd known it all along and was just waiting for the reminder. I loved how the poems alternated between light text (coffee days) and dark (whiskey nights), as well as the overall aesthetic of it. I'd highly recommend this collection!