Name: The Dilemma
ISBN: 9798667172567

Danielle Holian

The Dilemma is the second book by Danielle Holian, following her debut Beautifully Chaotic.

The Dilemma

Jawahir M

Description Summary: Detailing the brightening and simultaneously the shadowing reality of love, Danielle Holian presents what it is to love someone, give your all, break apart, and blossom up again in a 3 part anthology of poems. 

Score: 3.5/5 

 I would like to thank the author for reaching out to me and providing me with the book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my personal opinion.

Personally I did not resonate with this book as I did with the first one, simply because I cannot empathize with a feeling I haven’t felt before. Yet that did not change the fact that Holian writes with not only her heart but with her entire being. I loved how she did not hold herself back in the good and the bad parts of love; this wasn't a condensing break up song, this was an honest reflection on the failures and lessons of love.

Book Summary: In The Dilemma, Holian uncovers a past love and ventures into the depths of first kisses, the moments of love, late nights and harsh fights all with an ending goodbye through her second anthology of poems. The collection is divided into 3 parts:

The Loving 
The Breaking
The Healing

Holian leaves nothing as the reader begins with the first blooms of love into the full force of it, before moving on to the next where the painful cracks turn to scars and wounds reflecting the falling out of love, and finally the true grace of what it is to heal of a past love and know that you are worth and deserving of the best kind of love there is: self love.  End of Summary.

The structure of the anthology is something that I loved, just like a life cycle she presented her journey in three main parts, you can tell a shift in tone by the last part where the language is more empowering and strong reflecting a survivor who made it out of battle. 

I did think that some were repetitive or written about the same thing but through different words, nonetheless it doesn’t undermine anything in the book.

Do I recommend? Yes. Though again keep in mind, some writing of heartbreak and abuse may be upsetting for some readers.

Full review on blog coming soon.

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The Dilemma

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