loved it such a raw emotions

I wished it had more clarity and depth. Maybe, it is just me.

This was exactly what I was expecting it to be and it spoke to me like nothing I have ever read before. Though to be completely honest with you I don't know diddly squat about poetry, besides what I learned in high school.. But in my eyes I thought that this was great!"The Loneliest Sweet Potato" was hands down my favorite poem in this book and my favorite part being "In my lonely at the grocery store I practice trying to make myself feel good by pretending I'm a regular person, buying her groceries, not a very sad person trying not to cry. Crying gives me a headache. Headaches makes me want to crawl into bed, and crawling into bed is what sad people do. What sad people do when they are lonely looks a lot like me at the grocery store. In my lonely at the grocery store I feel sad, but a I look just like everybody else, while picking out avocados and lemons. Items nobody refers as "comfort food"." Thank you Sabrina for writing down the feelings that I could never explain to myself or others.

I expected a lot more from this book! While the name gave me the idea that it's gonna be all about depression n how the author got rid of it or something, the truth is most of the poems are about a bad lover? Or mostly bad relationship. Like why name the book this and discuss that? Also some poems didn't even make sense to me, I guess I just liked 2 poems or maybe 3. I'm all about giving good reviews and be kind but to be honest I was super disappointed.

rereading books always leaves me with a different impression that when i originally read it, but it stands that this one is for certain a comfort book of mine whenever i'm having trouble with my depression.

I appreciate the clever ways in which the author talks about specific topics in a fresh new manner. There are visual tricks with certain poems which also add to the mix. There’s a lot of heart in here. I would love the last part of the book to have more punch (feel more conclusive perhaps). Overall, it was a really nice read.

2 stars |

Something relatable.

I don't read much modern poetry, but as someone with depression, I was quite drawn to the title of this collection. Benaim's collection is about her experiences with depression in several poems. I felt like it was very true and from the heart and for the most part I liked the poems. Some poems definitely resonated with me more than others - the romantic ones I didn't connect with much, but the ones about sadness and loneliness I felt in my bones. Benaim has a voice that so direct and frank yet beautifully poetic, which is something I don't see often and it works so well with this topic. I feel like this makes her poems very relatable, especially to fellow sufferers of depression, and I enjoyed reading this poetry collection. *Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the review copy.

Depression and Other Magic Tricks is a volume of poetry that will probably appeal to millennials as the pieces very much reflect our realities. Benain writes about the challenges in her life, producing deeply vulnerable poems. Her work on depression is terribly astute and affecting, though one can tell she is still a novice poet with a lot of room to grow. Thus, this was a very enjoyable read, and I am very excited to see how Benain grows with time!

The author's rawness and vulnerability are undeniable, but the chosen style occasionally felt challenging to follow. For some readers, a more structured format or narrative thread might enhance the emotional impact of the poems.

A collection of poems that felt like a knock-off version of Milk and Honey by Rupi Kapur, which I loved, but this was only okay.

I guess poetry really is just not for me...

largely, i liked this book! like most poetry books, there were some parts that i absolutely loved and some parts that I didn't really get and/or enjoy. the only thing i found hard was that sometimes the formatting was hard to understand or distracted from the work itself.

what you see is what you get, but that’s not all there is. -my grandmother, Jean Нямам думи с които да опиша колко невероятна е тази книга. Много повече от просто думи. Още с първата глава си личи, че Сабрина е вложила сърцето и душата си и си заслужава прочитането!

tw: depression, mental illness. thanks to my friend emily for letting me read this last minute on NYE to get me to my reading goal!

I sadly didn’t like this book. The way Sabrina looks at things is very beautiful and a lot of lines in the poems really hits you hard and you have pause; But I could barely understand most of the poems and as a whole it seemed a bit of a mess. I was often lost and confused and was struggling to understand what she is trying to convey.

I have an odd relationship with poetry. I think I am still trying to find the poetry that works best for me and this wasn't it. I don't think it was bad just not my cup of tea and that's okay

No fue lo que me esperaba. Me gustaron algunos poemas, pero nada más. No digo que el libro sea malo, solo que no cumplió con mis expectativas.

I could relate to the poems about depression and anxiety, some of them were really beautiful ones. The other ones were not that impressive, but still I liked the whole collection.

it was okay. I'm really not the biggest fan of Benaim but I thought I'd give it a shot.

This collection is nestled comfortably in the middle for me, with high and low points, peaks and valleys, with crystallized quotes and some that roll over like a tide, simply moving away without making an impression, washing the sand. Some poems felt so well-written, capturing feelings I've had myself, and some just seemed like word vomit, chaotic in an uncomfortable way that didn't pinpoint a theme or leave an indicator sign to give me anything but a mess. The high points: Page 6 -Explaining Depression to my Mother - A conversation. It was familiar and heartbreaking, and in my journey with my own parents, both of whom suffer with mental health issues and don't take the help they need, it sunk right into the bones. This line - "Mom says I am so good at making something out of nothing, And then flat out asks me if I'm afraid of dying." There are echoes of my childhood there: Why are you sensitive? Just live, you're young, be happy. Page 59, Last Friday. Probably my true favorite in the whole collection. Page 60, Seven Small Ways in Which I Loved Myself this Week, baby steps. Page 62, Ode To Sunday. This one hit the personal button, the shiver button, claws into your bone marrow button. It's exacting, and it's hitting a bell and shaking along with it. Page 64, It Starts. So some of the weaker ones are the one-word, staggered poems with slashes that seem intent on making me hyperventilate. They seem slap-dash and ideas dribbled out like ink rather than telling a story or contributing to a narrative. The redacted ones, the sweet potato one, honey and sugar, etc, those were weaker additions to the collection. I wouldn't be opposed to reading more of her work, even if just to wade through things to hit the points that really matter.

Beautifully written poems. Little feeling inside

2.5 star I loved the other poems about depression, the other ones didn't do anything for me and I started skimming them.