Makenzie Campbell

For every place we go, there is a feeling or memory that's been painted on the walls. You can paint over it, but it will always be there. Even if you can't see it, you know. You can feel the heartbreak inside the room you lost a love. You can feel the sadness filling the air in your bedroom. You can feel the healing as you hop in the car and take the driver's seat to your own life.Nineteen is a collection of poetry that explores heartbreak, love, loss, war, peace, and healing.I'm opening the door to all the places my heart has been. Will you enter?

Nineteen

Lara owens 

"A necessary reminder that whatever we are feeling, we are never feeling it alone." —Trista Mateer, author of Aphrodite Made Me Do It "There are defining moments in our lives that we often experience in certain places. It's in these places, that we feel particular emotions, which help shape who we become. For anyone whose emotions are tied to places, this book is for you."—Courtney Peppernell, author of Pillow Thoughts By the author of the wildly successful 2am Thoughts, comes Nineteen — titled after the poet's age when she wrote this new book. Nineteen is a collection of poetry that broaches heartbreak, love, loss, war, peace, and healing. For every place we go, there is a feeling or memory that's been painted on the walls. You can paint over it, but it will always be there. Even if you can't see it, you know. You can feel the heartbreak inside the bedroom where you lost a love. You can feel the hope at the coffee shop where a beginning happened. You can feel the healing as you sit in the driver's seat, in charge of your own life. "A journey. An exploration. A reminder to put one foot in front of the other even when it's dark because there is always a light waiting for you in the distance."—Wilder, Author of Nocturnal "In spare poems with aphoristic lines and short prose segments, the book speaks to adolescent pain and suffering."—Publishers Weekly Check out Makenzie Campbell's other hit poetry book 2am Thoughts

Tegan Anderson

I was given an eARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a collection of prose and poetry, titled after the age at which Campbell wrote it, and it’s the first of her collections that I’ve read. Given her age, the writing is done well. However, for me, it lacked the emotion that I rely on when it comes to enjoying poetry. Most of the subject matter didn’t appeal to me: I’m not overly interested in poems centred around love and heartache, but I do like nostalgia and life lessons, and these are the ones that stood out to me in this book.

Here’s a few lines that I did like.

 (time and nostalgia both have a way of coloring a memory into something grander than it was) 

 Every city I discover, every treasure I uncover, every friend and every lover, paints me blues and reds and yellows. 

 I will make a constellation out of words and name it after you. 

Here’s a few lines that I didn’t like:

 I see things. Then I feel things. And then I write them. 

 Do you like living a lie? Wearing a mask all the time? Doesn’t your face need air? Let your skin breathe and your cheeks feel the droplets of rain pool in your pores. Your skin is too clean. 

 I’m undeserving of love. And then At Last plays on the turntable and a last I don’t feel alone anymore as I drape my arms over your ghost… 

To me, a lot of the more romance-based poems come off very melodramatic, but still not evoking emotion. It’s a strange combination, but I think that summarises most of my feelings about ‘Nineteen’.

The poems were separated into sections, but none of them had titles. I think this added to the book reading more like a novel than a collection of poems. Actually, it felt like reading an angsty teenage diary. I don’t know if this was to do with how the ebook was formatted or if it was something else, but the presentation of the poems were either very ‘all over the place’ and I had to keep going back to reread them to try and understand what they were meant to say, or they were squashed together and looked more like short stories. Some of the poems looked as if they were a sentence that just had ‘enter’ hit a few times in the middle so they looked more like poems. Also, the illustrations didn’t help with the formatting, but I bet they’re nice to look at in a physical book. 

Overall, although certain lines from this are quite beautiful, this book repeats many of the tropes of it’s genre, ultimately failing to evoke emotion.

Gabriel Noel 

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

"Nineteen" is a collection of poetry definitely targeted towards your average teen girl. It covers topics such as self-worth, beauty/body image, relationships, and heartbreak. As someone in my late 20's I could go on about how I found many of these poems banal or contrived...but this kind of poetry was not written for me. If I was in my teens I would have found many of these poems relatable and intriguing. That being said as a reader now I was somewhat bored after reading the same metaphors over again, and some of the poems just felt empty. 

Some poems (mostly the ones very specific to the author's life) were colorful, well written, and imaginative. Campbells best writing definitely came from her personal life experience and I would love to read more about it! This is a definite YA recommendation for anyone wanting to get into romance poetry.

My favorite line out of the book was at the end of one of her longer poems about dealing with the weight of realizing you're no longer in love with someone. "I hope this dead romance will feed the birds so they can sing to all the hopeful young lovers in the park, as the once did to us."

Lena

I received a copy of this through NetGalley for review.

Being only 20 myself I expected more of this to be relatable than it was. That being said there were many poems, many lines that I highlighted and did indeed relate to. I love the way this collection was broken up and I would definitely recommend to anyone despite the age specific title. Many of these are ageless and all are wonderfully written.

Shannon O’Connor 

***I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

It really wasn't what I expected. I was looking forward to a book of poetry much like her first collection '2am thoughts' but was met more with short stories and prose. It isn't a bad collection but it isn't what I was looking for and the writing was nothing spectacular.

Nineteen

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