Name: Noha Zainal's review of Depression and Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim
Item: Depression and Other Magic Tricks
Rating: 5
Author: Noha Zainal

Sabrina Benaim

Depression & Other Magic Tricks is the debut book by Sabrina Benaim, one of the most-viewed performance poets of all time, whose poem "Explaining My Depression to My Mother" has become a cultural phenomenon with over 5,000,000 views. Depression & Other Magic Tricks explores themes of mental health, love, and family. It is a documentation of struggle and triumph, a celebration of daily life and of living. Benaim's wit, empathy, and gift for language produce a work of endless wonder.

Depression and Other Magic Tricks

Lara owens 

mom, my depression is a shape shifter; one day it is as small as a firefly in the palm of a bear, the next, it's the bear. those days I play dead until the bear leaves me alone. i call the bad days the dark days.

ARCHIVE.

her fists are filled with the laughter of ghosts.

i make plans because i know i should want to go, 

i know at some point i would have wanted to go, 

it's just not that much fun having fun when you don't want to have fun.

anxiety is the cousin visiting from out of town 

depression felt obligated to bring to the party. 

only, i am a party i don't want to be at. 

anxiety holds me hostage inside of my house, inside of my head. 

my heart is a messy bedroom i always distract myself from cleaning.

theresa

i make plans but i don't want to go.  i make plans because i know i should want to go,  i know at some point i would have wanted to go,  it's just not that much fun having fun when you don't want to have fun.

chantel mudge

Noha Zainal

Deepika Ramesh

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

Sara Uribe

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.

Shaimaa Emad Fekry

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.

Arturo Hernández

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.

Izza

High Fidelity

jess

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.

Maggie Gordon

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!

Meriem💫

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.

Sophia Hofmann 

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

Depression & Other Magic Tricks is the debut book by Sabrina Benaim, one of the most-viewed performance poets of all time, whose poem "Explaining My Depression to My Mother" has become a cultural phenomenon with over 50,000,000 views. Depression & Other Magic Tricks explores themes of mental health, love, and family. It is a documentation of struggle and triumph, a celebration of daily life and of living. Benaim's wit, empathy, and gift for language produce a work of endless wonder.

Depression & Other Magic Tricks

Archita Birla

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.

✨sunshine✨

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!

mary

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!

Kohana

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.

Nicole Lucy O'Loughlin

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

Mica

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.

Sintia

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.

Shannon O’Connor 

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

Nico J

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.

Andrada D

Beautifully written poems. Little feeling inside

Roos Kuijper 

2.5 star

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

Jessica 

"i don’t know how to connect in a world like this; in times like these, where i can’t even speak about myself in first person.Blog | Twitter | Instagram | " As a note, an e-galley of this novel was sent to me via NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way. Review also found here. 

It's one of those days where I've found parts of myself scattered in the words of others. You know? I felt so connected to Sabrina Benaim's Depression & Other Magic Tricks that there were a few times I had to look away from it, and myself, just to breathe. Benaim shows us fragments of every little piece of herself--dashing through her prose with an ease. She is compelling and relatable. Full of life and hope and pain and love and all the hints of humanity that don't go away at the snap of a finger. 

What I loved most about Depression & Other Magic Tricks is that it was utterly stunning in its honestly. Benaim does not hold back the punches when it comes to making her audience feel. I am honestly so, so, so impressed by the way she brings life to poetry and reminds us why we read it to begin with. That being said, like so many of her modern counterparts, she brings forth an edge that comes only with originality of voice. Sabrina is not anyone other than Sabrina and that's what sets all good poets aside. 

She has a voice that captivates and will surely grip a generation further as it comes. Benaim is full of hype for a reason and solidifies the respect her name has earned, and will continue to earn. I'm not over hyping her work; it just is what it is. That her prose will tug at your heartstrings and the most intimate parts of who you are. In just a short collection, she has made herself obtainable and that's all one can ever hope for when picking up poetry. 

I can't wait to see where she moves us next.

chantel mudge &
Depression and Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim

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Depression and Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim