Name: Mathilde EL OGB's review of I Would Leave Me If I Could by Halsey
Item: I Would Leave Me If I Could
Rating: 2
Author: Mathilde EL OGB

Halsey

Grammy Award-nominated, platinum-selling musician Halsey is heralded as one of the most compelling voices of her generation. In I Would Leave Me If I Could, she reveals never-before-seen poetry of longing, love, and the nuances of bipolar disorder. In this debut collection, Halsey bares her soul. Bringing the same artistry found in her lyrics, Halsey's poems delve into the highs and lows of doomed relationships, family ties, sexuality, and mental illness. More hand grenades than confessions, these autobiographical poems explore and dismantle conventional notions of what it means to be a feminist in search of power. Masterful as it is raw, passionate, and profound, I Would Leave Me If I Could signals the arrival of an essential voice. Book cover painting, American Woman, by the author. Halsey, born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and recipient of the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame's Hal David Starlight Award. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

A Collection of Poetry

I Would Leave Me If I Could

Mathilde EL OGB

Grammy Award–nominated, platinum-selling musician Halsey is heralded as one of the most compelling voices of her generation. In I Would Leave Me If I Could, she reveals never-before-seen poetry of longing, love, and the nuances of bipolar disorder. In this debut collection, Halsey bares her soul. Bringing the same artistry found in her lyrics, Halsey’s poems delve into the highs and lows of doomed relationships, family ties, sexuality, and mental illness. More hand grenades than confessions, these autobiographical poems explore and dismantle conventional notions of what it means to be a feminist in search of power. Masterful as it is raw, passionate, and profound, I Would Leave Me If I Could signals the arrival of an essential voice. Book cover painting, American Woman, by the author. Halsey, born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and recipient of the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Hal David Starlight Award. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

ephe

luca

I loved the imagery of these poems but sadly did not vibe with the excessive rhyming in most of them. Overall I thought it was a pretty solid collection though! I hope she publishes more poetry in the future.

Decided to put this down at 55%; a lot of these poems are upsetting, which sometimes I can handle, but they also felt a bit like first drafts.

I imagine these would work very well as song, and most of these seemed to be leftovers from her songwriting. A few were written almost like hyper-short fiction, I assume autobiographical. Lots of raw feelings in these poems.

I’ve heard great things about the audiobook — I can see how it would be more successful as spoken word poetry!

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

Decided to put this down at 55%; a lot of these poems are upsetting, which sometimes I can handle, but they also felt a bit like first drafts.

I imagine these would work very well as song, and most of these seemed to be leftovers from her songwriting. A few were written almost like hyper-short fiction, I assume autobiographical. Lots of raw feelings in these poems.

I’ve heard great things about the audiobook — I can see how it would be more successful as spoken word poetry!

menna

tbh i would've given up on this if i hadn't found the audiobook. listening to the audiobook narrated by halsey is an experience i very much enjoyed, it heightened my enjoyment of the book and made me really appreciate some of the poems

lisa roeling 

this was so raw and vulnerable and utterly beautiful

Ruby

Zahia Saeed 

I haven't read a good poetry collection in a long time. 
The audiobook was entrancing

Delaney Woods 

hello i am now going to write reviews so i can actually remember what i thought about books.

i usually don’t read poetry but i had heard good things and needed a quick read. i enjoyed it but it wasn’t amazing or anything. some of the poems were good but others were repetitive and sorta boring.

mayra

so theres a couple of cool lines and one poem i even liked but the rest is really ~meh~ 🤷🏻‍♀️

had to change it to 1 star sorry

Archita Birla

Overall, I enjoyed this collection of poetry. While I've known of Halsey for a long time, I have never been a huge listener of her music (I will listen to the same 5 artists I've listened to since middle school, because I hate change thankyouverymuch)

Still, it is clear to tell that she is a songwriter and storyteller throughout this text. Some of the poems were a little confusing for me to read, and I didn't get them. But for the most part, I felt very thoroughly moved reading this. 

You can tell that she has poured so much of her own personal life into this work, it is so brutally raw and honest in a shockingly beautiful sort of way. 

While I don't think everyone will love every poem in this book (I certainly didn't), I do think it's worth taking a read of, as there are some that really shine.

Kate B-L

My heart hurts and I feel raw, but I wouldn't take back a single moment I spent reading this book. 10/10 would read again.

adeline 

Brianna Brown

I'll start this off by saying I LOVE Halsey. And I could hear her saying/singing a lot of these lines in my head. Her writing is beautiful. Some of these were amazing and some were unfortunately just meh. And because of that it didn't hold my attention like I would have expected.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Grammy Award–nominated, platinum-selling musician Halsey is heralded as one of the most compelling voices of her generation. In I Would Leave Me If I Could, she reveals never-before-seen poetry of longing, love, and the nuances of bipolar disorder. In this debut collection, Halsey bares her soul. Bringing the same artistry found in her lyrics, Halsey’s poems delve into the highs and lows of doomed relationships, family ties, sexuality, and mental illness. More hand grenades than confessions, these autobiographical poems explore and dismantle conventional notions of what it means to be a feminist in search of power. Masterful as it is raw, passionate, and profound, I Would Leave Me If I Could signals the arrival of an essential voice. Book cover painting, American Woman, by the author.

I Would Leave Me If I Could.

sera

Love Halsey, love her music, love her way with words!!

Maggie

I read this twice. The first time I devoured it the second time I listed to the audio book and savoured it. I’ve read many reviews saying that they didn’t like this poetry collection because it seemed unedited. But, I loved it because it was so raw. Halsey has an amazing way with words, allowing them to bounce, spin, and ply for each other in the most beautiful way. I absolutely adored this collection. If you are curious but don’t want to buy the book look up her Women’s March speech online and if it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes and shivers down your spine I don’t know what will.

Nikki

I am a massive fan of Halsey's music so I was extremely excited when she released her poetry book. The book held many amazing poetries with mind-blowing metaphors which just made me go, 'Wow.' As a poet myself, I was intrigued by her thought process. There were poems that were hard to read for me, and few that dealt with dark topics. Overall it's a good read.

Shannon O’Connor 

Halsey is one of my favorite singers so I might be biased here but her poetry is just as beautiful as her songs. This collection touches upon so many different topics but is so utterly raw just like her lyrics. It took me longer to read than most poetry because it hit me harder. Some of the topics are hard and she does provide warnings but you can feel her words come off the page and grab your heart. It was interesting to see this side of her after hearing her songs for so many years. In a lot of ways they hold the same themes and rawness. If you are a fan of Halsey’s or just a fan of great poetry I would definitely suggest checking out this collection. I hope she continues to publish her writing and this is the first of many books.

Myrthe Koelemeij

** spoiler alert **
           Personally, I don’t like poetry.
But this book was harsh and honest and made me feel so many things in a short amount of time.
I think it takes a lot of strenght and bravery to publish a book like this, to be so unapologetically yourself you manage to write a book about all the unfairness of this world.
It is painful and strange. It aches my heart and I hope that she is doing okay

Mathilde EL OGB &
I Would Leave Me If I Could by Halsey

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Mathilde EL OGB &I Would Leave Me If I Could by Halsey

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Mathilde EL OGB &
I Would Leave Me If I Could by Halsey