Book Reviews [closed]

Poems of a broken teenager, By maxwritings

Review for maxwritings

Introduction
Due to your request for me to critique your poetry, I'll have to review it much differently as poetry is more of an art
form, and is subjective. To start, there's not much bad to say about the a/n and although most people dislike some trigger warnings, I feel like these are necessary and you didn't overdo any of them. The authors note isn't formal at all and honestly, I think that's fine.

Spacing/ Spelling/Capitalization
Traditionally in poetry, the first letter of every line is capitalized but it's really all about the authors preference. Many modern poets choose to not follow this rule and some do, so it's up to you. I'd say to just keep it consistent throughout though. For example, don't capitalize the first letter of every line, then switch the capitalization up every other chapter, etc. The same goes for spacing, really - it's your preference on how to space out your poetry and how to set it up.

Flow
Flow is extremely important in poetry, as it is how smoothly the poem is written and it defines how it moves. I find that personally, rereading my poetry over and over again to see if I can fix the word placement, spacing, word choice, etc to see if it sounds choppy or not is beneficial to me.

The flow seemed to be the main (if not only) real issue with your story. For example, in chapter 4, the lines below sound choppy. The reason why this doesn't flow well is because the rhyming isn't consistent and therefore, some lines end up sounding like unfinished sentences.

In the lines above, lines 1 and 2 rhyme, whereas 3 and 4 don't, but 3 and 5 do. Uneven rhymes can create conventional off balanced feelings and can be accomplished  if written well, but it all depends on how it is used. It relies on the discordance of the scheme, and how often between the lines you purposefully do and don't rhyme.

For each poem make sure it's either free verse or it has rhyme and meter. Just be sure to not make your rhyming scheme cliché to the point where it sounds like a nursery rhyme.

I'd also like to add that you seem to use repetition a lot to emphasize your point. It's fine but don't excessively do it over and over again.

Description
Use the 5 senses with imagery, and add metaphors and similes. Comparison, inference, and suggestion are all important tools of poetry and within that subcategory are metaphors and similes. Triggering sensory responses can help. Instead of constantly using terms that everyone has different definitions of: love, happiness, pain, etc. you should be more in detail.

Most poets tend to be more free and abstract with their work instead of logical which to me, makes it more enjoyable (keep in mind that everyone has a preference). but with that being said, you could definitely add more concrete words. There should be a decent balance between the usage of abstract and concrete terms.

Instead of saying something along the lines of "for once in her life, she felt happy" think of an objective or scene that evokes the happiness. Describing how and why rather than just naming the emotion goes more in-depth and can transform the line.

Overall
Your style of poetry holds a concept of simplicity, and it's very straight to the point and short. The only critique I have is that it lacks a real basis of imagery. Poets have the ability to write what other people see daily, but in a new way. Take an event, and come up with a new perception of it instead of just describing word for word on how it went down.

Again, there's not much bad to say as poetry is subjective and I found myself enjoying most of your poetry. And this is just casual writing on watt pad, so it's not that big of a deal if a few of your poems don't flow well. Overall, I like how your poetry isn't a clutter of how many vocabulary words you can fit into a single poem, it has emotion, continuity and tells a story.

Pros:
-introduction
-spacing/ spelling/ capitalization
-description
-overall

Cons:
-flow