Really, there's no accounting for people's taste in poetry ... so I'll put the only part of my review that should really matter up front: namely, that I recommend you leaf through this collection and sample a few pages before you commit to anything (though I strongly recommend a visit to your library if you do).

I will also say towards the top that there were a few very striking, impactful selections included, though most seemed intended for people outside my demographic. I will also mention that I liked the illustrations that accompanied many of the poems - the simple, sketchy style worked well, I thought.

I gave the first dozen or so selections two or three read throughs, trying to let them unfold and refine their message, I reviewed the words, the line breaks, the title-of-poem-as-key-to-meaning titles, looking for those little bonuses you usually find, rewards of deeper understanding for putting in the extra work... but they were few and slow to reveal themselves.

Like I said before, there's no accounting for taste in poetry and there's no rule that a poem must be a certain way; rhyming or metre or subject matter are all subject to the artist's whim. By all means, explore the limits and break the rules; there's really no medium better suited to it. But for all the bending-to-breaking of rules, I don't know, I still want it to seem like that there was a plan, like each word was puzzled over, like each word is the only one that would fit. A good portion of the pages in here felt like they could've just been a facebook post or a tweet, left just as much impression, and were just as quickly moved past.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there for whom this offering of milk and honey will be exactly what they want and need. I'm sure there are numerous folks for whom the cycle of pain, dating, break-up, healing will feel familiar, who will see a mirror of themselves in this book, and who will maybe even learn and grow from it. I'm sure those people are out there, so, again, give a few selections a preview read on the chance that you are one of those people ... I, sadly, was not.