Home Body

Lacey

Rating: really liked it
idk why
i picked up
this
tumblr poetry shit

-a poem by me, in the style of rupi kaur

Reading_ Tamishly

Rating: really liked it
"what a relief
to discover that
the aches i thought
were mine alone
are also felt by
so many others"

One of the best collections so far!

The content is divided into 4 sections: mind, heart, rest and awake.

The most hard-hitting, liberating read for me is the first section which actually made me come out of my comfort zone of thinking and believing in what we women ought to believe.

If reading such lines still make us feel uncomfortable then I feel we still have a long way to go. I feel we need to express ourselves and it's our right to celebrate our bodies and our thoughts which others are so ready to judge and demean.

I find the writing thoroughly genuine and refreshing. I appreciate it more when the author expressed her concern over the unrealistic expectations to write more so that her work would bring her 'more' of what others believe would bring.

The sketches in between presently represents the sentiments behind the lines.

As always, I love her poetry when it brings up issues about mental health, relationships and women. But what I loved more about this collection was the way how the issues of productivity, writing, immigrants and a bit of politics were brought up.

I find the cover a bit underwhelming but yes, it's the contents that matter more!

Megan

Rating: really liked it
She didn't write 3 books, she wrote the same book 3 times.

Moon

Rating: really liked it
There is a quote that led the feminist movement in 1969 that reads, "The personal is political."
I believe Rupi Kaur and many other trendy, political, pseudo-intellectual group of people on the internet have this mixed up. They make it, political is personal. They take everything to heart which is understandable, but there's something genuine lacking when that is the case. There's a political cry in something personal. People on the internet need to stop pandering this progressive, woke stance to garner attention. I believe honesty and vulnerability is more important. Which I know many reviewers believe that is Rupi Kaur's intentions which I have nothing to say about that, but, sadly, it falls short.
Everything she wrote is way too general. There is more to dive into, there has to be. Instead of her writing about how she wants to be in the present over and over, how about describing the present around her. How does she wake up? What surrounds her home? What's inside her home? What does she do to relax or when she's alone? I think people need to stop describing themselves like warriors and survivors and definitely stop making themselves victims and instead open up. Tell me who you are. All I know about Rupi is that she is a woman of color, but you can just google search her for that. Everything is so vague. There's nothing deep here. I wanted to think that as a poet she will develop and become a better writer. Unfortunately, I think she is regressing, because this is the same stuff she has been selling.

But, hey if it's not broken, don't fix it right? Oh wait... Doesn't she hate capitalism? The hypocrisy. If she truly, TRULY, hates the system, HATES capitalism, she would have gone balls deep into this. She would have broke all boundaries, took a chance on a new writing style. You can't stay stagnant as an artist. Yes, you can have a style, but it's fun evolving and she claims she changes every month. Well, it's not being shown through her writing.

Share a moment of time with your readers. Don't lecture them. Don't tell them things they already know. Yes, the earth is heating up. Yes, there is racism. Yes, the world is chaotic and no one will live forever. Not you. Not me. Not your mother or your father. We all experience pain. No one is special. Depression and anxiety are everyday occurrences. We are all apart of this experience. But, who are you? That's what matters. Who are your loved ones? What are some of your bad habits? What are you interested in?

Stop wasting paper, Rupi. You literally wrote a vague poem on climate change that could be ripped off of anyone's twitter account. The lack of originality and uniqueness deems this book detrimental to Earth's ecosystem.

(Not my best review. I have things to do that I've been avoiding. If I have time, I'll work on this, but for now, it's alright.)

Meghan Hughes

Rating: really liked it
I finished this in a day! Not because it was so enchanting & fantastic, but simply because the poems were SO. SHORT. As a fan of Rupi’s long-form poetry, I’m disappointed with this collection honestly. It felt rushed. I felt like she *touched* on many deep topics, but did not dig that much into them. I kept thinking “Where are her words? Where is the grit?” It all just felt a bit like reading a page full of Instagram mantras. I’m really not trying to be pretentious... This is obviously just my personal opinion. I still love Rupi & think her work is incredibly necessary for keeping poetry alive on a mainstream, digestible scale, but this just didn’t do it for me. I dog-eared pretty much all of the longer poems in this because they were GREAT! I just wish there were more of them included. This collection could’ve been half the size if it didn’t include the filler, “Instagram poetry” as we now have learned to call it... But that is what Rupi is! She has a huge IG following & understandably caters to what will be reposted from her books. Complaints aside, I enjoyed the structure of this collection a lot & hope to read more poetry that’s broken up like this. It was split up into “MIND | HEART | REST | AWAKE” sections. She touched on many important themes like depression & anxiety, sexual trauma, friendship, productivity, having immigrant parents, feminism, representation, & healing. This was a collection about coming home to yourself & treating yourself with the love & respect you deserve. This book contains important mantras for young women who need to realize their worth, but it was just nothing special for me personally.

— Massiel

Rating: really liked it
my poetry queen is gonna release a new book and I'm so ready for it ✨



2020 isn't cancelled people

Dear Rupi:

Lindsey

Rating: really liked it
Having shamelessly really enjoyed Rupi’s first two collections, I was sad that this one fell really flat. There were some poems scattered throughout that really spoke to me, but the majority of this felt unoriginal. It felt very heavy handed and too on-the-nose with its commentary on capitalism and white feminism - important topics to explore through poetry, definitely, but ones that really lacked artistic handling in this collection. Feels like Rupi succumbed to the very capitalism she mourns and pushed this through too focused on the hot-button topics of the past year and lacking her normal inspiration and power.

Mais Khoury

Rating: really liked it
how can they write ratings on yet unpublished book???

Morgan Fulton

Rating: really liked it
It feels gross to give a 1 star rating on a book of poetry written with her trauma woven throughout, but man, this was really bad. Nothing but cringey (mostly) one line platitudes

Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤

Rating: really liked it
Where was Rupi Kaur and her poetry when I was in my teens and 20s? My younger self would have been obsessed with her words, found healing and solace within them.

This collection is similar to Ms. Kaur's other volumes of poetry. The poems are short, sometimes one phrase, and drawings are scattered throughout the book. Like her other work, these poems deal with topics such as anxiety, dissociation, depression, lack of self worth, abuse, and reminders to be gentle with oneself and that there is hope for healing. 

There are also some poems describing the emptiness of capitalism that I appreciate.

The shortest poems are often the most profound. Nuggets of wisdom and insight packed into the tiniest of packages.

Home Body would make a wonderful gift for young women on your list, especially those who are struggling to overcome abuse or sexual assault, or simply struggling to find, to love, and to accept themselves in a world that consistently places unrealistic demands upon young women. A world that determines her value by how much she produces or what she can offer to a man. 

Though I think young women would benefit the most from Rupi's words, I recommend this book to anyone struggling with issues of self worth or past abuse. 

These poems are not something I personally need at this time and Home Body's similarity to Rupi's previous books makes this a 3-stars read for me. However, I'll up it to 4, knowing what it would have meant to my younger self.

Kirsten Slora

Rating: really liked it
This fell short for me. I really loved her other two books, but this one didn’t offer anything new or really profound. The transitions were, as I read in another review, choppy. It really feels like she is just riding on her aesthetic, a lot of her poems lack real creativity.

That being said, there were a few relatable poems that I screenshotted and I really respect Rupi’s vulnerability.

Warda

Rating: really liked it
“but every experience i’ve had, is memorised in my flesh, even if my mind forgets, my body remembers, my body is the map of my life, my body wears what it’s been through, my body signals the alarms when it thinks danger is coming…”

Rupi Kaur really is out here, reclaiming poetry and defining the pathway for herself.
I loved this collection. As always, there’s focus on love, self-love, feminism, immigration and mental health amongst a whole array of other things.

I love her simplistic style. A style that invites you to look deeper within yourself and uncover your own truth. Her words always seem to come from a place of genuine self awareness and brute honesty and I love that. It’s uncomfortable to read and sit with. But your filled with comfort by the end.

Alexis

Rating: really liked it
Brutally honest.

The Personal. This book is like looking into a mirror if you suffer from depression and anxiety. The latter is an old friend of mine but the former? I had no idea she was there in the background all this time, following me wherever I went and waiting for me to turn around and acknowledge her.

The writing. Mind. Heart. Rest. Awake. Those are the four segments in this collection of poetry. Each offers an honest look at some key moments in her (and our) life that ultimately helped shape the woman she has become. Some poems will make you a little uncomfortable, some will force you to take a closer look at yourself and others will make you smile. But there will never not be one moment when you don't feel.. something.

The special. Even though a lot of the topics Rupi wrote about aren't anything new, it felt good reading this book. Depression, sexual assault, immigration, love, sex, racism, capitalism and hope are just a few of the issues she addresses. It’s a reminder that so many of us go through various difficulties, often feeling hopeless but it doesn't mean we should give up fighting. She didn't.

The verdict. Hats off to Rupi Kaur for writing about something so incredibly personal and putting her fears, hopes and dreams on these pages as a reminder that things can get better and that despite how we sometimes feel, we are in fact, not alone.

The Favorite. Page 114. i am complete simply because i am imperfect

Scott the Poetry Geek

Rating: really liked it
People had so many good things to say about Rupi’s other books, I thought I would give this one a read. Sadly, it’s not for me. I would say not my kind of poetry, but I don’t think what I just read can even be considered poetry. Seems more like statements, I’ve read quotes that were more poetic.

Savannah

Rating: really liked it
One of the things I love about Rupi Kaur books is that they’re
broken up into sections and they each have a title. I think poetry might be my new favorite form of writing.🥺 It really makes you feel and I’m in love. “Awake” was my favorite part of the book. I think it’s always hard for me to rate poetry. I’m new to reading it. All it really comes down to is that it made me feel and I wanna read it over and over again. Would recommend this book and this author especially. 💛 The only thing I’ll ever change about poetry is that it’s a quick read. I don’t wanna stop reading it.😩