Eunoia

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Eunoia - stars-and-cinnamon 

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Eunoia - stars-and-cinnamon 

Reviewer: pomalo_ 


Cover and Title: 4/5 

 Can I just say that the cover is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous! :D it's so pretty that it attract just about anyone in. The title is a beautiful word as well, and I love how you didn't pretend to be a know-it-all and actually included the meaning of the word Eunoia in the first chapter. I learned a new word through you! Although I do suggest you put at least your username somewhere on the cover, in case someone plans to steal it. People really cannot be trusted :/ 

However, the reason I took 1 point away is probably because I felt like all of the poems should have been more relevant to the title Eunoia, and it's meaning. Since it means "pure and well-balanced mind, good spirit, beautiful thinking", and such kinds of positive aspects, I expected all the poems to portray that as well. But I'm not sure if that's a rule for poetry collections or not, becuase I haven't read many. Maybe it's alright to not have all the poems relevant to the title, but I still feel like most of them should be.

Grammar and Spelling: 5/5 

 Grammar and spelling were perfect. Didn't notice any big mistakes. However, in some places, I feel like you could have used the past participle forms of the word instead of the past form. Either is grammatically correct, of course, but I just felt like the past participle would suit better. But it's nothing major, so no worries.

Originality: 9/10 

 Some of the poems were on rather common topics, like "Scars" and "Nightmare". Some were on especially unique topics, like "Patterns". And some others, though on common topics, were executed with originality, like "Fishing", "Wishes", "Shards" and such. I think it's a fair balance. You have done a great job in this section for sure. 

Writing Style: 8/10 

 The writing style is great, I have no complaints about it at all! I just think some of the poems need a little bit more work. It feels like they're still on their 2nd/3rd drafts, when they should be on their 10th, at least. But no worries, it's not like you're officially publishing the book rn, so you have plenty of time to edit them. I suggest you to work more on especially "Sleepwalker" (lots of potential, but feels a bit incomplete), "Tea Party" (could use a bit more exploration with the imageries), and "Eternity".

I've read all the poems and almost all of them are written in the same kind of format. While that's totally fine, in a book of 19 poems, poetry lovers might wish to see more versatility, more experimentations in terms of format. Play around with the space, with the sentence breaks, with the line alignments, with the rhyming sequences and all that stuff. Sometimes a little change in the format is refreshing and more gripping, and it can change the emotions portrayed through a simple format drastically. 

Of course, some poems did have a different format than the usual one. The more variety-showing poems actually appear towards the end of the book, like in "Snow By The Month" or "Nightmares", so I suggest rearranging the poems in a way that can balance it out for now. In "thunder" for example, I could see a clear shift in the format, and thus that became the most memorable poem of the book for me. It had short, simple sentences but the impact was huge due to the play with the spaces. The same goes for "Hogwarts Haikus", which I really enjoyed. 

But I think there shouldn't be a "usual format" to begin with, that's the kind of versatility you should be going for in a poetry collection.

Overall Enjoyment: 9/10 

Total: 36/40

Let me tell you a little of my thoughts about some of the poems.

"Caught in our Thoughts", "She", and "Scars" were some beautiful poems that shed light on realistic issues of the society and the current world, which I loved a lot. "Wishes", "Heavy Shoulders", "Fishing" and "Shards" were like self-help poems with some good advice; there are things to learn and take away from these, which I really appreciate. Some of the poems expressed complex emotions, some others expressed simple experiences. When it comes to themes, there is a bit of everything, so they all jumble up together to create a wonderful collection. Loved it!

I do think, however, some of the poems, or at least some of the lines of certain poems, were written in too much of a simple language. In some cases, this kind of simple language is perfect, while in others the use of a bit of symbolisms and metaphors would make the poem so much better. Coming up with creative ways to play around with words and phrases is one of the most unique things about poetry, and poems inevitably get better when that's done. That is the only thing that slightly affected my overall enjoyment. But that's all!

Still, I really, really enjoyed the book! I love poetry, though I don't get a chance to read it too often. This collection is going great, and I think you can be a really awesome poet one day.

 

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