Rating:
Format:
physical book + ebook
Page Count:
192
Genre:
poetry
synopsis.
Rupi Kaur constantly embraces growth, and in home body, she walks readers through a reflective and intimate journey visiting the past, the present, and the potential of the self. home body is a collection of raw, honest conversations with oneself – reminding readers to fill up on love, acceptance, community, family, and embrace change. Illustrated by the author, themes of nature and nurture, light and dark, rest here.
Goodreads
trigger warnings.
- sexual assault
- rape
- child abuse
- abusive relationship
- depression
thoughts.
initial.
this was my very first time intentionally reading rupi kaur’s poetry, of course not counting the hundreds of times I’ve seen snippets shared on social media. I went into this collection simultaneously knowing what to expect, but also wondering what I’d find.
negatives
I’ll start out with what I didn’t like, which is synonymous with what I expected from the collection. many of the poems felt a bit too simplistic, which I knew was a prevalent viewpoint of her previous collections. in addition to the simplicity, which I want to point out is not inherently a bad thing, it felt strange to me that these more simple poems were classified as poetry. in my mind as an avid reader and writer of poetry, putting line breaks in random places doesn’t automatically make a sentence or sentiment a poem, and that’s what I saw in a significant percentage of this collection.
positives
on a positive note, I was taken very much by surprise by some of the poems that I ended up loving in this collection. I appreciated the themes the collection encompassed – from anxiety, depression, and friendship, to (anti)capitalism and family dynamics. I found that a lot of the poems that impacted and stood out to me weren’t as shared and well known, I assume because most of them aren’t the quick one liners Kaur is famous for. these poems struck a chord with me and did what I feel the best poetry does: they made certain thoughts and parts of my identity feel seen in a way that felt both striking and soothing.
verdict.
overall, the poems that really impacted me in this collection very much made up for the ones that felt a bit more questionable. and even though I wouldn’t necessarily classify these more questionable poems as poems per se, the messages behind most of them were still ones I felt valuable to share – even if they were a bit more simplistic. I’d recommend this collection if you’re looking for an easy and accessible read (after all, Kaur’s poetry is what instigated this whole modern, accessible style of poetry) that covers some more difficult topics. I would expect to not connect with each and every poem, but to find at least a few that resonate. I can’t say for certain that I’ll be reading more of her collections, but I do think this one’s worthwhile if the style is what you’re in the mood for.
Have you read Homebody? I’d love to hear your thoughts down below!
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day ❤
Book Noted 