I think each one I have read has let me see such integral parts of myself and I really appreciate each poet I've read. I am loving modern poetry more and more as I keep picking up different ones, and I think there's something emotional and raw in each one. I think the disorganized feeling made it hard for me to fully appreciate all of the poems because as a whole it felt a little all over the place. We have two sections, 'Body' and 'Afterthought' but I think that more categories/sections would have made more sense to me. My only criticism with this book of poetry is that I wish it was organized a bit better. Being seen in any kind of book isn't something I have experienced as often as I'd like. It's nice to be seen, and I really want to read more books, whether that be poetry or novels, that are about bookish and fat women. The way she talked about what words meant to her made me feel like she was directly talking about me. Another topic I strongly related to was Shelby Eileen's connection and relationship to words. Although I could not fully relate to everything she talked about, I could relate to to the topics of body image, which is a main theme throughout the poems. It felt like I was reading Shelby Eileen's diary, and I couldn't help but empathize with her. I probably say this every time I review a book of poetry, but being this vulnerable and open is incredibly admirable and brave.

However, even if I didn't personally relate to the other 100+ poems, I felt like they were written well and it was really easy to empathize with the author. There were about twenty poems I personally felt connected to, which I think is pretty good and average for me. The topics and content are so raw and make the writer seem so vulnerable that I don't ever feel comfortable rating the poems by themselves. Reviewing modern poetry is always hard for me because each book of modern poetry I have read have been so personal to the writer.

Soft in the Middle by Shelby Eileen