I don't understand the hype for this book

I bought this book to gift a friend of mine. She had been talking about it like crazy and said she loved the quotes she saw from it on Instagram. Upon buying it, I thought, might as well read it myself to see how good it is.

The poems were not polished enough to maintain a rhyming scheme while also conveying emotion. It felt more like the writer had a quota of poems to fill and simply put together some sad words that happened to rhyme. I mean it—the poems actually felt FORCED. Still, I wouldn't dismiss everything; some of them were genuinely good.

But the quotes—OH MY GOD—I have never read a book that screamed "post me on Instagram" more than this one. And I think that's the only purpose they served, to be part of a marketing campaign. All the quotes felt superficial, with no deeper meaning. Good for an aesthetic photo with a coffee cup and a sunrise/sunset in the background, but nothing more than that. I wonder how many people actually bought this book to read it.

Also, I don’t even understand why the author says, "Your heart needs this book." No, sir, now my heart needs to read something good to forget your book.

But I guess the marketing worked—my friend's feed was almost getting bombarded with such reels. If she likes it, good for her (she ain't a reader anyway).

Thank God I’m not on Instagram.

Overall rating: 1.5/5

I bought this book to gift a friend of mine. She had been talking about it like crazy and said she loved the quotes she saw from it on Instagram. Upon buying it, I thought, might as well read it myself to see how good it is.

The poems were not polished enough to maintain a rhyming scheme while also conveying emotion. It felt more like the writer had a quota of poems to fill and simply put together some sad words that happened to rhyme. I mean it—the poems actually felt FORCED. Still, I wouldn't dismiss everything; some of them were genuinely good.

But the quotes—OH MY GOD—I have never read a book that screamed "post me on Instagram" more than this one. And I think that's the only purpose they served, to be part of a marketing campaign. All the quotes felt superficial, with no deeper meaning. Good for an aesthetic photo with a coffee cup and a sunrise/sunset in the background, but nothing more than that. I wonder how many people actually bought this book to read it.

Also, I don’t even understand why the author says, "Your heart needs this book." No, sir, now my heart needs to read something good to forget your book.

But I guess the marketing worked—my friend's feed was almost getting bombarded with such reels. If she likes it, good for her (she ain't a reader anyway).

Thank God I’m not on Instagram.

Overall rating: 1.5/5