Eat the World: A Collection of Poems

by Marina Diamandis

For the first time, platinum-certified singer-songwriter Marina shares her singular observations of the human heart through poetry; this collection is essential.

Marina’s talent for powerful, evocative song lyrics finds a new outlet in her poetry. Each poem resonates with the same creative melodies and emotional depth that have made her an artistic sensation. Hailed by The New York Times for “redefining songs about coming of age, and the aftermath, with bluntness and crafty intelligence,” Marina delves even further into trauma, youth, and the highs and lows of relationships in these profound, autobiographical poems to form a collection that transcends the boundaries of music and literature.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Music, Audiobook, Mental Health, Memoir, Adult

127 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2024

About the author

Marina Lambrini Diamandis, known mononymously as Marina (often stylised in all caps), and previously by the stage name Marina and the Diamonds, is a Welsh singer-songwriter and poet. Her first collection of poetry, Eat the World, will be releasing soon.

Reviews

[laur gluchie]

cannot wait to read poetry from the woman who wrote solitaire, teen idle, numb, savages, weeds, honestly any song from froot works here etc

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always found poetry to be a very therapeutic artform. With poetry we transport emotions into language that is shifted, stretched, pushed to experimental heights that bend linguistics to demonstrate the possibilities within. Also, ‘writing is a way to remember and also a way to forget, to let go,’ writes singer-songwriter turned poet Marina Diamandis in her debut collection, To Eat the World, a collection that demonstrates how she uses poetry to ‘alchemize pain’ and share the healing with others. The Welsh musician, already known for her music delivers a collection full of hard-hitting emotions and visceral explorations of depression, fame, loneliness, and transformation in search of authenticity that feels heartfelt and earnest and not simply a celebrity using their fame to publish a book. Which is often an apprehension I have with collections like this, though I was unaware of her music until midway through reading this and now have plenty of songs to check out. Confronting patriarchal oppressions, human emotion in a digital age, and the expectations hoisted onto those in the public eye, Marina approaches her themes ‘half enraptured / half in love / half in awe // and so afraid’ for a rather moving collection of poems where even if the experimentality sometimes feels arbitrary and more for vibes than elucidation, the vivacity shines through into poetic profundity.

"Depression is anger turned inward"

Terrifying screams surprisingly cut from
my own vocal cords begin to reverberate
Like an Al version of how it would sound
if I were actually, genuinely deeply enraged
I am rageful
I have my reasons
but it doesn't scare me anymore
Because I know rage is not forever
It passes
It has purpose
and to deny it
is to keep it alive

Marina has a long history of making language hum along to the currents of the heart and Eat the World demonstrates a dexterity with language to push beyond the formulas of music and into more abstractual examinations with poetry. Teeming with metaphors for metamorphosis, she discusses the dark side of fame, the burdens of expectations, and the perpetual awareness of patriarchal dismissal and objectifications that have her run ragged through a life of public perception where, as in the title poem, its ‘approve approve approve / try try try / grind grind grind / to be / heard, seen / valued, understood / by men / with no knowledge / of real womanhood.’ The poem Butterflies discusses the subjugation of women in a commentary on how she she laughs easily because ‘it comes from / complying / not wanting to cause discomfort to others,’ addressing the ways girls are taught they must be genteel, gracious, and generous, always accommodating others (especially men) at their out expense. ‘Fuck others,’ she finally states, ‘why do I have to bear / the weight of the discomfort?’ The balance between upholding public image and being true to one’s self are felt strongly, as is the balance between inner darkness and the desire to hold on to the tiny beauties of life.

Is death really worse
Than eternal loneliness?

Is the danger of damage
Better than its absence?

The speakers of these poems often gaze into the traps of toxic patterns and self-defeating behaviors. She discusses how all the tiny hurts of life, described as ‘a million tiny knives’ in the poem of the same title, are ‘crisscrossing softly over time’ to amalgamate into one large, existential agony. It can be quite a dark collection at times, though transformation and growing metaphorical wings to fly above it becomes the urgent message running through the collection. Butterflies and cocoons are common imagery here and the collection bears two poems with those as titles as well. There are a lot of visual elements to accompany the imagery, from collage art and textual experimentations with forms that add some life to the page. While there are moments where the spatial structures elevate the message—such as words printed as devolving into a spiral while discussing tasks spiraling into overwhelming chaos—often they feel more of a gimmick to enact fun vibes that feel overwrought. I’m reminded a bit of Max Porter’s weaker moments, but it also is eye catching and I’m sure with more work over time she could make these really sing.

‘i thought if
i ate the world
i would finally

be full
i would never
be hungry again

i was wrong
of course i was
this isn’t a movie

this is real
life a ragged
jagged pill of

a life…

There is a lovely introduction that gives readers, and long-time fans of Marina’s music, an insight into her creative process. Which does involve tripping on mushrooms so thats cool:

‘One hot summer night, after taking psilocybin, my mind began to write intricate, strange stories drawn from memories old and recent. At first I thought they were songs, so I tried to box them into their usual structures, but they refused to obey. They seemed to want to expand and unfurl into their own shapes, so I put them aside and laid them to rest. A few weeks later, I realized that they were poems, not songs, and from that moment onward, my love for this new medium was born. I had found a new way to confess, process, and play with the past.’

I enjoy her discussion on how she realized these were not songs but found ways to use them and that her poetry also isn’t just unused songs blended up with some formatting flair to call poetry which has been done before by others too. This is an earnest and honest break from her usual style and I think it is really cool she found how much poetry works for her. Sure, there are moments where one might call it longer-form Rupi Kaur inspired, which is a bummer that Kaur often gets used as a sort of criticism when I still stand behind the idea that she was attempting to make accessible poetry with a heavy dose of social critiques that would welcome newcomers into the genre and I think thats cool even if it isn’t my favorite to read. But also Marina is doing some great work here and the end of her introduction really touched me:

‘I hope this book brings solace to those who need it. Sometimes, it can feel like no one in the world feels the same way that you do. But the truth is, many of us experience the same challenges, just at different times in life. Connection is never far away. Words are portals that lead us into new worlds of resonance, wisdom, and healing. I hope this book can be a friend to you as it has been for me.’

From musician to poet, Marina Diamandis has some really great work here that addresses fame, transformation, and struggling with emotions, all done with a rather well-crafted social consciousness that makes for an engaging and empowering read. I enjoy seeing how these poems worked well as a therapeutic act for her and that she emphasizes one of poetry’s greatest gifts: being able to address the hardships of an individual or singular level while delivering it in a universality that others can read, enjoy, empathize with and, hopefully, in turn heal as well. Eat the World is a fun debut collection.

3.5/5

E-motion

Why is it hard to accept emotions? Why do
we twist them into shapes they are not?

They only re-form the shape in which
they're born when we're not looking.

Why deny, resist and list them instead of
letting them rest inside our bodies

What am I scared of? That I'll die of
discomfort or that they'll last forever?

20 seconds.

Apparently that's how long
it takes for an emotion to be felt

[Salomé Monteiro]

supporting mother in all her endeavours

[taylor :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5/5) not a poetry reader but for marina i’ll do anything <3

and i meant that. i love marina more than life itself (begging mother for marina 6) and i hardly ever read poetry because i dont like it. so clearly i know nothing about poetry but i really liked a lot of the poems in here. they are very similar to a lot of marinas songs in style and theme, and thats all i was really hoping for.

i know a lot of the poetry experts are saying this isnt very good but i dont know, i really liked it <3

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading poetry written by my favourite musicians is good for the soul .. ✨🦋

”I hope this book brings solace to those who need it.
Sometimes, it can feel like no one in the world feels the same way that you do. But the truth is, many of us experience the same challenges, just at different times in life.
Connection is never far away. Words are portals that lead us into new worlds of resonance, wisdom, and healing. I hope this book can be a friend to you as it has been for me.” - Marina. 💖

[Rhea · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s giving Gabbie Hannah, it’s giving unpolished, it’s giving the antithesis of Marina’s ACTUAL song lyrics, it’s giving disappointing.

[Patricija || book.duo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marina, what in the rupi kaur was that:((((

[jay k. ❤︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

oh marina, how i love you… but this read like the poetry i wrote in high school. “real eyes realize real lies” vibes.

[kellylikestoread · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through Goodreads' giveaway. It came in today and I read it... today. Duh. Anyways. It's not a polished collection quite yet so keep that in mind.

Overall, it seems like a solid collection of poetry. It plays more with space and form than it does with language and imagery. I don't think this is something I'd read if it hadn't been given to me, as it's not my cup of tea in the end, but I'd recommend this for 1. fans of hers who aren't too into reading but love her work and her style, and her as a whole 2. a teenage girl or 3. a person who isn't too into poetry and wants an easy read as a first step in.

Yeah, I'd consider this more "basic" in the world of poetry. I'd place it a couple steps up from Rupi Kaur and her insta-poetry, as Marina actually puts thoughts into her work and not just inspirational quotes she heard elsewhere but reworked. The literal images Marina uses are also interesting in their own right, although the style of publishing makes some of them extra distorted, which I think was on purpose, but I do wish some were clearer and sharper.

Now, because this is unfinished, I can't share direct quotes, but I do want to allude to a couple things. (I also want to mention that I write poetry, so there will be comparisons to what I have done within my own work so I can give explicit examples)

First things first: page numbers are not consistent. I would say just under half the book does not have a page number, which is unfortunate, as the table of contents lists them.

Marina does play with form and spacing, but it doesn't seem super intentional. There are parts where she could have made small mental images through hyper-alignment, or making the poem look jagged to emphasize just how not-smooth her life was. As this alluded second poem exists about a quarter into her book and looks visually similar to others at the start, which is to say it's already a bit jagged all over; it doesn't stand out. For example, she has one where she spaces out the word "down" vertically. So I feel like she knows what I'm talking about, she's just not utilizing it where I wish she was.

There's a trend of not capitalizing in poems. I admit guilt here too. But Marina is found a couple of times to capitalize the start of "sentences" but not "I" as a pronoun. Minor gripe. I don't like it unless it's intentional. For example, one poem I wrote has a subject "talking" and each word they speak is Captialized At The Front, except when it starts to devolve and show his selfishness. Then the "I"s, when said in repetition, are lowercase to bring attention to the "i" and help visually show how he wants all the attention. (The same goes for punctuation. She'll use periods at the end of one "sentence" but not another. Or commas to separate one list and then three stanzas down, the list just runs together)

Basically, I wish there was more obvious intention behind her playing with form and spacing.

HOWEVER! She does get really playful with it by incorporating images and moving her words around them, and I think it's great. I don't think she has a purpose necessarily for it so much as it looks cool, but sometimes that's all the form is. Just cool. I just prefer intention when form is messed with. Personal preference, obviously.

There are a few areas where I believe Marina could tighten up her language to have a stronger effect. One poem could lose the last word and the last three lines would read with a small slant rhyme that would drive the impact home. In another, she mentions two holidays because they share a popular dinner dish. I think ditching the specifics of the dates and moving more into the food item and what occurs around it, rather than the date it falls upon, would tune in better to what she's working towards.

Alongside language is imagery. A lot of her analogies are rather cliche, however I will acknowledge that they don't come across as super cliche in the moment. She works them in well. However, she also makes very odd analogies that I don't understand. I think walrus bones were mentioned once and I still don't understand the use of that mental image. There's also one where the last two lines feel tacked on to make it feel more artsy (literally refers to art) but doesn't seem to actually mesh with the previous text, which really jarred me out of my enjoyment of it.

I'd also love to see more creative titles. They're very obvious to the poem, which is fine, but some are literally just the last line reworded. It's fine, it's just not... fun. I guess. Although I may be too influenced by 2000s emo boy bands (particularly Fall Out Boy).

I do want to end on a good note:
Million Tiny Knives had a great rhythm and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Out Of Production also deserves that sort of accolade. They both utilized irregular rhyme, nearing the rap style (where multiple rhymes can exist at the same time, and may exist within the same line), and it's probably my favourite style to read as it's just so fun and you can really hammer home some strong concepts, especially when read out loud. I guess it makes sense that the ones that work really well verbally are my favourites, as she is a singer and songwriter after all.

She has a few more with great rhythm without overbearing rhymes, but I'm not a fan of the content within those particular pieces, so while I enjoyed the experience, I didn't enjoy the poem. But that's personal taste in subject matter.

To me, Cocoon feels like it is the most intentional in form and in visuals, with a solid poem to go with it. If the rest of the book gave me the same feeling as Cocoon, I'd have few qualms about it. It feels like it was the one that succeeded most in what Marina set out to do with publishing these. It plays heavily with form, with word (and letter!) placement, with the integration of literal images... it's visually fun and interesting. And the imagery within the poem is consistent, well-placed, and well-written. She even plays with word choice for double meanings! While not my favourite poem, I think it's the most successful poem.

TLDR: Marina plays with form a lot, but it doesn't feel like a lot of the choices were intentional for the sake of elevating the poem but for the sake of making it look more like a modern poem. She uses a lot of cliches in her imagery, but it doesn't feel cliche in the moment because it works well. However, she sometimes tacks on extra imagery that doesn't seem to fit within the piece for the same of having it, and it knocks my shoes off in a bad way. And she writes really great rhythmic pieces, which doesn't really surprise me.

And, if it wasn't obvious, if I had to suggest one poem to show off what Marina is capable of, I'd pick Cocoon. It's not a great representation of the collection as a whole, but it showcases just how strong of a poet she can be/is.

Overall, it's a perfectly fine time. I truly think someone not super into poetry would enjoy this, and I do think it would encourage them to explore poetry more as well. Those already into poetry may also enjoy this collection, I just don't expect it to be shown in any poetry-exclusive class modules, although I wouldn't argue if Cocoon appeared somewhere.

So yeah! I hope this all makes sense :D

[Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this poetry collection believing this could turn out one of two ways: be inspiring and interesting like her music or be unbearable. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the latter.

I wanted to pick this up because I have been listening to MARINA for years, and I have always found value in the things she has had to say. But this was a deep miss for me. In her introduction she says that these poems started out as things she needed to say that couldn’t work themselves into a song structure, and I will say the poetry really does reflect that. I fear they could have used a bit more hammering out.

The end of the collection really started to present ideas I was interested in: her perceptions of fame in retrospect being a big one. There are also a few enjoyable poems about L.A. that I found to be decent enough. But unfortunately, this work felt extremely unpolished and incoherent for the most part.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an E-Arc.

[nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

i have loved marina since i was in the trenches of tumblr, and i have loved poetry even longer, but sadly for me these poems are lacking the depth and substance that is seen in her music. the ideas are interesting and her experimentation with form shines, i would just love these to be more fleshed out.

favorite poems: “1,000 Black Nights”, “The Sparkling Clam”

[Trin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh girl... no.

Song lyrics are not poetry; they very much need the music to make them whole. Instagram posts are also not poetry. It makes me tired that this is something that needs to be said.

Sometimes celebrities need someone to tell them "no"! Sadly in this case I was not consulted.

[Michelle Curie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't seem to be able to say no to musicians' poetry collections – and there have been quite a few over the years. Lana Del Rey has published hers, Halsey shared hers, and now Marina, formerly known as Marina & the Diamonds, is the next in line. And again, I have conflicting feelings.


Marina Diamandis holds a special place in my heart because I was one of her first fans. Fourteen years ago, as she was just starting out (and I was literally still a child back then), I would be invited backstage, was on one occasion sent a letter home by Marina, and have memories of taking a plane without my parents for the first time to attend a gig of hers with other friends I made within the fanbase. It was a wonderful time, but as I have grown up, my approach to being a fan has turned into something more sober and unfazed. Either way, I still like to check what she's up to every now and then, and was obviously intrigued when I found out she would be releasing a poetry book.

Eat the World apparently came into being on one hot summer night after taking psilocybin. When she couldn't figure out how to box the words she wrote down into songs, she realised they were instead poems and embarked on a whole new journey of exploring this new medium. The result is a collection of poems about relationships, eating disorders, growing up, living in LA, and coming to terms with yourself.

The subject matters are sensitive, personal, and relatable. Marina allows us a deep look into her psyche. These poems are quite honest and vulnerable in what they're revealing. We learn about the subjects she struggled with in her youth – food and body image were touchy subjects, wanting to be loved was a predominant desire, and we also learn about what's currently on her mind: there's a poem that reveals her internal conflict of wanting and not wanting to become a mother, the fear of dependence, and the equal fear of never getting to know this kind of love. It's a sensation similarly described by Charli XCX on her recent album, who is, funnily enough, a British artist who emerged on the scene around a similar time Marina did.

We also learn about her conflicting thoughts about Los Angeles, the place the Welsh-Greek singer now calls her home. She's fascinated by its history but equally intimidated by its power to make you feel lonely.

"Town of transplants / City of saplings / Land of the amputated limbs"

And on the subject of loneliness, we also learn about her worries of being single in your thirties, when "everyone's married now / nobody's going out / I'm the last girl in town". None of these thoughts are groundbreaking, but she serves them to the reader like an offering to find compassion in mutuality if that's what you're looking for.


Some of these poems are lovely; others feel bland. I approached this collection with a certain sense of caution, as from snippets she shared upfront, I got Rupi Kaur vibes, a poet I'm unfortunately not able to connect with at all. The sparse and minimalistic combining of words does very little for me, but, fortunately, Marina offers more than that on several occasions. There are a couple of passages that had a thrilling sense of flow (e.g., "Inflation is great / until comes the recession / When it's clear it's not love / it's not even obsession") and some analogies that were well-meant but fell completely flat for me (e.g., "But as I departed pain, you entered it like a train and encountered a station you'd avoided your whole life."). We even get some humour amidst these overall rather dark subject matters:

"You and I are like moon rock / Lost / Cold / Alien / Discrete / Stolen from another galaxy / Looking for a slice of brie, / for what need is melted cheese"

The presentation is fun. It's also notable that these are definitely playful in the way they're written: there's a handmade quality to them, with little print-style illustrations and experimentation with spacing and word placement. It definitely enhanced the effect some of these verses had on me, though one might argue that it's rather a sign of weakness if they're not strong enough as mere words. But that's up to you to decide.

Overall, I'm not sure what to rate this. Much of my enjoyment was derived from the nostalgia Marina as an artist evokes in me, and I think this will mainly be of interest to people familiar with her music. This didn't make me feel as drained and frustrated as other poetry collections have in the past, but it also didn't make my heart sing if you know what I mean. I think Marina is a smart woman with a great sense of introspection and reflection (you can tell she's gone to therapy in a good way), and if she continues this line of work, I'd be curious about how her skills develop.

[Devin Kasparian · Rating 5 out of 5]

i should not be surprised that marina’s poetry book spoke to me in a way i don’t often feel… she had me saying “YES… EXACTLY” out loud mid poem. is that what happens when one reads poetry? not that i know of. this book has helped me understand why i have always felt so deeply drawn to her music — i feel very similar to her. i too have always desired to eat the world… i always had a hunger that was unsatiated, a thirst never quenched, a search that never lead to the right finding— something people around me saw in me, boyfriends identified this void, and it took time for me to see it for what it was, and to allow change, allow this void to not be filled but rather to be cared for, allow it to heal, to be closed, by way of the body’s natural healing abilities, the ones that only are effective when you allow them time, when you treat the wounds, when you make choices that accelerate healing, rather than delay it. omg how did i even get to that sentence, no one will know, but it of course was catalysted from finishing marina’s incredible poetry book. thanks queen.

[June · Rating 1 out of 5]

Marina, the poetry police shall come knocking at your door. Your publisher was right in denying my request for an arc of this. Words coming to mind right now— shallow, amateur, incoherent. Girl…! this pissed me off.

“I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathise with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife, or whatever it is. I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrifying, like madness, being tortured, this sort of experience, and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and an intelligent mind. I think that personal experience is very important, but certainly it shouldn’t be a kind of shut-box and mirror looking, narcissistic experience. I believe it should be relevant, and relevant to the larger things, the bigger things such as Hiroshima and Dachau and so on.” - Sylvia Plath

[Hany entre letras · Rating 1 out of 5]

a veces los artistas exploran su talento en otros rubros y les va genial y otras veces no. A Marina le ha pasado lo segundo.

En la introducción habla de como llegaron estos poemas a ella: pedazos de palabras que no parecían canciones. Y todo bien, solamente que esos pensamientos o sueños no debieron de haber dejado su block de notas...

Los poemas carecen de vida, de emoción, de sentimiento. Son la recreación mal hecha de diversas frases que encontrarías en tumblr unidas. No conoces a Marina a través de ella, y tampoco te sientes identificado con alguna línea. Es un sinsentido.

Soy la primera que daría un riñón por un concierto de Marina pero no daría ni un centavo por este poemario, no lo aceptaría ni como regalo (miento, está chévere para recortes de journals). Así que no pierdan su tiempo y si quieren leer poesía no lean esto aksjdjd

[rie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love MARINA and her music very dearly. because of how much her music impacted and rewired my brain, imma stand by her with whatever thing she dips her toes in…unfortunately that doesn’t mean i have to love it. while i do think she’s a talented writer, i think she would thrive better in prose than full poetry. i’m not a big poetry person (my gf insists i just haven’t found actually good poetry yet) but this book has a lot of something i dislike about poetry and that’s the juvenile melodrama speak. this works good and is fun when it has a catchy beat to it but as text? not so much.

i did like quite a few poems though and as i said MARINA is a talented writer (as if her music didn’t say that for itself) but i just didn’t LOVE this.

[Kiupi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marina, you can do better than that. I guess you did tell us to question what a pop star sells us.

It's hard to understand how the person who wrote Numb, Valley Of The Dolls, Buy The Stars, Solitaire, Immortal, Soft To Be Strong, Goodbye and other masterpieces ended up writing verses such as "I spent my days visiting emo stores on Melrose, dodging drug addicts on trains and shopping at Forever 21".

I'm not a poetry expert, but I doubt this is poetry. It looks like something I can find on r/im14andthisisdeep.

The only thing I feel after reading this is disappointment, because this is not the Marina I'm used to. I wanted to love this, but I just couldn't.

I have to put aside my love for you and your music, and give this book ★★☆☆☆.

[Atalántē]

Część wierszy przemówiła do mnie bardziej, a część mniej, ale chyba żaden nie przemówił tak, jak piosenki Mariny. Zostawiam bez oceny, jak to poezję, szczególnie taką, która wydaje się być bardzo osobista.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s no secret Marina’s lyricism kind of fell off after Froot, and that unfortunately carries over to her poetry as well. I found myself cringing at a number of poems throughout the collection unfortunately. Let’s hope the 2025 album is a return to form lol.

[João · Rating 3 out of 5]

dei de aniversário para o meu marido e terminei de ler antes dele <3

[Jubilee · Rating 2 out of 5]

edit: after sitting on it for a while, I think I my have been a bit kind with my review :( so much of my review still stands, there really were some good parts that I had fun reading- but it is very obviously beginner poetry.

i adore marina. her music has helped me throuh a lot, and she was one of my top artist on spotify. i went in after hearing multiple reviews, the majority calling it tiktok poetry and others saying it has a lot of potential. after reading it, I somewhat understand both. i think if marina wanted to be a classical poet, she definitely could my favorite lines were:

"Deeply unhappy and deeply in love, I couldn't see the killer but I could smell the blood."
"Elegant and violent, strengthened by escape, from the butchers above who knew nothing of love."
"To be heard, seen, valued, understood, by men with no knowledge of real womanhood."
"And jump ship to Italy. if I'm going to be alone, I might as well live prettily."

There were some lines, metaphors, and imagery, that I found to be genuinely good writing. the photography/some of the art inside is gorgeous, and really adds to the general glamourous/feminine yet artsy aesthetic of the collection.

However, there were definitely some parts that I disliked. So much of this book is formatted all over the page, spaces between the letters, etc. It really distracts from any depth the poetry may have, and to me it seems to make a show of the formatting to distract from the poetry if it is lacking. One of the pages has a mermaid emoji as a part of thee poetry-which really took me out of the writing and made me think of rupi kaur or gabbie hanna-who's work i respect but is very much a product of its time. 'tiktok' poetry. this is, unfortunately, consistent throughout the work. some of the lines mention things so modern, perhaps purposely to seem candid or ironic, but the majority of those fail to deliver. Some poems end up just being sentences formatted strangely, as opposed to something poetic. this disappointed me, as I know marina to be such an incredible lyricist. i think that just because someone is a poet in sense of being a songwriter, that doesn't mean that they will immediately also be a 'good' classical poet. marina writes poetry of her sons, but it isn't equivalent to ink on paper. i will say, listening to her reading some of the poetry made it seem better than reading it- this collection is heavy with her lyric style, which can very easily come across as too 'modern' in thee eyes of people fond of poetry.

overall, I enjoyed this, and i think it is decent for a beginning poet. if marina wanted to continue with poetry, i think she could release another collection of a better quality if she had enough practice. the read was entertaining, i read the majority of poems in 45 minutes.

I would recommend this to any fans of marina, as her style is present in this book and the aesthetic of the collection is lovely. I would not recommend this to classical poetry readers, as well as fans of older poems.

i am glad i chose to read this book, and hope this review helped<3

[lew:) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars


While I know nothing about poetry, I do know if a singer I love (AHEM Halsey AHEM) writes poetry, Ima read it!! Imagine my joy when Queen Marina decided to write and publish this collection of poems!! I knew I had to get my hands on a copy asap and check it out.

Again, keep in mind I know NOTHING about poetry but I LOVE Marina, so I’m a little biased here. I did find the weird line breaks a little too Tumblr-y for me, but I disagree with other reviewers who say the content of this collection was “basic”. I’m sorry, did we both read the same poems or?? They read like Marina songs to me, just in a different format?? Objectively, the first part of this collection is pretty weak for me- I really didn’t start really enjoying the poems until I was about 1/3 of the way through but I think the last half of the collection is really, really strong.

My fav poems were “Four Seasons”, “Sex Robot”, “Pink Elephant”, “Inner Peace & Other Lies”, and “Eat the World”. Happy I got to check this out!

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Marina’s music and the lyrics always speak to me so I was so excited for this book. I don’t usually read poetry so I could totally be missing a lot of the techniques and flow here but this collection felt like revisiting my middle school diary. The graphic design throughout the book was cool though!

[Tilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars

I love modern poetry and also have enjoyed Marina's songs and lyrics and so I was really looking forward to this book. Sadly it did not live up to my expectations.

Firstly, the good points. There were 2 or 3 poems that were decent and one that actually made me reread it and made me think and feel.
Sadly, there wasn't much else that I liked about this collection. Marina says she wrote these whilst high on magic mushrooms and...you can tell. They aren't exactly hard hitting or even interesting. There is SO much to talk about in our current world and situation and she just moans on about her first love and LA. Fine for a few poems but it was all just super repetitive and it got old very quickly.
Marina said these were words that she couldn't make into songs. I think that is for a reason and that doesn't make them poems either. They really lacked substance and reminded me of poems that 16 year old scene kids used to write on Tumblr.

I wish I could be more positive but sadly, this is not a collection I will be revisiting or recommending.

Please note that I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

MARINA has written some of my favourite songs. When I saw that she had a poetry collection (I stumbled across it in the store. I’d never heard of it), I knew I had to have it.

This is beautiful. It’s sharp, personal, not afraid to make a point, and fun. The formatting alone makes it worth owning. It’s such a fun read and it feels very relatable in some unexpected ways.

After all, we are all humans trying to survive this life.

I recommend picking this one up!

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cocoon...... iykyk :(( 🦋🦋

[disco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inflation is great
until comes the recession
When it’s clear it’s not love
—it’s not even obsession

[Paginas de Andres · Rating 1 out of 5]

Todo el presupuesto se fue en el diseño grafico! Esto seguramente no pasó por un editor. Se me vino a la mente decir que no puedo creer que esta sea la misma persona que escribió The Family Jewels y Electra Heart pero estaría mintiendo porque tengo rato que no revisito esos álbumes y como le dije a Hany, un buen beat a veces puede gaslightearnos de ciertas lyrics. Escribir canciones y poesía, aunque van de la mano, no son lo mismo. Se siente inacabado y como un money grab. No hay pasión, intensidad ni necesidad de transmitir algo, simplemente scraps de canciones que no lograron llegar a un álbum y pensamientos randoms que se te vienen en plena crisis.

Santa Marta
La perla del caribe
Siempre soleada
Pero a veces acabada
El mar me llama
Y en el me baño
Pero en ti siempre pienso

S A
A T
N R
T A
A M

Mi debut como poeta porque de que se puede se puede

[francisco rivera · Rating 3 out of 5]

poetry is such an.. interesting medium. in order to really enjoy it i feel i must be a lot more forgiving than with prose because... well it takes real courage to be earnest in that way. a lot of these poems didn't resonate with me on a humanistic level, but they totally hit the spot when reading as another perspective on this artist who i grew up with.

i remember the day electra heart "died" when i was in middle school and it was like a real person had passed away. the tumblr aesthetic collages with candy hearts went crazy and that's a very fond space in my memory. you can see the echoes of Teen Idle along with that glamor peeled back, but (sorry!) i wouldn't say it was movingly done, although it was fascinating to see. of course comparison is the thief of joy, but i couldn't help myself in seeing the parallels and the intertextuality with lana's poetry book. ((will i ever understand the feverish goggles people look at LA with? no.))

favorite selections include "night surfing", "behemoth", and liked the pairing of "fizz" with "smoothness of money". maybe it's the How To Be A Heartbreaker talking, but i think she has real juice when she talks about the slippages that happen between two people, even two lovers. glad to have this on my shelf and interested to see how my feelings on it evolve over time, because that's what happens with poems