WONDERFUL. I'm not sure this collection of poetry will be for everyone but for me it was great. I think sometimes poetry falls into our hands at the exact moment we need it. I LOVED this whole collection and the images just enhanced the experience. Aphrodite Made Me Do It deals with a lot of tough topics in a beautiful way.

A wonderfully magical collection of poetry and prose!
Mateer manages to not only re-write Aphrodite in the modern lens but gives her a voice so powerful and succinct I found myself highlighting phrases of the book every two seconds.

I received an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5 stars

This collection was thought provoking and parts of it were very well crafted. I highlighted certain lines as they spoke to me, but I think that my overall issue with the collection was that I liked parts of it and not all of it. As a whole, I didn’t feel like it flowed well and consistently.

That doesn’t say that it wasn’t well written. Parts were eloquent and edgy, and I really did enjoy reading that. I liked the blend of artistic pictures combined with the poetry and writing, and it made for an engaging read.

This is a review written for a book outside my comfort zone. I don’t read a lot of poetry. I don’t go crazy for Milk and Honey or much modern verse, and I don’t really write it. So this is the review of someone who went outside of their comfort zone to read a book written by and for women.

I give it a 2.5 out 5 because it was between a “meh” read and an “I liked it” rating. It may just be personal belief and personal opinion that this book wasn’t a stunner for me. I did enjoy the idea of it and certain lines, and feel like this is a book one would have to read themselves to form a full opinion of.

This read was beautifully written and made me as reader pause and soak in every word. I truly enjoyed this author's writing style and look forward to seeing her name more in the future.

The writing didn’t mesh well with me. I found myself getting utterly lost in the text and not in a good way. Should’ve went through at least another round of edits. But the actual premise was interesting.

To be perfectly honest, I knew little to nothing about this book going into it. From a very broad blurb and someone else's review, I formed this idea of a novel where the protagonist is encouraged by Aphrodite to give love another chance. In a way, the theme is still there, but the book proved to be so much more, using poetic prose and mixed media. Mateer's style of poetry is very reminiscent of the 2010's tumblr era, which made me relate to her writing even more.
Mateer's achieves the perfect balance between acknowledging trauma and rising above it, and has found a way to deal with very difficult and triggering issues that does not make you want to look away. This is a book I didn't know I needed and one that I read at the perfect time. I expect I'll be re-reading this whenever I need reminding of some very important lessons.

Thank you to netgalley, Central Avenue publishing, and Trista Mateer for providing me with an e-arc copy of this book.

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I want to give young, new poets a chance and I am always looking for new talent, but every time I try them out, I end up disappointed. I think it's great that so many people can turn to writing to express their thoughts, heal from their pasts, and fight for social justices. But this new wave of poets and their poetry seem to read more like diary entries or Instagram posts than poems.

<i>I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.</i>

I’m usually torn when it comes to modern day free verse poetry, and this collection is no exception.

On the one hand, I mean, just look at it and read the synopsis. It features thoughtful utterances about personal growth, trauma, and loving yourself and others, presented in parallel with the myth of Aphrodite and in conversation with her, which is such a cool concept (I’m a big mythology nerd so giving Aphrodite her own voice for once is really nice). The book also features some very nice art work in a sort of scrapbook style, which I really liked. The collection is also in part the author's vehicle for expressing herself and reflecting on her experiences, feelings, and traumas, which she does admirably. The themes that she talks about are highly personal and relate mostly to her own life, but are also universal in a way, meaning that many people will relate to at least parts of the work and recognise themselves in the verse.

On the other hand, the poetry itself feels a little contrived and perfectly fits the mold of pseudo-psychological self-care posts online that are written in a kind of internet poetry format, which I (an English literature student fairly uninitiated in modern poetry) struggle to truly appreciate in the way it probably deserves. I know that this type of poetry is very popular online and among millenials and this is the way in which the poet has chosen to express herself and I respect that, but it just doesn’t speak to me that much. I guess that when it comes to poetry, I am still quite an inexperienced and conservative reader. Additionally, although the themes seem universal (i.e. love, abuse, anger, heartache, etc), they are just not universal for me. These are not generally topics that I relate to, though that is certainly more to do with me than with the author or this collection. I am just not exactly the right person for this book.There are many people that I think this book will be perfect for and that will relate to it and adore it, but I am not one of them.

Having said that, there are some poems and parts of the collection that I enjoyed very much. I adored ‘modern hymn for myself’ and the entire three of cups section that followed. I made a bunch of screenshots of sentences and poems that spoke to me or that I thought were particularly interesting, just so that I can easily find them again. As I mentioned before, I also really liked the art pages that were interspersed throughout the book. Overall then, this was a pleasant and quick read, although my enjoyment of it was somewhat diminished by my inability to fully relate to and appreciate both the format and the subject matter.

<b>3.5 out of 5 stars</b>

This was such an incredible collection of poetry and prose. I could not put it down once I started it. Trista’s words have the ability to make you feel so many emotions at once. This collection was extremely powerful and beautiful.

I know that I will be purchasing a final copy as soon as it comes out, but I am extremely grateful to have been given an advanced copy. I will now be shouting about its greatness to all of my friends- poetry loving or not.

If you yourself are not a big poetry reader, this is a great place to start as it is a quick read and contains lots of prose as well.

I am still in awe of how amazing the words on the pages were, and I could only hope that one day my own collection will be as eloquent as this one.

Adding it to my shelf of favorite poetry books right away.

i adore this poetry collection so much. i didn’t personally relate to everything that was talked about, but so many parts hit me hard. it was beautiful - the writing, the imagery, all of it

it's soft yet fierce writing, and somehow exactly what i needed right now. i dont even know how to properly review this but i loved it and thats all that really matters tbh

i also just realized this is the same author who wrote honeybee which i also loved, so basically i can say that i love and adore trista mateer’s writing

This is a gorgeous poetry collection. I can't wait to buy the physical book.
I love the author's style of poetry, this one hit hard for me.
I can't wait to read more from them.

As a poetry fan, I was excited about this collection, and it did not let me down. There is a lot of pain in these words, but in that cathartic way that poetry has about it. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and full of love all at the same time, and I suppose that is to be expected from a book that invokes the goddess of love right in the title. This is the sort of book that will rip you apart and put you together again, and I'll be shocked if it's not a one-sitting read for most people. The poems will reach straight into your heart and worm their way in so you will never truly be free of them again. And you wouldn't want to be.

I gave this a 2.5 rating. I loved the imagery and the photos in the book. But I felt like the poetry/story line wasn't flowing together well. It was sort of jumbled up in a self care, my rape story, love is what everyone wants, romance is dead mess. Although I appreciate what the author was trying to do, I just had a hard time connecting with this one.

This book was INCREDIBLE. It spoke directly to my heart as a woman, a feminist, a reader, as a woman. For a shorter poetry collection, it contains so much power and strength. Fans of Greek mythology and the Gurlesque aesthetic of poetry will LOVE this book. It reminded me of a cross between Matthea Harvey and Danielle Pafunda. The illustrations and artwork are gorgeous and truly help to set a mood for reading. The relationship between The Poet and Aphrodite is done in such a way that, while distinct voices as characters, they often blend into an ethereal everywoman. (Fans of Madeleine Miller's CIRCE will definitely love these poems!) This is a collection I will happily return to again and again to find new depths. The best collection I've read in quite some time.

Aphrodite Made Me Do It is a beautiful, honest, raw collection of poems written both from the poet’s perspective as well as “Aphrodite’s”. They comment on their experiences with men and touch upon extremely sensitive topics that are unfortunately quite relatable to many people, so please be cautious of trigger warnings before reading this. There are also poems about less sensitive things like love, both with another and with(in) yourself.

Mateer truly impressed me with this stream-of-consciousness approach to poetry and I found a lot of these poems resonating deeper than I anticipated them to. Their writing reminded me of things I’ve written in my own journal and it was healing to know that I am not alone in some of my personal feelings on things.

I enjoyed this very much and I recommend it to people, but especially women, who are looking to self-assess, heal, and work toward self-love.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, or how much I would enjoy it, as I don’t often read poetry. In fact, I didn’t enjoy much poetry when I did my English Literature degree, but I’ve come to realise that I don’t hate poetry, it’s just a matter of finding the words that sing to you.

This book has a varied style, with some written in more poetic form and other sections written in more of a prose style. The mixture makes it more accessible, and although I personally would have enjoyed more of the fragmented poetry sections, I think this does give it appeal to a wider audience. You don’t have to like poetry to like this book.

The topics covered are very relatable, put in simple terms that everyone can understand, but those words are put together in a beautifully lyrical way. Subject matter such as body image, assault, love, coming out, abuse and family are all explored in a very honest way. Using mythology as a way to tell the story and explore the themes of the book was an interesting and effective choice. It does help that I’ve always had an interest in mythology. Aphrodite is given a voice and the book gives an interesting perspective on how the love goddess is represented in literature and culture.

It was a very quick read, and I almost wished there had been more (which I guess is a good thing), but at the same time it is nice to read something compact for a change. There is certainly an encouragement for self-care and healing, and I did feel uplifted having finished it.

The experience of this book would be even better in paperback, and I would urge you to get a hard copy of this book rather than an ebook. There are illustrations interspersed through the poetry, and I would have loved to be able to see them in colour and the words all laid out on the page as intended.

Even if you think poetry isn’t your thing, I would encourage you to give this book a go!

*Received via NetGalley for review*

An interesting premise, but it felt very amateur. The interspersed photos, the discussion of sexuality and gender, the handwritten portions - it all felt clunky and like I was reading someone's actual journal rather than something ready for publication.
The formatting wasn't exactly there (maybe my fault for reading the Kindle edition).

It was like reading someone’s personal journal as they move through healing from their trauma, whether inflicted by themselves or others. There are two "main characters": the poet, writing about her own experience with love and life, and Aphrodite, talking about her own life and giving advice/having a conversation with the poet. We are enough is the message in this poetry, no matter your trauma, family history or romantic relationship history As far as the themes of women empowerment and self-love and self-care... these are topics that we can never get enough. Told in poetry and prose, Aphrodite Made Me Do It is a beautiful collection of work. It's raw and powerful, encompassing the perspectives of both the goddess and the poet relevant pictures that are beautiful and empowering

A special thank you to the publishers as well as NetGalley for the early copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book features poetry, prose, and artwork. Mateer goes through her own experiences with broken love, self-love, and moving on. She writes from her own point of view and from the point of view of Aphrodite. Mateer shows another side of love through her honesty and art.

I've mentioned before that I'm very interested in Greek mythology. When I saw that this book had a focus on Aphrodite, I had to get it. She made me. But seriously, I was really excited about this book. I really love Amanda Lovelace's work, and she follows Mateer on Instagram, so I've scrolled through Mateer's profile a lot. I really enjoyed what I read, and this book went above and beyond.

I really like how the artwork brought a different facet to the topics and feelings. The artwork also offered a reprieve from my own feelings, cause I felt A LOT. Mateer both called me out for the pain I have kept from bad love and encouraged me to be okay with who I am and how I am growing, no matter how messily. Poetry to me should make you feel, make you question, and make you connect. Mateer absolutely did all of that.

I loved her focus on Aphrodite and how she wrote from point of view. She brought a new view of Aphrodite: a powerful and dreadful version that I greatly appreciated. Love is more complicated than feelings and sex. It's powerful and dangerous.

Mateer deals with a lot of sensitive and important topics in her book: sexuality, assault, abuse, insecurities, and fear. She looks at her wounds and acknowledges that others could have similar wounds. She takes us to the darker parts of love, but she doesn't leave us there. One of her last poems is all about not writing another poem about hurting or bad love. She leaves us in a hopeful place where love has room to be good and to grow.

I really appreciated how Mateer handled difficult topics and made me feel both good and the bad. I've already recommended it to a friend. This is an important work of art, prose, and poetry that will be a part of changing how people view love and heal from bad love.

Part autobiographical, part self-help, and part exploration of Greek mythology through the lens of the titular Aphrodite, Trista Mateer's brand-new feminist poetry/prose/art collection is a story of assault and survival, depression and joy, despair and desire, introspection and discovery. Fierce, angry, and ultimately hopeful, Aphrodite Made Me Do It shines a light on society's issues while still promising that there is hope.