Welcome Back,

Being totally 100% honest I have not read a lot of poetry collections of poetry in general. As a kid, I loved those Shel Silverstein books that were his big bind ups of his poetry works and they were fun silly poems. I would check them out of the library again and again. As I have gotten older I have had more of an interest in reading more poetry and have put the Princess Saves Herself in This One and others on my Amazon book wish list (meaning I will purchase them at some point). But other than this I really have not had much experience with poetry as a whole. Recently, on Netgalley I was given a copy of Aphrodite Made Me Do It in exchange for an honest review. So I was really excited to get to finally try some more poetry.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In this poetry collection, the authors uses a lot of imagery both with pictures and words to create not only empowering poems but empowering images that tell a story. Now I am not sure if this story is about the author but I will say a lot of these poems were very empowering and amazing and helped to feel like it was okay to let go of things. Also, the illustrations in this collection weather they were just images or images with a mix of words were probably my favorite thing. If I could I would literally get prints of these for my home. I felt like the images spoke so loudly about the poems, the author, and important things in today's world that maybe I have felt or greatly understood at some point in my life. Overall, I really enjoyed this poetry collection, and I have already gone back and looked at some of the images again. I am definitely giving this five stars on Goodreads. Also, I am sorry if this review seems a little scattered compared to normal, I did not want to say too much or too little but I did want to express how much I truly enjoyed this.


**Received an ARC in Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful, angry, tender collection of poetry, prose, and art. It is split into different sections, some from Aphrodite's perspective and some from the author's, some about war and some about love and some about healing. It's a very quick read, but I found it quite lovely and affecting-- the artwork really elevates the work as a whole. There were several I'd love to have prints of.

Abuse. Survival. Healing. These are themes you come across with many poets, but the way she weaves this together with mythology empowers the reader. The art is also beautiful in this collection.

“You forgive your mother for the things she did wrong, because of the things that were done wrong to her. You expect your children to do the same. Everyone’s backs ache under the weight.”

“I stole the chariot of Ares and rode it into battle. I did not stay behind to bandage wounds. I raised armies. I hefted spears. They sang of me in Sparta and in Troy.”

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an earc copy.

I really enjoyed reading the poems in Aphrodite Made Me do it. I gave it a four out of five stars I liked the images and illustrations in it as well. I would hang them up on my walls if I could. There were so many lines that I highlighted sometimes I highlighted whole passages. I connected with a lot of the parts in it. There's some parts I highlighted a different color because I connected with it even more so then the parts I already connected with.

I got "Aphrodite Made Me Do It" from Netgalley for free in exchange for a honest review.

It's underlining message is I think of hopeful inspiration, as well as acknowledging fears and past abuse with art. It's popular in media to imagine the artist or poet having a Muse, but with Aphrodite and Trista it's like being invited to sit in a personal conversion between intimate friends, you get to know them in ways that you might not have been aware of as they share experiences and swap stories. Trisia's Aphrodite is a goddess of war who has experienced rape and who's experiences are more modern feminist than myth.

This book is an interesting concept, lyrical in its prose with many beautiful illustrations and photographs. I don't feel that I am perhaps the intended audience - I prefer my poetry to be more traditional.

This was an absolutely beautiful poetry collection. I love the artwork and inspirational quotes. I held back tears multiple times reading this because it hit so deep for me personally. Definitely recommend and would love to get the physical copy of this masterpiece.

Aphrodite is a Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and sex. The mother of Eros and lover of Adonis, she is a character of mythology that many would say they are familiar with.

And yet, Mateer presents a different side to the goddess we think we know.

If you love the feminine power that Lovelace portrays in her own poetry collections, you will love this gorgeously written collection of poems. The poetry is split between prose from Aphordite's POV, as well as from the author, written to the goddess of love.

It speaks of love in every sense of the word - for yourself and others; living with or without; yearning for it; having it; losing it.

It is a collection that is both strong and delicate, powerful yet raw. This is absolutely a new favourite in the world of poetry for me.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-copy for an honest review.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: rape, abuse, sexual assault, death, eating disorders, gore, blood, queerphobia.

I wanted to read this book for a while, so I was very happy when I saw that was approved for an advance reader's e-copy, and this did not disappoint. This felt so personal, both from Aphrodite pov and the poet pov. The voices felt different, but at the same time, Aphrodite felt like an alter ego of the poet (which I loved). There was so much rawness too this, that I couldn't but to tear up at certain part. And yes, this talks about trauma and abuse, but it also speaks of healing and about knowing your worth. It also uses art in the form of mixed media which made the reading experience gratifying.

I can't wait to own this physically!

Equal parts self-help guide and collection of poems, which was confusing and a bit disappointing. The poems were raw and beautiful, but just as much, if not more, of the book was taken up with Instagram-style self-help posters. Those were cute, but I was reading on my black-and-white Kindle, and it lost quite a bit of the impact as a result. 2.5 stars for the Kindle edition, as the poems really were lovely (especially the ones about Aphrodite herself, and the one about fear); likely 3.5 or 4 stars for the physical book, had I read that instead and gotten the full effect of the artwork.

Loved this collection of poetry! It really packed an emotional punch. I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it because it was categorised as YA but I thought it was great. I would recommend this to women of all ages. It's a treat.

Thank you Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for providing me an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Aphrodite Made Me Do It is another great poetry book by Trista Mateer, full of anger and sadness, but hopeful.

I have read two other poetry collections by Trista Mateer (Small Ghost and [redacted]) before and I really liked them, so I was excited to read her new book.

And I was not disappointed! It's full of really powerful poems about assault, recovery, family, love, and hope, so much hope. It has alternating chapters between Aphrodite and the poet's story, which I think was really well done. Aphrodite talks about her own experiences with men, violence, love, war and erasure, but also tells Pandora and Medusa's stories, everything in such a powerful way.

I admit I just didn't like the mixed media portraits that appeared between poems. Some of them were powerful, but mosto f them just alienated me and took me away of the whole story of the collection.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this poetry collection. There were a few poems that I was meh about, but there are some really powerful poems and it's a good poetry book, overall.

5 Stars
Aphrodite Made Me Do it is such a beautifully done collection of prose and poetry. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I loved it. It was so wonderfully feminist and empowering. I couldn’t relate to some of the things Trista Mateer wrote about but I wasn’t expecting too. And even though I couldn't necessarily relate to it, it was written in a way that I was able to empathize with the experiences and feelings that were being written about. Something else I loved about this was that we got the perspective of both “The Poet” and Aphrodite. I loved both “perspectives” but I loved Aphrodite’s sections the most. I would say if you’re a fan of Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace, there’s a very good chance you would also enjoy this collection.

Powerful book and really enjoy this meaningful book. At first I did not understand what was going on but love how the GODDESS aphrodite is proving a point on how people make her out to be and she had enough. She is letting us know to love ourselves and be truthful.

I received an ARC from NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review. 
“ What do you need?
What are you looking for?
Nothing
Everything “

Author: Trista Mateer
Publisher: Central Avenue & Publisher
Publish date: 01/10/2019
Pages: 175

Though I have not read other works by Mateer, this one really blew me away. To be completely honest, the title and the cover is what made me gravitate towards this wonderfully crafted poetry collection.

The illustrations are out of this world. The way Mateer combined artwork and poetry gave me a feel of a very sophisticated mesh.

The poetry that you see on the internet (ie, tumblr!) is very similar to the way this was written, where it has a way of reaching out of its confinement's of screen and grasping the strings of your heart.

Every single part of this beautifully crafted book gave me goosebumps, but I find myself highlighting a few, and reaching for my poetry notebook. This is where I write any poetry that I read online, in books or anywhere that has touched me in some way. Words are something very dear to me.

There were wars started in my name.
Oh how lovely is that ending of the first poem of Aphrodite Airs Her Grievances. Ares really didn't stand a chance.

If you love poetry and want something that will make you fall in love with it even more; I highly recommend you pick this up! The art is definitely something you haven't seen before.

Ex astris, sara

Wow, Trista Mateer is fast becoming one of my favorite poets. Mythology seems to be big at the moment and i wasn't sure how this would read but i absolutely loved it. Honestly it was more like reading someone's inner most thoughts. I'm counting the days until it's released so i can buy my own copy. I want to pour over the words she writes forever.

Unfortunately the formatting is off on my kindle copy, I have requested that my local library buy it in but unless they do I will be unable to review.

What I did see, especially of the illustrations, was great.

I enjoyed this! It is very much written in a similar style to most modern poetry these days, but also brings some unique elements to the table. The incorporation of Greek mythology and the back and forth between Aphrodite and the poet's perspectives was very interesting. I also enjoyed the artwork which was incorporated, although at times it seemed to be a slightly different tone (very bright, bubbly) than the rest of the book. Finally, this book did an excellent job of making the poems into shapes that relate to the message, without being too outright about it. It wasn't cheesy, it just added a little touch of meaning that I really appreciated and haven't seen in a while. I'm sure that the physical copy of this is going to be beautiful.

Loved it! I'm not a big fan of poetry, but it is very approachable in this form. I appreciate the message and feel this is a book I will come back to.
(I would also recommend it to anyone, who is interested in Greek mythology. I enjoyed the different view and take on the myth of Aphrodite)

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Although the language was beautiful, overall this just wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t enjoy a lot of the visuals included. I probably should have heeded the trigger warning, but I will say that the author gave voice to feelings I’ve had about my own situation and I did appreciate that.