“To me, poetry is a sort of therapy. One that never asks or intrudes, but waits patiently at the corner of my desk until I run to its aid and spill all my ink over its blank pages. And it listens, without judgement, to every breaking bone and throbbing scar and slowly, one by one, each word begins to stitch my wound closed. Soon there will be no mark at all. At least for now, while these pages are open and bleeding.”

I really enjoyed a lot of these poems, I felt like I was reading a diary from my younger self. So full of hope and life, will definitely be re-reading.

This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy her work and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

I loved 2am thoughts so I had to request this. I devoured it in one night and even bought a finished copy for my collection. Such a lovely voice to add to the poetry community.

A really solid collection of poems that show a good snapshot of coming of age and all the chaotic feelings within

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

I don’t usually read poetry, but I loved these poems. I related to so many of them. Having gone through a breakup recently, it definitely made me think of how I felt. I would definitely recommend this for someone going through a break up!

Thank you Central Avenue for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Nineteen
By: Makenzie Campbell

REVIEW ☆☆☆
Aptly named for author Makenzie Campbell's age at the time, Nineteen is a poetry collection well suited to that age. It is a time of heartache, falling and out of love, transitioning and drama. While interesting and accessible, I found the collection more like the inner ramblings of a young woman with not enough life lived to speak from a place of experience. Essentially, the essence of maturity was absent. Given time, Nineteen could become something more solid, such as thirty, perhaps?

A thoughtful poetry collection. Love and heartbreak are something most, if not everyone, can understand. It made me think.

Brilliant writing ... I am going trough a lot similar to what’s is written on this book, and read this book made me reflect so much about myself and what I want for this year ... I highly recommend this book it’s a clear and quick read.

Nineteen is a collection of poems by Mackenzie Campbell. It follows Mackenzie at age nineteen whilst writing this book and follows her journey with love, loss and heartbreak as she tries to figure out which emotions are which. I love modern poetry so when I saw this on netgalley, I knew I had to read and review this book. My favourite quote from this poetry collection would have to be “Focus on the OPPORTUNITIES not the OBSTACLES and see how your mindset CHANGES. The answers you are looking for are within yourself run to a mirror, child, and get lost in it”. She focuses majority of the collection about what her life is like but this piece of modern poetry really got to me as I experience anxiety and that is a huge obstacle for me so I have to learn to focus myself on the opportunities and not the obstacles like Mackenzie has said.

3 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.



I really liked the sound of this book when I read the description so I requested it to download.


I believe it expired in the NetGalley app before I had a chance to read it. My to be read pile is ever growing and sometimes I fail to keep up with my downloads.

Nineteen is a collection of poetry which deals with love, heartbreak, and personal contemporary issues. It’s about the ups and downs of becoming an adult and how love can be pure and cruel all at the same time.

The Nineteen collection is named after the age Makenzie Campbell was at the time of writing the book (very Adele and I love it). This is the first collection of Campbell’s that I’ve read. I’m still pretty new to reading poetry. I’ve found it can be really hit or miss for me. I have a hard time connecting to the content at times but I’m trying to make an effort to read it more often. That being said, this was a nice read for me. I thought it flowed really well. I had some disconnect here and there but overall I enjoyed reading it.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I was pleasantly surprised after seeing the goodreads rating. I’ve been dipping my toes into poetry and I love that NetGalley provides me a way to do that and buy the book after I know I enjoy it. I’d definitely consider myself a novice in the poetry reading world.
I found myself relating to the poems almost immediately. I was reading raw, real emotion. Everything felt so real the whole time I was reading I could not put it down.
I will be picking up a copy of this and the author’s other book of poetry immediately. I cannot wait to read more by this author, I’m so glad I took the chance with this book.

Need to try to read again I’m not sure how I feel about this book for sure will definitely be reading again and giving another review

This book is a collection of prose and poetry, titled after the age at which Campbell wrote it, and it’s the first of her collections that I’ve read. Given her age, the writing is done well. However, for me, it lacked the emotion that I rely on when it comes to enjoying poetry. Most of the subject matter didn’t appeal to me: I’m not overly interested in poems centred around love and heartache, but I do like nostalgia and life lessons, and these are the ones that stood out to me in this book.

To me, a lot of the more romance-based poems come off very melodramatic, but still not evoking emotion. It’s a strange combination, but I think that summarises most of my feelings about ‘Nineteen’.

The poems were separated into sections, but none of them had titles. I think this added to the book reading more like a novel than a collection of poems. Actually, it felt like reading an angsty teenage diary. I don’t know if this was to do with how the ebook was formatted or if it was something else, but the presentation of the poems were either very ‘all over the place’ and I had to keep going back to reread them to try and understand what they were meant to say, or they were squashed together and looked more like short stories. Some of the poems looked as if they were a sentence that just had ‘enter’ hit a few times in the middle so they looked more like poems. Also, the illustrations didn’t help with the formatting, but I bet they’re nice to look at in a physical book.

Overall, although certain lines from this are quite beautiful, this book repeats many of the tropes of it’s genre, ultimately failing to evoke emotion.

It was okay, but, I don't think I am the intending audience. I would recommend it to my students as I feel they would be able to relate with. The collection of poetry and prose could be used as a stimuli to great drama pieces in my class if it fit the project at the time so it will not be a book I dismiss.

This was ok. I can’t really remember it since it’s been a minute but I remember feeling a little underwhelmed, I think.

Beautiful writing. Each section dives in to little snippets of a life and eloquently describes feelings we all encounter as young adults.

I really enjoyed this and didn’t expect to, I really enjoyed the story line and how it played out and have to say was pleasantly surprised.

I received this book on netgalley in exchange for a honest review and this does not affect my opinions.

The poetic language of Nineteen entwines shattering heartbreak, passionate love, the blackness of loss, and the power of healing. Places safeguard memories, and revisiting them can awaken deeply buried emotions. Campbells poetry captures this beautifully. Written as a love letter, it is a love letter to him, to the reader, and to the writer - in language that wraps around you so you loose all awareness of the present moment. Then, in the peace that follows, it steps forward and kisses your heart.