Ellipsis by Adeola Juwon Gbalajobi is a lovely collection of poetry covering many themes, including love, lust and loss.
It's an easy read (I finished the book in one sitting), and the words are powerful, raw and poignant.
What a great debut from Gbalajobi!

A few standout lines from the book are:
"Home is made of flesh and bones - of welcoming arms and smiles that calm storms."

"Let me make your arms my home."

"You're not here and I'm a song with no melody."

"I miss you being my devotion."

"Your body is an amalgamation of pains and scars, a map carrying darkness, the weight of a dead child."

OK, so I was debating what rating I was going to give this book. There were some poems in this collection that were incredibly beautiful and pulled me in, with the wonderful rhythm and lyrical words.
Whilst others I didn't find as compelling to read, which I suppose is common with many poetry collections.
Ultimately, I did enjoy this book and I would definitely pick up more by this Author in the future.

I admit to taking a huge risk with this book when I requested it. Unfortunately, the risk did not pay off and I found the book tedious at best. There are plenty of people who have enjoyed this as shown on Goodreads, but, for me, I read through it an a few minutes and found it instantly forgettable. Sorry.

A selection of poetry and prose unlike anything I have ever read before (in a good way.) There were some interesting insights and I liked a lot of the metaphors that the author uses. However, I didn’t like the odd mention about technology such as Whatsapp alongside them. It was very jarring against the beautifully lyrical backdrop that he paints for his poems, and just felt very out of place.

Interestingly, as I began reading I thought that they were written by a woman, until a few poems in when I realised that the narrator is in fact male.

Overall, I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either.

a really solid debut poetry collection!! if you're a fan of rupi kaur you might like this. not personally my cup of tea, but I definitely enjoyed most of it!

i really liked how the author used different rhythms to set the tone for each of the different poems, and how they used very different structures, I didn't feel like it was the same poem repeating over and over again, which is the case in some poetry collections.

the author included many songs and artists which I feel maybe seems appealing now, but pop-culture references often go stale over time, so I feel like maybe if someone reads this in the future, it'll feel a little cringy.

sometimes I felt as if the words were a little forced, they didn't always flow naturally(though this obviously differed from poem to poem) which was one of my main 'problems' with the collection.

in conclusion: a good read if you're someone who enjoys lots of references in their poetry! :)

I do not typically enjoy poetry anthologies much, but I found this one really refreshing. I really enjoyed how the author portrayed many serious issues in this book, especially mental health. I find I cannot always relate to what poets say in their anthologies, but I really connected with the narrator and was very comforted by this novel. Highly recommend

I was unable to get to this book in time so i do not feel like it would be right to give this a low rating. I'm sure this book is great, but my schedule got to busy for me to complete it.

First of all, thank you so much @netgalley , #author and the #publisher for the #arc in exchange for an honest review.

I started reading this at late midnight. As I love to read poetry books so much cause they're not fictional I suppose when you're writing poems or prose it has something to do with your life, yourself or the things around you. They're personal and reading them feels like you reading someone's thoughts or feelings from the open diary without letting them know.

"A poem has a soul of its own" simply a quote or a line from the book that stayed with me and now it's forever locked in my mind. This itself says, how each and every poem the author has it's own soul! They speak for themselves.

Most importantly, this was my first ever read poetry book written by a male author and I must say it had me, grabbed my attention from the first page. I love each and every words from this book which is impressive cause there were books which have some loop holes in them but I couldn't find one, not in this one.

Another thing, if you're a fan of @langleav @AmandaLovelace @nikita_gill or @rupikaur_ you'll definitely love this book. You have to love it cause the poet left no choice to.

In simple words, #ellipsis is a collection of poems that captures love, depression, lust, pain and hurt.
Poems on unrequited love which is so relatable to me, surrendering, worshipping and mind suffering darkness.

Best thing about the book is that although the poems or writings are deep, intense and hard-hitting but love how the poet kept it simple (easy to read) and light metaphors.

So, highly highly recommend it. It's definitely a 5 stars read for me. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece with us!

PS- Mention of @lanadelrey and @coldplay made my read more worth it ❤️

This was fine, I guess.

While I appreciate the lyricism of the poems and the subject matter, nothing really stood out to me. I would recommend this book to people who already like poetry, but it wouldn't be one I'd give to the undecided.

I received an eARC copy from BooksGoSocial via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This debut poetry collection left me confused and with mixed feelings. No denying that it has captured many emotions we experience in different forms and intensity (love, depression, pain, broken heart, sadness, racism), but it left me, at times, feeling blank and at a loss for words. I probably did not understand all of the transmitted messages, not all of them and not completely, so I am taking that as my bad. I was not able to create any connection with some of the verses and poems at all (some did not make much sense to me).

However, not all of them left me questioning my ability to understand the messages. Some pieces were quite exquisite, personal, and impactful. A handful of verses and poems in this collection portrays human behaviour with all its peculiarities, deep dark desires and deep dark regrets.

To the Girl Conjuring Butterflies in My Belly

In God's earth of a million flesh &
bones, it is you my heart throbs for.

Your eyes - like stars sparkling
in the night sky -
sing the music my soul craves.

Your smile is soft & beckoning:
let me make your arms my home.

Days spent without you are like the dawn deprived of sun.
You're not here &
I'm a song with no melody.

Teach me the dialect of your heart,
the things that pull your heartstrings -
I want to be the music that tickles your ears.

A few titles more that I've enjoyed:
- The Kill
- For Eyes that Tell Tales
- Poems for Lost Boys

I liked the diversity of the style, the magic woven word, the topics this poetry collection discusses in a short version: the variety of tone sets the mood right as well. I am glad I read it; however - it is not my new favourite, and I am not sure I would be rereading it any time soon.

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

I had very mixed feelings about this collection of poems. There were some that I adored and others I just skimmed over and didn't feel much of anything towards. The poems weren't bad by any means just, not for me, I guess.

Wow. This was an impressive debut poetry collection. I really liked how each section was divided along with the accompanying themes. Adeola's poetry hit me to the core; there were certain verses that were so impactful and well written that I had to immediately read them a second time. Each poem felt like the right length; I often find that many poets either write poems that are too long or too short, but Adeola's poetry felt like each word was meticulously placed in the right order, and each word was important. I would definitely be interested in reading future collections.

My favourite poems:
- To the Girl Who Taught Me that Ruins Can Be Beautiful
- Almajiri
- Gravity
-& the boy grew to know to never again describe his body as a city sieged by grief
- The Kill
- A Sutra about Fate
- Song 004
- Lullaby of Fire

I loved the writing in this book! The poems were raw and explored different aspects of life, such as mental health and love. This poetry is different from what I usually read, but it was good! I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a poetry book that will make you feel!

Thank you to the author Adeola Juwon Gbalajobi and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

‘How do I tell daddy that depression has its tentacles

around my feet,

that sorrow is a stone tied around my ankles like

bangles?’

This book is a beautiful collection of poems destined for the broken, for the ones who are still healing. It talks about the scars that we hide, the wounds we never show to anyone, the scars that we keep to ourselves, and how we have no other option but to walk through this path of loneliness and unhappiness, pain and sorrow, alone.

The author writes in a way that leaves you without words, that makes you think about how many times you wished you'd write like that. The author captures the exact emotion, feeling, moment, and shows it to us through their words scattered with open wounds, scars that never healed, broken hearts,...

Ellipsis talks about love, loss, heartbreak, lust, pain, sadness, racism, depression, and sorrow.

‘A poem has a soul of its own.’

The poems written in this book are honest, lovely written, raw and vulnerable.

It's the perfect choice for fans of Amanda Lovelace, Rupi Kaur, and Atticus!

This book comes out on 5th June 2021, so stay tuned!

#Ellipsis #Netgalley

Divided into three parts this appealing poetry collection explores and portrays the very human behaviours on earth. I liked the most of it. There are a handful of poems that I loved. They were very elegant. What I appreciate the most about this one is the poet's choice of simple words that has woven the magic. Most of the modern era poetries that I read, I don't feel like rereading them after some time but to this book, I guess, I would like to reread someday.
And I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ARC. Thank you. It was a beautiful experience.

This wasn’t the poetry book for me. I just didn’t relate to the poems at all, and grew quite bored with it.

Ellipsis by Adeola Juwon Gbalajobi brings the themes of love and longing together. It captures the soul of the reader in an adoring manner, and leaves a strong impact.

I really enjoy reading poetry by contemporary poets like Atticus and Rupi Kaur. Adeola Juwon Gbalajobi writes quite similarly to them. His poems are a mixture of pop culture with the classic emotion of love.

While I loved reading some of the pieces in this book, I could not form a connection with most of them. A lot of his poems have the backdrop of songs by the singer Lana Del Rey; I enjoyed these ones as I am a fan of the singer myself.
However, I could not make sense of many of his poems. For instance, the piece called Shotgun made me laugh at its peculiarity.

“Our hips match the rhythm of Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road –
You are a cowgirl riding a shotgun.”

My favourite poem from the book was The Kill. I loved the simplicity, yet the powerful meaning behind the words.

Overall, I had fun reading the poems based on different themes. Some of them caught my attention and I spent more time looking into them, whereas others I did not enjoy as much.

it was a roller coaster for me tbh. some poems in this book i thoroughly enjoyed and during the others i found myself being bored and wanting it to end. i did, however, love seeing Lana Del Rey in this book, Donald Trump mentioned in a shady way and George Floyd 🥺 but still, it just wasn't really for me.

This is one of the most unusual poetry collections I've ever read, in both good and bad ways. I loved the ease with which Gbalajobi writes and uses rhythm, as well as his imagery - I can't put my finger on it, but a lot of the poems here reminded me quite a lot of the translated Cavafy I've read before, or some of Catullus' less raunchy poems.

Some of the lines, like this one:

'My heart is filled with cobwebs
(that’s what happens to unoccupied spaces)'

were so wonderful that I would have liked to have had a paperback copy to underline them. There's a lot of humour in here, too, and myriad pop culture references which helped to ground the collection in the here and now, although I do wonder if the poet relied a little too heavily on familiarity with those to set the tone and mood; as someone who doesn't like Lana del Rey, I didn't fully appreciate any of the poems which relied on her music specifically to evoke atmosphere, but that's probably on me.

But then, there were lines like:

'Our hips match the rhythm of Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road –
You are a cowgirl riding a shotgun.'

which just seemed like a sort of ludicrous image, and when I got to:

'my body knew before you told me,
“Two months. it’s Dave’s…”'

I found that line so bizarre and unintentionally hilarious, like I was watching a telenovela or an episode of Eastenders, that it jarred me out of the poem completely. Those were the two worst offenders - the rest of the poems didn't suffer for them.

The strongest poems here are the ones about racism ('Your Sin is Your Skin, Boy' was probably my favourite - the rhythm in that one made me want to hear the poet read it out loud) and love, or perhaps more accurately obsession. I liked the variety of tones, too; there's as many joyful poems here as there are mournful ones, and it made for an interesting read, although I do also think it could stand to be beefed up a bit more as it's a very short collection.

Not my new favourite, but a really interesting style and I'm glad I read it.

I always love discovering a new press and new poets. What I enjoy the most about reading poetry is how efficiently it can transport us. So few words can show us an experience across the globe from our own and yet make it so universally relatable.

Plus the title game is exquisite, so there's always that.