Andrea Gibson does it again. She somehow manages to break me open, and sew me shut all at the same time. Upon reading this I immediately ran out and bought a signed copy. I hope you never stop writing Andrea Gibson, because the world is a truly better place with your voice in it.

I've frequently enjoyed Andrea Gibson's poetry in the past - especially those featured via Button Poetry. I always think it's a good idea to hear a spoken word poet before reading a collection of theirs - it definitely helps you read in their tone and intonation.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection; the poems were strong, emotionally powerful, and the language is clear (and not too flowery, but still remaining beautiful).

I remain mostly impressed by Gibson as a slam poet/speaker, much more so than in the written form. So many of these poems have a cadence that feel naturally inclined to speech but read as kind of emotionless and pat. There is at least one that I found completely cringeworthy ("Instead of Depression") and several others that seemed to go on forever without reaching any kind of climax.

Immediately after finishing this, I went online to watch Andrea Gibson performing their poems live. My god, they are such a talented poet!! The wordplay is immaculate. A lot of these poems discuss hard topics, but it’s done brilliantly. Gibson knows just when to throw humor into their pieces, when to cut things short, and when to run with their point. With discussions on climate change, space, politics, transness, queerness, chronic illness, and being a rape survivor, this collection is unbelievably moving and deeply personal.

TW/CWs: Sexual assault, rape, self-harm, depression, chronic illness, homophobia, transphobia, etc.

This collection of poetry blew me away! I love the raw emotion of each poem and how Gibson utilizes different arrangements and lengths of stanzas in their poetry. I am always incredibly impressed with the poets that Button Poetry publishes and Gibson is no exception. There aren’t words to describe how deeply some of their poems cut into my soul.

What can I say? Adrea Gibson is one of my all time favorite poets and I am always made to feel the full spectrum of human emotion with each new collection they release. Beautiful work as always.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

CW for: suicide, mental illness, homophobia, self-harm, sexual assault, chronic illness, domestic violence

I felt that these poems and their heavy content were beautifully written. I love reading poems but hate reviewing poems. They’re so subjective. These felt raw and passionate. I could feel the emotions bleeding through the words. I was nervous because the cover was so beautiful, thankfully the inside matched.

You Better Be Lightning is a collection of personal and descriptive poems by Andrea Gibson. Some topics of these poems include love, identity, climate change, the universe, and more. Most pieces in this book are several pages long. I’m used to shorter poems, but I really enjoyed this formatting.

I appreciated the depth, the imagery, the emotion, and the honesty in each poem. You can tell Gibson pours their heart and soul into their work. There are poems that you can directly relate to, and for those that you can’t, it gives you insight into Gibson’s life and it definitely makes you feel things. Thank you to NetGalley and Button Poetry for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Author Andrea Gibson speaks to my soul. Her words leap off the page and embed themselves into the very heart of who I am as a person. As soon as I have read the last page of any of her books, I find myself wanting to immediately start back over at page one. Impossible to put down and even more impossible to forget, don't let this one slip past you.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC!

I resisted requesting this book initially, I’ve been burned with too many mediocre poetry collections on NetGalley. I didn’t realise that this would be such an amazing collection and that I’m a little obsessed with pieces such as Timepiece, The Year Of No Grudges, The Museum of Broken Relationships, and To Whom it definitely concerns!

I feel like a lot of poets can’t carry off longer poems, but Andrea Gibson has mastered those! They also maintained a certain level throughout the collection and it felt intentional.

Book Review, “You Better Be Lightning?” by Andrea Gibson

CW: suicide, mental illness, homophobia, self-harm, sexual assault/CSA, chronic illness, domestic violence

I think any person who cares about justice, and time, and love, and heartbreak, and chronic illness would love this book. There's a lot of great pieces in it. So many of the poems start as a story and end up bleeding out raw emotional wounds laced with so much hope.

The content in itself is good, and I enjoy the fact that it’s not the same thing as every other poet repackaged in fancy words or just rearranged. The meaning can sometimes get lost with how long each piece is, but the sentiment is there.

I prefer poetry where every word is carefully chosen. (Most of) these poems are very different from that. They are pages long. They aren’t tightly focused on one central topic. The book reminds me more of journal entries.

I would have enjoyed this collection more if it were spoken rather than me reading it because it seemed like one of those personal collections that only the author could genuinely express the emotion and intent behind it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

I did not finish this. I love poetry but these poems often felt disjointed and lost their meaning or flow part way through. Some of them didn't seem like they had a meaning at all.

I read Andrea Gibson's 'Lord of the Butterflies' earlier on this year, and whilst I thought the writing was beautiful, I didn't feel they came across as strongly on paper as they did speaking.
When I saw this new collection I had to give it a go, this time trying to hear Gibson's voice, and it was so worth it.
Even though I am not usually a fan of longer, wordier poetry, this collection was beautiful.
My favourites include 'The Day Prince Died', 'See This Through', and 'Queer Youth are Five Times More Likely to Die by Suicide'.
Gibson's writing is incredible, and 100% worth the read. I look forward to reading their next collection.

Andrea Gibson mines her own traumas and challenges as a queer woman in a heteronormative and misogynistic culture to find deep heartfelt beauty. This new collection further solidifies her growing reputation as a poet and performer who brings authenticity and enlightenment to the world.

Opening with two stunners "Acceptance Speech After Setting the World Record in Goosebumps" and "The Year of No Grudges, Or Instead of Writing a Furious Text, I Try a Poem," Andrea Gibson's "You Better Be Lightning" is an exquisite collection of poetry on love, relationships, mental and physical health, and scenes from pandemic living. Some of the poems capture pivotal moments in the country such as "The Day Prince Died" and "Neighbors" about 9/11. Their work is full of creative views and eloquent turns of phrases, which we'd expect, but it's also so tender and comforting, even in the loud bits. Gibson puts words to a collective of feelings.

Poems of particular note for me included "To Whom It Definitely Concerns," which begins:

please accept this letter of formal notification that I am resigning from
the position of My Own Worst Enemy.

From "What Love is":

Resting the flyer from the protest at my feet so I could announce it near the
end, I told myself, 'If you're going to be anything in the world tonight, you better be
lightning. You better find something in you honest enough to strike them.'

For seventy-five minutes I spoke about nothing but love.

"Wellness Check":

In any moment,
on any given day,
I can measure
my wellness
by this question:

Is my attention on loving,
or is my attention on
who isn't loving me?

From "My Girlfriend's Karaoke Song":

... so I'm not surprised
to find myself sitting alone

at the karaoke bar eating French fries
while she practices her song
in the restroom stall, the same song
she's been singing all week

in the shower, in the ice cream aisle
at the grocery store, on our long drive home
from puppy training class, or climbing the stairs
to couples therapy where I tell our therapist

that I believe she starts arguments
just so I'll storm out of the house
and leave her alone with the living room
acoustics.

From "What You Wish You'd Said to the High School Guidance Counselor":

I don't aim to be a person of note.
I aim to be a person of whole journals
filled with stories about hitchhiking
the Atlantic coast.

***
Honestly, I'd include every poem for example, but that would spoil it for you, the reader. You should probably just buy yourself a copy. It's that good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

’m really glad that I read this collection because it felt really personal and I always love when I can get a true sense of a person through their poetry. I enjoyed the topics discussed and found each poems flowed really well into the next. I could also really tell that Andrea is a seasoned poet with lots of experience and this collection really stood out to me in a market oversaturated with novice poets, so in that sense, this was a breath of fresh air.

Personally, I am more inclined towards shorter poems but that’s very much a me thing and despite that, I still enjoyed many of the poems in this collection. The use of language felt professional and I could tell a lot of time went into perfecting the flow and feeling of each poem.

I suppose my biggest gripe is that I wish I could have listened to these poems rather than read them. Andrea is also well versed (if you’ll pardon the pun) in spoken word and I felt like many of the poems in this collection would have been far more impactful and gripping spoken, and I did find my attention slipping every now and then. While I probably wouldn’t read again mostly due to the length of the poems, I believe this is a beautiful poetry collection with a unique voice behind it that I think everyone could benefit from.

I felt super uncomfortable reviewing this book because i feel it’s unfair to rate and review poetry thats heartfelt and based on experiences. However i did feel detached and i couldn’t really relate to this poetry collection, i am super fortunate and privileged to be able to do so but i also feel it’s unfair to comment on work when i don’t fully understand or relate. It was beautiful poetry, raw and written from the heart that i know so many others will appreciate.

I'm not a huge reader of poetry, but this book gripped me.
It's a slow read that takes time to digest in between , but I'm so very grateful for being able to read this ARC and the thoughts it provoked.
I WILL be ordering the book for our home library and I'm also thinking of gifting it to family and friends. THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU to Button Poetry for making this available for preview and the author Andrea Gibson for sharing their heart & mind with us.

"You Better Be Lightning" is powerful, comforting, and intensely imaginative. This collection of poems touches on themes of queer relationships, family, mental health, sexual assault, and healing. While I was reading, I could feel Gibson's internal growth as each page turned. There is a specific line from the poem "Time Piece" that says "Regret is a time machine to the past." This really encompasses the entire collection as a tribute to finding our way through the present. Fans of Neil Hilborn or Elaine Kahn will enjoy the long form and metaphor rich style.

My favorite poems are: "Every Time I Ever Said I Want To Die", "The Night Shift", and "Note To The Stranger Six Feet Away."

Thanks to NetGalley and Button Poetry for an advance copy of this book, which I totally adored.

I first encountered Andrea Gibson via Instagram, where a friend kept sharing their posts. So, I was aware that they had a book coming out, but I am embarrassed to admit that I was a little skeptical in a kind of reverse judge-a-book-by-its-cover way: I liked the cover (and the title!) so much, I feared that what’s between the pages might not be able to live up to the gorgeous artwork. I was wrong, this is one of my favorite books of the year!

This is such a phenomenal book, I read about a quarter of the galley and marched myself right over to the computer to buy a paper copy to keep (a signed copy actually, because those few poems turned me into a big fan.)

Gibson reminds me a little of a queerer, more self-reflective Billy Collins; the collection is imbued with the best kind of playfulness and literary accessibility. (Oh but when it gets serious, the emotion really lands, some of these really pack a wallop.) But many of the poems invite the reader in to play. The selections delight in a novel metaphor or a clever reversal of meaning between the lines. These poetic gymnastics are just supremely well-executed and so, so much fun as a reader.

Recommend this book highly to readers of poetry, or folks who suspect they might like poetry but haven’t tried it in a while. Recommend it especially to queer readers (but definitely not only to queer readers!). It would make a fantastic gift, is perfect for savoring in small doses, or kickstarting yourself out of a reading slump, or enjoying as a slim, delightful treat between heavier reads.