Official Review: Someone Else's Thoughts Poems by a Teena...
Posted: 08 Jun 2014, 18:56
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Someone Else's Thoughts Poems by a Teenage girl" by Jenter.]
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Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl by Jenter is a short collection of poems written in the voice of a teenage girl on topics that are stereotypically connected to young girls. The book features 20 poems with a heavy focus on relationships especially with boys/men. There are also a few poems included about abusive relationships and inspirational types of poems as well.
The poems are typical to those written by teenagers, which isn’t to say that it is unexpected especially when the author herself wrote these poems between the ages of 13 and 19. I just don’t know if I would have included poetry from that broad of an age range, since a lot changes within those few years.
I am not a huge fan of poetry. A lot of it is up to interpretation and I would rather have more concrete stories being told. But I did enjoy reading these few poems and I think that a large portion of this was due to the structure of the poems. They were all similar in length, keeping them from becoming too repetitive in their messages.
While I didn’t specifically like the rhyme schemes that were used, and I will go into detail further on, I think that the simplicity matched the voice of the narrator in the poems, so I can understand why they were the way they were. And the simplicity also made it easier to get into the flow of the poems which makes them easier to read. A definite plus for hesitant or new poetry readers.
The appeal that this book would have to younger readers was something that I kept thinking as I read through the poems. The theme of loving a guy that may not be perfect or just vague ideas of love in general are prevalent throughout the book and young girls having crushes and going through all the new aspects to dating would probably appreciate what this book has to offer, not so much in terms of advice, but more as a comrade in the dating scene; a Tom Riddle diary that doesn’t try to kill people, but offers a kind word instead.
I mentioned the simple rhyme scheme that these poems used and it is the basic aabb rhyme that kids use in school to practice rhyming. For example, poem number five titled “I” begins “I cut down all the trees,/ with a pocket-knife on my hands an [sic] knees”(lines 1-2). I do not mind reading a poem like this but when every poem in this collection all use this type of rhyming couplets scheme, I found myself getting annoyed and it detracted from putting all of my focus on the poems themselves. Or worse is when the rhymes feel forced just to fit the scheme. Within the same poem Jenter wrote, “I built all factories, houses and coffee shops./ I wanted to have you to have nothing and still pay a lot” (lines 8-9). The lines didn’t fit with the rest of the poem and felt childish when I had initially read them.
My other problem with Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl was the number of typos that were in the poems. In a book this small, with only 20 poems as the meat of the book, typos cannot be present in the poems. It gives a lack of finish to the poems and as an author you should show your pride in what you publish and I didn’t get that as strongly as I could have in these poems. Most of the typos were misspellings which would be fixed with a simple revision, but it still frustrated me.
Overall, I thought that Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl, by Jenter, was on okay read for a stress-free poetry book. Yes, it has its set of problems, mostly those stemming from a youthful poet and grammatical errors, but the poems were understandable and read easily. Had the poems been cleaned up a bit and maybe a few more added from an older age (closer to 19 than 13), I would have given the book a 3 out of 4. However, as the book stands currently, I would give Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl, by Jenter, a rating of 2 out of 4.
***
Buy "Someone Else's Thoughts Poems by a Teenage girl" on Barnes and Noble
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The poems are typical to those written by teenagers, which isn’t to say that it is unexpected especially when the author herself wrote these poems between the ages of 13 and 19. I just don’t know if I would have included poetry from that broad of an age range, since a lot changes within those few years.
I am not a huge fan of poetry. A lot of it is up to interpretation and I would rather have more concrete stories being told. But I did enjoy reading these few poems and I think that a large portion of this was due to the structure of the poems. They were all similar in length, keeping them from becoming too repetitive in their messages.
While I didn’t specifically like the rhyme schemes that were used, and I will go into detail further on, I think that the simplicity matched the voice of the narrator in the poems, so I can understand why they were the way they were. And the simplicity also made it easier to get into the flow of the poems which makes them easier to read. A definite plus for hesitant or new poetry readers.
The appeal that this book would have to younger readers was something that I kept thinking as I read through the poems. The theme of loving a guy that may not be perfect or just vague ideas of love in general are prevalent throughout the book and young girls having crushes and going through all the new aspects to dating would probably appreciate what this book has to offer, not so much in terms of advice, but more as a comrade in the dating scene; a Tom Riddle diary that doesn’t try to kill people, but offers a kind word instead.
I mentioned the simple rhyme scheme that these poems used and it is the basic aabb rhyme that kids use in school to practice rhyming. For example, poem number five titled “I” begins “I cut down all the trees,/ with a pocket-knife on my hands an [sic] knees”(lines 1-2). I do not mind reading a poem like this but when every poem in this collection all use this type of rhyming couplets scheme, I found myself getting annoyed and it detracted from putting all of my focus on the poems themselves. Or worse is when the rhymes feel forced just to fit the scheme. Within the same poem Jenter wrote, “I built all factories, houses and coffee shops./ I wanted to have you to have nothing and still pay a lot” (lines 8-9). The lines didn’t fit with the rest of the poem and felt childish when I had initially read them.
My other problem with Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl was the number of typos that were in the poems. In a book this small, with only 20 poems as the meat of the book, typos cannot be present in the poems. It gives a lack of finish to the poems and as an author you should show your pride in what you publish and I didn’t get that as strongly as I could have in these poems. Most of the typos were misspellings which would be fixed with a simple revision, but it still frustrated me.
Overall, I thought that Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl, by Jenter, was on okay read for a stress-free poetry book. Yes, it has its set of problems, mostly those stemming from a youthful poet and grammatical errors, but the poems were understandable and read easily. Had the poems been cleaned up a bit and maybe a few more added from an older age (closer to 19 than 13), I would have given the book a 3 out of 4. However, as the book stands currently, I would give Someone Else’s Thoughts: Poems by a Teenage Girl, by Jenter, a rating of 2 out of 4.
***
Buy "Someone Else's Thoughts Poems by a Teenage girl" on Barnes and Noble