Review of I am Enough

[João Ramos]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "I am Enough" by Mandy Marlborough.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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I am Enough by Mandy Marlborough is categorized here as "Drama and Poetry," which could not be a more appropriate classification. It is a collection of poems with dark themes, including rejection, depression, suicide, unrequited love, lack of purpose, and more. However, towards the end of the book, the poems become less sad, and a message of hope emerges.

Anyone who enjoys poetry and has read countless books knows that poetry cannot be commercial or artificial. In addition to poetry not being the genre that makes the most money for writers, the trained reader can discern when the author wrote something they genuinely felt. This authenticity makes this book compelling: you can feel the author's anguish in most poems. That was what I liked most about this book.

Even so, the book has some issues, and it is clear that the author needs more experience in publishing. I prefer to avoid advising poets on how to write because art is natural, not something confined and artificial. Even so, Mandy Marlborough should have created poems with more than three words per line. At the end of the book, there are also some fascinating poems about hope and longing, but they are few. The author should expand the work and give a name to each poem. These changes would significantly improve the quality of this work. The perception that the book was published in a hurry was what I liked least.

How serious are the problems mentioned in the previous paragraph? That is the question a poetry lover must ask, which I had to answer to give the book a fair rating. Although many of the poems are of excellent quality, the book needs another round of editing. Not that it has grammatical errors: far from it. The editing is terrific, without a single grammatical mistake. The main issue is that the book could be better organized. I say this considering the author's potential. Therefore, I rate it 3 out of 5 stars. With these changes, the book could receive the highest rating.

Due to the quality of the poems, poetry lovers will enjoy this book. The problem is that themes such as suicide, despair, and suffering appear frequently. So, if you prefer to avoid reading about this "dark" content, the book is not for you. For this reason, I cannot recommend this work to anyone under the age of 18. Therefore, I recommend this work to poetry lovers not sensitive to the abovementioned content.

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I am Enough
View: on Bookshelves

[Ingalwa Eugine]

It's amazing how you have analyzed this book. I love your deep understanding of poetry and the ability to identity crucial publishing mistakes. I appreciate that you mentioned aspects of the book the impressed you. Good job.

[Mercy Ndungu 9]

Your review of I am Enough by Mandy Marlborough is thorough and insightful, especially in highlighting the authentic emotional depth present in the poetry. You've done an excellent job of conveying both the strengths and areas for improvement in the collection.