I go through periods with poetry. Sometimes, I want deep insight, others I want that simple line that reaches out. In All The Things I Never Said, Mae Krell has points where she delivers both. When this book was published, Krell was only fourteen. Some have criticized that, saying the book doesn’t hit the emotional highs of an older author, but I disagree. Teenage years are full of emotion, and she hits on each one.
This book isn’t for the straight forward poetry reader. It’s rambling lines that don’t rhyme, and notes jotted down that somehow just flow together. It isn’t a huge book, just a small group of poems that reach out demanding to be heard. She put some really great life lessons in this book, for example:
“Beauty leaves behind that lingering image, showing through words how our view of beauty has become so skewed.”
I’d recommend this book for a new poetry reader, a new teenager, or really, any soul searching for a little piece of understanding. 4 Stars.
