Tears on my Pillow

I did it, guys. I actually read the first book in a series rather than starting in the middle! (Ooh, and here’s a link to my vlog!)

Now, despite what the title is on this post, I was not a blubbering mess while reading Courtney Peppernell’s Pillow Thoughts, but I definitely was feeling all the feels…

This is a little book of poems, which is certainly different than my usual posts, so full disclosure, I’m not 100% sure the best way to “review” it. But, what I do have to say is that I really enjoyed it!

I think Peppernell is, without a doubt in my mind, a talented poet. She is descriptive and knows how to play with rhythm, length, diction, etc. I liked how some entries were traditional stanza format, some were small-medium length paragraphs, and some were little almost-one-liners. The fact that each entry was set up a little differently (style/format-wise) made it engaging. Similarly, none (except one?) of the poems were longer than a physical page, so it was a super quick read.

That said, it was a somewhat emotional read–the book is set up into 10 “chapters,” and many (all?) of them either have to explicitly do with love/heartbreak, or they do in a somewhat more subtle sense. This was hard for me because, full disclosure (and if you didn’t guess from my poems…) I went through a really emotionally rough break up and am still healing. So while the “If You’re Heartbroken” chapter spoke to my soul, reading the “If You’re in Love” and similar chapters were a little harder for me.

If you get the chance to read this book–which I highly recommend, putting that out there now–I especially loved pages 26, 91, 166, 177, 238, 249. I know in the past I’ve put excerpts, but I feel a little funny typing out entire poems (even if they are short). I do have a couple of snapshots of some of these poems, so I’ll include those two at the bottom of this post… that way you can at least get an idea of Peppernell’s style.

That’s all I’ve got for this week, look out for my next posts on

Happy Reading!

P. 26

P. 177

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