I saw this book in Foyles when I was making my bookshop rounds in London, and I thought it looked like something that I would be interested in. I had been after more Korean literature that I could sink my teeth into, and this collection of short stories that seemed to be about serial killers was right up my alley.
It feels like everything I write about blogging is negative, but I guess that’s just my mental health for you 😂. I’ve always wanted to work in the creative industry, whether it be writing for different magazines, writing my own book, or working in the publishing industry. Working for a publisher is my dream job, and about five years ago, I thought that creating a book blog would be a good start in trying to get my foot in the door.
And that’s when the stress started…🙃
I know that I’ve spoken a lot about how awful 2020 was, but I want to take a moment to try and remember some of the good things that happened this year. There hasn’t been that many, but I’m sure I can think of some. I had originally planned to do 20 things, but when I started writing the post, I genuinely couldn’t think of 20 things… So, you get 12 instead! 😂
Most of these are positive personal things that have happened to me this year, others have been good things that have happened in general. So, without any further ago, let’s get into the list! …
I know that everyone is talking about how rubbish 2020 was/is, and I wholeheartedly agree with them. But one of the things that I wanted to concentrate on today was how lockdown actually ruined my reading.
At the beginning of the year, I set my Goodreads goal as 50 books, which I thought was reasonable. It was 1 book a week (ish), and that seemed like a goal that I could achieve quite easily.
WELL… that just wasn’t the case, was it?
This blog post will probably make zero sense… Or it might make perfect sense. I don’t know. However, this post simply follows my train of thought of when I was writing about how I felt about blogging, and how I felt about my own personal blog. It was kind of hard to write because I was worried about how it would be viewed, and I was constantly thinking that no one would understand, blah blah blah. But you know what? I wrote it anyway. So, here we go… …
Hey there, lovely people!
Before I start this post, can I just say a massive THANK YOU to all of the essential workers that are working their arses off to make sure that life still seems relatively normal. I’m forever grateful!
I don’t even know where to start with this post. I would never ever think that the U.K. would be on lockdown. You read about things like this in dystopian novels, you watch films/TV shows based on pandemics, but you never think that it’s going to happen to you, you think they’re just things that happened way back when in history and that they’re a thing of the past. Well… that’s what I thought, anyway.
So.
How am I coping?
Not good, I’m afraid. …
So before you go into reading this review, I just want to point out that there are two sections: the main review, and then at the end, there’s an update. I read this poetry collection for the first time in January 2019 and my feelings about it were ‘so so’. I read it for a second time in November 2020 and found it a little bit more enjoyable to read. The ‘update’ section at the end of the review are my thoughts after reading it for a second time! …
This is not a light-hearted read. I’m starting the review off like this because I wish that I had known all of the trigger warnings in this book before I started reading it. I knew it was about mental health, so I had prepared myself for that trigger, but the rest of them? I had no idea. So, here you go.
Trigger warnings: bulimia, anorexia, eating disorders, purging, self-harm, parental neglect and abandonment.
…
the mermaid’s voice returns in this one is the third and final instalment in this poetry series. The first one being the princess saves herself in this one, and the second was being the witch doesn’t burn in this one. The series is a collection of modern poetry that explores the world of women and the difficulties that they face on a daily basis. Lovelace portrays the feelings of suppression, assault, love, and healing, feelings and experiences that I’m sure many women (and people in general) can relate to.
…
When I read the premise of this book on Netgalley, I was instantly sold. I didn’t realise that the story was told in verse though. Not that this impacts the story negatively, if anything, it added to the atmosphere of the book.
Twin sisters Elena and Marianella couldn’t be more different. Marianella goes out of her way to actively participate in their Puerto Rican culture, whereas Elena is embarrassed by their traditions. Marianella is also fighting a very private battle with mental illness and takes her own life not long after their fifteenth birthday. As Elena mourns her sister, she tries to live her life without the limitations and rules Marianella set for her. When her life spirals out of control, Elena realizes the depth of her roots and the guilt of not helping her sister before it was too late.
It’s always interesting to read a story in verse, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this before. I know that there are quite a few authors who have been doing it over the past couple of years, but for some reason, I’ve never picked one up – up until now. Based on the blurb on NetGalley, I was expecting prose, but no! Like I said before, just because this story wasn’t in prose, it doesn’t mean that it was any less effective in the story that M. Azmitia was telling. I think that telling the story in verse was actually a lot MORE effective because it added impact to the emotions that the characters were feeling.
The Same Blood follows the life of a teenage girl who is struggling with her twin’s suicide. What’s so clever about this book is that M. Azmitia also conveys how the family deals with the death of their daughter as well. Intertwined within this book is the feeling of not being proud of your heritage. The main character – Elena – is embarrassed about being Puerto Rican and does everything in her power to change the way that she looks so that she doesn’t feel like she lesser than everyone else. However, throughout the novel, Elena realises how wrong she had been in her life, and many her actions had harmed her sister, and also how she realised what was going on with her sister but didn’t say anything.
For those of you who have read/watched Thirteen Reasons Why you’re probably thinking that it has a similar message of being wary of how you treat people because of how your actions have consequences. But for those of you who are regular readers of my website, you will know that I HATE Thirteen Reasons Why. The Same Blood has a similar message but goes about sending that message in a much better way.
I don’t know whether it would have been better being told in prose form… I’m not sure… But being told in verse was definitely powerful.
Overall, I’m very glad that I requested this book off of NetGalley, and it was a very quick read. It was a powerful story and one that I recommend everyone reading.
Trigger Warnings: suicide, depression
Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
