Cover of “To Drink Coffee With A Ghost” by Amanda LovelaceI’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “To Drink Coffee With A Ghost” by Amanda Lovelace! I’ve read some of Lovelace’s works before with mixed reviews about it, but I look forward to reviewing this poetry and prose collection.
“From the bestselling & award-winning poetess, amanda lovelace, comes the finale of her illustrated duology, “things that h(a)unt.” In the first installment, to make monsters out of girls, lovelace explored the memory of being in a toxic romantic relationship. In to drink coffee with a ghost, lovelace unravels the memory of the complicated relationship she had with her now-deceased mother.”
Overall Thoughts:
I felt that this was a rehash of some past themes Lovelace touched on in her past work – namely, abuse, trauma, processing trauma, etc. Yes, this collection highlights the tumultuous relationship with her now-deceased mother, but many poems felt so similar to each other in terms of writing style that she could’ve easily just made one big collection by combining this one and “To Make Monsters Out Of Girls” together. Then again, I do think it makes sense that Lovelace separated both collections into their respective books since they cover different types of relationships (though both are toxic and unhealthy).
Because Lovelace’s writing style was so similar to “To Make Monsters Out Of Girls” and even other past collections of hers, I felt that the writing style was repetitive and didn’t really excite me as a reader. As a writer myself, I understand having a similar writing style and wanting to stick with that. But as a reader, I think it would be beneficial to experiment more with different writing styles—especially when it comes to poetry. Sticking with one or two forms can get overly repetitive over time, especially across several collections.
Overall, I’m rating this collection 1.5 out of 5 stars!
If you did not enjoy reading Lovelace’s past works, I definitely would not recommend reading this collection.
If you like this post, please share it with your fellow writers and readers! Also, feel free to follow my site and/or like my Facebook Page, Twitter, and Tumblr for more reader/writer posts, fanfics, book reviews, and other updates!