Depression & Other Magic Tricks (Button Poetry)

I fell in love with Sabrina Benaim’s poetry when I stumbled upon a video of her performing Explaining My Depression to My Mother. It was the first video of spoken word poetry I’d seen, and I went down the rabbit hole. I listened to this book of poetry on Audible, as I feel it’s the only way to fully understand the poet.I wish that it sounded more like she was performing, rather than just reading it, but I still love all the works in this audiobook. Her poetry is very relatable to me personally, and I need more of her poetry in my life.

I have read my fair share of nineteenth and twentieth century poetry. I love Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Edgar Allan Poe and Maya Angelou. But with that being said, for whatever reason, it’s just extremely rare that I ever read modern poetry by current authors. Maybe I just don’t want to take the risk. But I made an exception this time after seeing an extraordinary video of the author performing her poem “Explaining My Depression to My Mother.” I immediately came to Amazon to buy the book, and I even paid extra for same-day delivery. Somehow in my rush, I even managed to accidentally order two copies.I would say that the tone of the book is kind of like a day in the life of a twenty-something millennial. She laments lost loves, the unreliability of her father, and the would-be helpful codependence of her mother.I don’t know enough about the author to have any sense of how much of the book is autobiographical and how much of it is fiction, but it felt like there was a ring of personal truth in Benaim’s writing. I could personally relate to many of the themes in the book, especially those related to body issues and eating/weight, as well as anxiety issues. Benaim tackles other difficult topics such as the divorce of her parents and, of course, depression.One of the first things you might notice is the lack of capitalization and frequent lack of any punctuation whatever. I’m a bit of a grammar stickler, so I wasn’t sure how that was going to work for me, but soon enough I completely forgot about it.There were a few lines in particular that stood out to me as particularly shattering.From nature versus nurture:…when my father tells me i am beautiful,i always hope it’s because i remind him of my mother.From follow up a prayer / a spell:when i look in the mirror i see a reflectionof the gifts i withhold from myself.Final say: 5/5 stars, and I didn’t even have to think about it. I’m a fan. I’m sure I’ll come back to it many times. The content is good and the poetry itself is sharp. I really enjoyed living in her world for an hour or two, and I’ll buy her next book. And one final thing: I feel like I have to say kudos to whoever made that cover. It’s perfect.

First off I should tell you that I fell upon Sabrina Benaim through Youtube. This is when the love started. As for the book she opens it with my favorite poem and the first I heard her read on Youtube. This made me very excited to read the rest. You will not be disappointed. She has such a beautiful way of conveying her thoughts and her feelings. Which I found myself saying " I have felt that way before" or "Thank God I am not alone!" This book would be perfect for a gift to someone or to keep for your own collection. Better yet buy one for yourself and your friend. I am probably going to purchase more copies for gifts. Thank you Sabrina Benaim for being open and sharing this with us.

This book of poems is a heartfelt scream, of how loneliness and depression, can rip your own heart out!! I haven’t read a lot of poetic type books before, but I I was lead to read this version and I have the paperback at home. I battle with clinical depression and had a nervous breakdown, after my husband died. My 17 year old son is bipolar and we both beat ourselves up!! This young girl is so hard on herself, that it makes me sad, because I wonder where she is today, and if she is ok!! Did she find love?? So many questions left in my head. If you are struggling, maybe this book can reveal that you aren’t alone!! WE ARE HERE TOO💕

It took a few extra days to get here. I ordered on a Friday night and this showed up on Thurs, but no big deal. The only real dissatisfaction I have is that the plastic they wrapped it in was so tight it damages the cover. It’s not a huge deal, but I love that perfect new book look that I usually get to wreck as I read it.Otherwise, the content is great. This book is like a comforting friend when I feel like nobody understands my depression. Love it.

I found a lot of relatable lines to take from this collection. I’m so grateful it ends on a positive note - it was really encouraging to see healing come of such deep sorrow.The one thing I wish had been different was the poem about the author’s friend, who identifies as a mermaid. I got really excited to hear about this friend’s experience when I saw the title, so I was kind of disappointed that the poem was just the author joking about the confession and trying it on for herself without like, talking about what mermaids meant to her friend at all.

I’ve never loved a book the way I do this one. Sabrina wrote all the words my soul needed to hear to feel connected. Not alone. She wrote them so eloquently it’s impossible to pick which one hits home the best. Every time you’re dismissed with “someone has it worse than you” when you try to explain your depression, this little book is a light in the face of a dark stigma. I love her videos, I love her words, I’ve shared this book with several friends and I’ll buy anything else she writes from here on out.

This book is small but mighty! I personally can take something out of every poem and feel like this book was written for me (not to sound cheesy lol) I’ve read this book 3-4 times so far and the spine hasn’t broken and the corners of the pages are still in great shape. High quality material and amazing relatable content! This is a book that needs to be in everybody’s shelf. I plan on ordering a few more to give my sister and my best friend for Christmas

The Loneliest Sweet Potato spoke to me in ways that no other poem ever has. Sabrina gets me on a level that I don't even get myself. I think if you get this book without knowing who she is or being familiar with her work, you're going to be a little disappointed. But on the whole, it's an entirely moving collection and encapsulates the sense of hopelessness and sense of aloneness without being a total bummer. It feels like a conversation with a friend, a connection that is massively rare in most contemporary works.

There were moments where a certain turn of phrase would bring a light blub moment or a flicker of recognition, but I felt that these were too few and far between. I still think there are poems in here worthy of a audience, but I found it hard to get past a lot of the formatting choices. I was also expecting a wider range of topics but found that most of it was focused on a failed relationship.

3.5I only recently discovered Sabrina Benaim through a friend and I fell in love with her spoken words, which I found on youtube. She has a way of speaking that entrances me and I can't help but listen to her every word.A lot of the poems I listened to her perform are in this book and as I read them I could hear her in my head and it made it a lot more enjoyable knowing how she wanted her poetry to be read/heard. My favourite piece has to be 'explaining my depression to my mother' because of how much I can relate to it. It may not be my Mum but generally people who don't understand depression.I think Sabrina has done an amazing job to highlight such an important topic within her book and she is helping to end a stigma that needs to be challenged.You are probably wondering why I only gave it 3.5 stars. I did have a few problems when reading this book. Firstly, have schools stopped teaching people to use punctuation and capital letters? It seems that Rupi Kaur has started a rather annoying trend. When it came to reading the poems I hadn't heard before, it became a struggle to understand what was being said because I had to keep going back to re-read things due to no puncuation. Being able to know when to pause really helps the flow of a poem or any piece of writing. This made some of the pieces feel bumpy.I also felt that some of the poems were meant only for Sabrina to understand. Don't get me wrong, I related to a lot of her content as I too suffer with depression. But some of them felt like you had to know certain people to get what she was saying or meaning.Overall, I did enjoy this book and think that it is a great mascott for mental health awareness. Although I would be put off buying another of her books as I would rather listen to her spoken words.

I love this books and the author is very talented. However, I purchased the item used and the condition was listed as good/great with minor marks on the cover. But the first ten pages are almost eligible due to the previous owner writing notes over top of the poems in a grey ink that I had initially thought was pencil.Very disappointed about the dishonesty on the book’s condition but thrilled with the book itself.

Interesting plot line, the book is also well made. Overall a great product.