Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadiens bestseller novelist and illustrator best known for her two poetry collections "milk and honey" plus "the sun and her flowers". While Kaur was at the University of Waterloo, she started working on her first poetry collecting. 

This collection is described as the journey of surviving  through poetry by the author herself. The collection has four parts: 

The main topics throughout the gathering are love, dealing with loss and trauma, healing from abuse and femininity. 

-the hurting-

 

 I did not expect this book to also talk about child abuse which was a bit graphic description for a poetry book. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading this part since it also emphasised how the connection with our partners can shape and even damage us.

-the loving-

Especially in this part, I recognised how weird the linguistic choice of the author was for me. Kaur does not use any punctuation except sometimes dots. The lack of rhymes also made the poems dull to read since everything was straight to the point. The most discussed topic in this part was sex which was described a bit uncanny.

-the breaking-

This was adequately my least favourite of all. Reading this thought of someone else for their ex was just a bit cringy. Sometimes I wished it was not as descriptive as it was.

-the healing-

The last part was by far the best one. It has a feminist and uplifting tone, which was a beautiful end to this collection. The message given through these lines is the most important, especially for young readers!

Overall, I enjoyed reading this small collection of relatively short poems. It was not mind-blowing or anything extraordinary, so be warned. I think it gives a delightful reading experience. Still, the lack of punctuation and the sometimes only one-liners were dull. Moreover, the diversity of the type of poems was not there. I would have wished for it.