2 out of 4 stars
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Soul Whisperings by Patty Weeks is a collection of poems and short stories written throughout the course of her life. It describes her emotional journey through several significant events that impacted her childhood as well as her adult years. The author explores the onslaught of emotions she felt while looking back on her mother’s death, her father’s abuse, and the life she led while recovering from her damaged childhood.
I can honestly say that Weeks’ collections were a pleasure to read and very beautifully written, whether they were presented in the form of a poem or a short story. She has a very engaging writing style, allowing the reader to easily pick up on whatever emotion she is communicating through her writing. When the author is telling a painful story, I could feel the sadness and anger growing with each sentence, and it really made me sympathize with her and the events she had to experience. On the other hand, when the author reflects on joyful moments in her life, readers can experience the nostalgic happiness and peace captured within the piece.
I believe the stories that Weeks tells in her works really relate to those who have suffered in their life. The author has been through some traumatic events throughout her life, and the works detailing these events provide enormous detail as to how they affected her emotionally. She describes the turmoil that afflicts her both during and after these heartbreaking experiences, and it really causes the reader to feel sympathy for Weeks. This sympathy causes the sections where she overcomes her trauma and moves on to be more satisfying. It makes me happy to know that the author learned to move on and become a stronger person despite undergoing the most severe trials her life could give her. This is a great message to teach to readers of all ages and could definitely relate towards readers who have gone through similar trauma throughout their life.
The formatting of Weeks’ work varied depending on the style of writing she chose to recount her stories. Each poem is typically around a page in length, though some were shorter or longer, and I believe this to be ideal, as lengthening the verses would have led to them becoming tiresome to read. The short simplicity of her poetic works made her writing all the more likable for me. However, the formatting of the author’s stories could definitely be improved on. Each story is comprised of few paragraphs despite being several sentences long, resulting in giant blocks of text that become bothersome to read through. I feel like the author definitely could have benefited from splitting the walls of text into smaller paragraphs to increase the readability for her audience.
I rate this book a 2 out of 4 stars. Weeks’ poems were a pleasure to read, and I enjoyed getting to understand her and the struggles she went through. I wanted to provide it a higher rating because I genuinely enjoyed the narratives the author told and the raw emotions that her poetry and short stories dipped into. However, the problems I had with the stories’ formatting and the plethora of punctuation errors ended up working against the book in the end. Due to the complex and sensitive subjects that this book brings up, I would not recommend it for younger children and teens. Adults will enjoy the book immensely if they can get past its flaws. I recommend this to readers who enjoy intensely emotional poetry and more tragic themes like loss, abuse, and depression.
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Soul Whisperings
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