3.5 stars

First of all: Thank you, Marlen, for introducing me to poetry and sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review! This is the first poetry book I've ever read, so even though I don't have anything to compare it with I know it's something beautiful. I loved the writing, all the words she used and more than once I wanted to see the world like Marlen Komar did.

"I want life to break me, as hard as it could. I want it to tear at me and make me hurt in the most lovely of ways."

Of course there are some poems (or sentences) I liked more than others but generally speaking it was a really honest and realistic book. It was easy to picture everything the author described with her words and made me feel them as well.

However I also have to say that I didn't like the beginnings of the poems because some of them started the same ... most times it was always an "And ..." or "You know that feeling?" to start off and even though I should probably see each poem as its own I couldn't get past that very easily. But that's just a teeny tiny negative thing and definitely shouldn't keep you from reading this! I also don't know if poems are supposed to start like this (or similiar), so don't hate me if I'm wrong.

I want to recommend this to people who aren't poetry fans or haven't read (m)any of them. Sometimes it's a good thing to get into something without knowing too much and that was definitely the case in Ugly People Beautiful Hearts. So if you're interested in trying a new genre check it out and let Marlen Komar show you the world through her eyes.

Here's one of the poems that I liked a lot! ♥

Seeking: A Reader of Maps.
I'd like to think that the fine lines on my face are like an atlas you can trace. Sit above me while we're in bed; the cold light coming into the room, trying to intrude on our silent conversation.

Brush away rays as they try to run their fingers through your hair, and replace their hands with mine, instead.

Run finger tips across the lines by my eyes: back roads that lead behind us, pointed towards happier times. Trace the corners of my mouth: city maps of laughs that tasted like wine, of grins that came from the darkest parts of three at night. When we leaned out our heads into a sky that looked like the back of a whale's throat.

Notice the wildflowers underneath my skin. Lips that taste like lilacs, stained with poetry. See my eyes that point northeast, like a broken compass. Dust from the sky falling white on our shoulders like crumbling plaster.

Trace your thumb across my oceans and my lands, and ask me what it all means.

Then forget the map, and leaning down, get lost in the wilderness that is me.

www.aworldbetweenfoldedpages.blogspot.com