Gabbie Hannah, a controversial social media influencer, released her first poetry book “Adultoscence” on Sept. 19, 2017.  Soon after its debut, “Adultolescence” was ruthlessly slandered all over the internet.

After the major criticism of her first book, Hannah later published “Dandelion” last fall on Oct.13.

Is “Adultolescence” really as bad as the public claims? Does her second book “Dandelion” allow for a smidge of redemption?

Adultolescence 

Although I have heard countless bad reviews about Gabbie Hanna’s poetry book, I did my best to dive in with an open mind.

The first couple of poems are self-aware and edgy. Then I stumbled upon two or three very short and cheesy poems. After that, I came upon an extremely profound and impactful poem. 

I began to pick up on a pattern. It seemed that the bad poems greatly outnumbered the good ones. A lot of the poems were simply surface level thoughts with no deeper meaning.

One of the worst poems I encountered was “IDK,” which consists entirely of this: “i dunno yanno,” Hanna writes.

My favorite short poem in “Adultolescence” is”Host”: “God is a gracious host, but he isn’t too polite to let you know when you’ve overstayed your welcome and it’s time to leave the party.” Although it’s short, she doesn’t directly state the poem is referencing death and lets you reach your own conclusion.

Pages are often taken up by shallow thoughts or  quickly explained-away poems. However, there are rare poems within this work filled with genuinely amazing and impactful messages.

The book would have been received by the public a lot better if it were shorter, only keeping the objectively good poems.

Dandelion 

“Dandelion” was highly promoted by the author as being a redemption of her original book. With that in mind, I had an optimistic view as I began the book.

I was quickly discouraged. For every high-quality poem, two or three runts quickly follow behind.

One of those runts includes “Cordial”: “i broke up with my demons, we’re much better off as friends.”

My favorite poem from the book is “Blind,” a poem Gabbie Hannah dedicates to her blind friend Molly. It is a beautifully sophisticated poem about having the power to not judge people based on their looks and getting to truly love them for what’s inside. The joy in my heart after reading this poem was quickly shattered by another shower-thought that proceeded on the next page. 

Was Dandelion an improvement? Would I recommend either book?

After reading and analyzing both books, I would say yes and no.

I personally believe that “Dandelion” had a bit more substance than “Adultolesence.” The number of good poems in “Dandelion“ outweigh the number of good ones in “Adultolescence.”

Both books are incredibly full of filler, and although both books are inherently bad poetry books, I wouldn’t say they aren’t worth your money.

I had a lot of fun reading the bad poems, and really enjoyed analyzing and breaking down the handful of good poems. If you want a powerful poetry book, I would strongly caution you from getting either book, but if you simply just want to have a little fun, then I would get both!