Rupi Kaur released her book The Sun and Her Flowers on October 3rd, 2017. I was filled with excitement because she is known for her book Milk and Honey, which was released in 2014. Kaur had brought a new type of flare to modern poetry with her first book. It was hard to find poetry that talked about current issues; most of the poetry nowadays talks about being in love or heartbreaks. In both of her books, she talks about multiple topics. I was impressed with her first book, but unfortunately I did not feel the same when reading her newest book.
I bought her second book the day it released. The day she announced the release date for her second book, I put it in my phone calendar so I would not forget (although I did not really need it, I remembered it perfectly). When I first received the book, I scrutinized the cover and the back. The cover of her book is really cute. The background is an off-white, while the title is bolded The Sun and Her Flowers, along with her name under it. Under her name, there is a picture of what appears to be sunflowers, with blue petals. It is not the best picture of a sunflower, but it is still very cute. The picture looks as if it was drawn by a child. The back of the book also has an off-white background, with sunflowers at the bottom, but it has one of Kaur’s poems written on the back of it.
The Sun and Her Flowers covers six main themes: loss, trauma, healing, femininity, migration, and revolution. A lot of the topics were covered in her last book, except for the topics of migration and revolution. She wrote about the same thing, just in different words. There was no spark when reading her poems. When I read her first book, I was constantly taking out my phone, taking pictures of her poems because I believed they were very deep and meaningful. I did not want to forget them. I probably took about three pictures with her newest book. Many of her poems lack depth and meaning. You could literally find tweets on Twitter that basically say the same thing. A lot of her poems looked as if she was making bland statements, but they were just pushed into multiple lines. Unfortunately, she did not bring anything new to the table, so I was not impressed with her second release.
Although I was not impressed with her new book, she is still a beautiful person. If she made a third book, I would read it in hopes that she would give me the same amazement as she did with her first book. She is already a beautiful writer, but I would like her to expand more on her thoughts. She is saying what has already said. I want her to make me think. If a person is looking for a book to make them think while leaving them with a new perspective, this is not the book for them. If a person is looking for a quick, easy read on some of the most commonly discussed topics, then this is the right book.
HANNAH CLAGGETT
