Aphrodite Made Me Do It: Volume 1 (Myth and Magick)

Product Information

After a poem introducing the author’s voice and relationship to love, she goes on to explain a dream she had in which Aphrodite visited her and asked, “What do you need? I received a free ARC of this book, with thanks to the author, Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley. Unfortunately they do not have this one as a physical copy, so I'll just have to wait until I can get my own— which I will totally be doing because this book is definitely worth rereading again and again.

Trista Mateer is the bestselling author of multiple poetry collections, including Aphrodite Made Me Do It and Honeybee. I feel like I come out of most poetry/prose collections with generally the same thoughts and feelings. Among all these other things, it’s an incredible view on many infamous women of mythology, and it gives a voice to the sides of their stories that we all too often overlook. I do not even know what compelled me to give this collection a chance, but I am thrilled that I did.There is just something about Trista Mateer’s poetry, and art, that is very identifiable and comforting when you are feeling rubbish. In this way some of her work was perhaps lessened by her execution when it could have had a much greater impact if delivered in another way. It feels awful saying that, because each experience is a different one and it's unfair to compare them, but if you put two modern poems by different poets side by side and asked me to correctly match them to their poets, there's a strong chance I'll be unsuccessful. It is an authentic dialogue between the poet and Goddess Aphrodite on various themes like love and hate. Also, some if not all the pictures and drawing - beautiful - have nothing to do with the poems they are associated with, it's disturbing and it makes the poetry book seem really cluttered, which is highly unpleasant.

Gradually, the poet (and the goddess) moves from righteous anger and grief to acceptance, forgiveness and a strength to move forward into a more hopeful future, both individually and as a species. I want to give young, new poets a chance and I am always looking for new talent, but every time I try them out, I end up disappointed. I think it’s because this book opens our eyes to how/why Aphrodite and Ares fell in love—he celebrated the parts of her that lesser men wanted to rip away. Its theme is not specific but mainly focuses on love, letting-go-of-past, be-your-self, self-healing etc. It’s worship and blasphemy, anger and heartache, capped off with tenderness and self-love and learning to cherish yourself no matter how many people in your life have failed to do so.There are multiple images throughout which felt a little juvenile – they genuinely looked like images captured from google with clip art attached, or were images with poignant quotes on which you’d often see scrolling along your chosen social media platform. This series is beautiful and devastating, somehow making me laugh and cry, tugging at my heartstrings in the best way. Mateer simultaneously speaks to us about love and loss and the empowerment that can come from them, while channeling the goddess and retelling her story as a form of dedication and reclamation—not only for the goddess, but for those of us who never quite fit the mold they want to shove us into, the one they say is meant for us.

It’s partly narrated from Aphrodite’s POV and partly from poet and sometimes conversation between both. I read the NetGalley proof on my kindle which for some annoying reason always means that it messes up the lines and images, but I liked the design and style anyway.I was a little horrified at an earlier review that said it came across as generic feminist poetry as I actually found this to be quite the opposite. Using the framework of a conversation, with sections alternating between the perspective of the poet and the goddess herself, Mateer explore issues like: heartbreak, sexuality, trauma, and the restorative power in taking control of your own lore, speaking your truths, and rewriting your origin story.

I am confident that a lot of readers will feel heard by Mateer’s poetry and I found them to be extremely accessible. I loved the illustrations and pictures included in this book which I really think helped to highlight the lovely prose. Aphrodite Made Me Do It is a feminist poetry collection about love, loss, insecurity, pain, and empowerment. I recently finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters, the final book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. The poems here combine to make a feminist manifesto that inspires strength, courage, pride, and a negation of all society deems a woman's body to be and all the multitudes it actually contains.thank you SO much to my dear friend, kerri (kerrithebookbelle), for getting me a personalized copy of my new favorite poetry book of all time. This dream/encounter set the stage for a beautiful conversation between the two; one which holds value for anyone who would hear it. But this new wave of poets and their poetry seem to read more like diary entries or Instagram posts than poems.