Kissing Boys, Just For The Thrill by Jennifer Juan @missjsquared #poetry #review

Jennifer Juan is celebrating the upcoming release of her fourth poetry collection, “Kissing Boys, Just For The Thrill,” which will be available in both eBook and physical formats, exclusively through Amazon, in May and will be released worldwide.
“Kissing Boys, Just For The Thrill” is the fourth major poetry collection, from Jennifer Juan. An exploration of female trouble. From romance to heartbreak, poverty to unrelenting joy, war, lust, racism, transmisogyny, and everywhere in between. We’ve all got problems, and Jennifer has a lot to say about many of them. Breaking down the expectations and stereotypes of what a woman’s life can and should be, Juan presents women of every aspect, in every situation, in a powerful and raw collection of poems.

Reading poetry/prose is very different from reading a novel. Reading a novel does not necessarily require us to absorb every single word yet poetry does so that we can fully distinguish every emotion that is being portrayed. Another difference between novels and poetry is that each person will interpret a poem differently as it will speak to different parts of us; a poem that could affect you profoundly might just wash over someone else.

Kissing Boys, Just For The Thrill takes us to different places but very much has the ability to reach inside our souls. Magpies and The Game are two that spoke to me and stuck with me throughout the whole book, this is not me saying the others are of any less significance but they are the two that I kept coming back to in my mind. They both take us to very dark places and, for some, have triggers, however, don’t let this deter you from reading them – when a poem can trigger an emotion it shows that the poet is hitting all the right notes.

I was kindly sent this book for review. All opinions are my own.

Jennifer Juan is a cultural melting pot of an artist. She is a writer, a musician, a producer, a film maker and a podcast host, currently residing in the Kent countryside, but dreaming of the ocean. A tornado of darkness and delicacy, Juan creates engaging and powerful projects, using a variety of mediums and platforms, each dripping with her signature playful, yet powerful style of writing.
Beginning her journey as an artist as a teenager, Juan graduated from The University of Greenwich in 2013, and began sharing her work on her personal website, as well as through social media, posting written poetry and video projects.
In 2017, Juan began producing a weekly podcast, sharing her poetry, insights into her writing techniques, and released several printed volumes of poetry, including the critically acclaimed “Home Wrecker”. 2017 also saw Juan’s first venture into music, with her releasing her debut single “Past Preston”, a haunting instrumental track that would begin the first step into her immersive cross media project “Drowning In Us” that will be
unveiled in full in 2018. Juan released the second teaser of the “Drowning In Us” project in February 2018, with her second single “2AM”, an evocative and atmospheric narration of star crossed lovers.