It's a Lonely Love by Hunter Summerall | Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5-.8)

As a note, a copy of this novel was sent to me via NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

Before you go looking at my star rating and thinking, "Oh? Two stars? Must not be good!" bite your tongue. That's not true in the least. It's a Lonely Love is pure self-expression and one of the many levels to poetry. Something about it reads very quickly and cuts bluntly to the point from the very start, in a way that will certainly connect with its readers--in particular, its younger readers.

While it wasn't especially my cup of tea, while I rated it less than I'd expected, that means f*ck-all. Something not being my personal preferences essentially means nothing, because that is art and art, and taste, are subjective. Take a drink every time I say that in my reviews.

Here's the basics. Hunter Summerall bares all with it and you'd be silly to not respect it. The collection is solid, both in its self-expression and the gloominess of one relationship. Every poem reflects a different level of human emotion and its complexities, keying up the reader with tension and respect, sympathy and compassion. You can't help but to want to give Summerall your support because the way that the prose connects with readers just works.

I think that, had I been a few years younger, It's a Lonely Love would have connected with me better. At the back of the collection, the author bio states one simple goal for these poems: to make others feel less alone. Rating this collection was difficult for me because in theory, if I were rating it from another standpoint, if the Jessica of the past was rating it, it would have been given a 3.5-4 star rating. The only thing I can say for certain is that reading It's a Lonely Love will all be about perspective and taste, tied into where you are in life.

As far as emotion it conveys--it holds a lot. That despair that comes with heartbreak. That sense of loneliness that soon follows. The scars it leaves behind. This collection will do a lot of good in the sense that it provides Summerall an outlet and ties their voice into readers minds, effectively lifting a weight from their shoulders. 

The truth is, you aren't always going to fully connect with poetry and that's okay. I didn't always find it easy to connect with It's a Lonely Love, but that is more to do with age than anything. It doesn't make it any less remarkable than it is. I wish I'd had poets like Hunter Summerall as a teenager or in my early twenties. Because these poets, with their quick-to-the-point levels of honest and those glimpses into their life, are out there doing some of the most wonderful things with their expressions.

(I feel strange saying the age thing. The gap isn't that large, considering I am 27. But.) 

Summerall, like many modern poets, are the future of the poetry community. Mostly, they are the real reason why so many young readers and writers are able to make it through their day feeling less and less alone. Whether you feel connected to their work or not, you have to applaud the good they are doing for themselves and their readers.

It's a Lonely Love is poignant, in spite of its short page count, and will really capture its audience.