Adultolescence - Gabbie Hanna

21/03/18

❤❤❤/5

Genre: Poetry
Published: 19th September 2017
How long did it take me to read: 2 hours

I read something a little different this week, a YouTuber's book. 

I don't watch many YouTubers but Gabbie Hannah (The Gabbie Show) is one that I have been watching for a while. When I found out she had released a book I pre-ordered straight away. This book contains a collection of minimalistic poems which are accompanied by illustrations which I believe were drawn by Gabbie Hannah, herself. There are three colours of this collection, there is a light pink, blue and yellow. However, the only one that you are able to purchase through Amazon is the blue and I believe the other two were limited edition.

I wouldn't say I am a die-hard fan of Gabbie, however, I do enjoy her videos and for the most part, I did enjoy the book as well. The reason I gave it three hearts instead of five was the fact that it wasn't overly relatable to a wider audience. For example, there is a poem that simply says 'Link, in bio'. I physically laughed out loud when I first read this as it is a regular joke among the YouTube community. However, my mum wouldn't understand this joke and I wouldn't be able to gift it to her. I feel that with books, especially minimalistic poetry, the amount of relatability is key. Yes, I loved it and thought it was funny. But I also I am a fan of Gabbie, whereas if you arent, I feel this book would be harder to get in too. 

Although, let's talk about the cover. I loved this image. For people who aren't aware of Gabbie Hannah, this is a drawing of her. She drew it herself and the image are meant to represent her mind. I thought every illustration in this book was well thought out and in turn, were very enchanting. Pictured below, there is a photo of the illustration accompanying a poem titled 'Anxiety'. It was poems like this that really brought the book back to being relatable to a wider audience. Not too mention, the drawing is amazing and goes perfectly with representing the feeling of Anxiety. 

This book cost me £10.82, which I think is a little over-priced for a minimalistic poetry book. I recently (well... a couple of months ago) bought a copy of 'The Sun and Her Flowers' by Rupi Kaur, which a highly prized minimalistic poetry book, that I know many people were waiting for after Kaur's success of 'Milk and Honey'. The Sun and Her Flowers cost me £7.73. There was such a difference in cost. I wouldn't personally say I was disappointed with the price, however, I wouldn't feel obliged to spend that much money on it if I didn't know who Gabbie Hanna was.

One thing I really wanted from this book was the other colours. I would have loved the choice of the pink, yellow or blue version of this because I probably wouldn't have choosen the one I got. 

Overall, this book didn't take me long to read and I did enjoy it for the most part. There was a range of poems in this collection that tackled more heartbreaking topics and other poems that bought the book back down to earth because they were funny and entertaining. 

Long story short - I have a biased view. I like Gabbie and I enjoy her videos. In this book, I could hear her voice when reading the poems. However, if I was not a fan or didn't know anything about her channel on YouTube, I wouldn't necessarily be interested in purchasing this book. 

I would recommend this book to friends, but only my young-adult peers. I couldn't gift this to my parents.