That rejecting societal expectations is an ongoing push and pull. That it's okay to not be accepting of oneself all the time, and that readers are certainly not alone in that. It shows the difficulty gone through to get to lighter moments. I want to make it clear say, though, that this collection does share the darker moments, the moments of regret that they ever listened to others when it came to their body. It's a celebration of pleasure that the author gracefully shares with every single one of their readers. This celebration brings so much pleasure. It's pointed out in so many places, and I can't say how much I love it whenever it's pushed back against. Our personalities and what we are capable of, as in Aphrodite Made Me Do It and so many others. While reading, I wondered why it is that so much of female bodied individuals are pushed to feel small. I read so much of this book with a smile on my face. This collection seeks to free the self from the expectations of others. Asking, perhaps, for other people to be a bit more self aware, a bit more aware of others, but I'm aware that's entirely in how I read the words. In this collection, there is very little that is tearing another person down. How did I not see the light shining through my cracks

I don't know that anyone else is writing anything like what Shelby is.Īnd it took this long for a balance to appear Shelby's writing reads like kindness on a page, and that's the reason why I keep coming back to it time after time. Self love regardless of physical appearance yours, mine, anyone's. This is actually from the second poem in the collection, but it strikes me really hard when I read it because if I had to describe a feeling for all the poetry I've ever read from Shelby, it is 'self love'. If I could describe this book in one sentence, it would be 'why hate me?'. Internalised fatphobia / negative body image

Soft in the Middle by Shelby Eileen