This poetry really hits youhard. These words are filled with pain, love, and regret, a collection of poemsfull of emotion and vulnerability. It speaks to those who are going through orhave gone through the same grief of loving those who only hurt you. As anartist of words, I really appreciate Author LeBlanc's willingness to reveal thedeepest sorrows of her soul.
The title of the book (Paper Heart) is appropriate because many of the poems are about how fragile love is, both precious and painful. Some of the poems the author included were very personal, especially the ones about the author's mother. Other poems could speak to almost everyone,with universal messages. I liked the range in the various poems, covering many different emotions (from sadness to great joy), and the dichotomy of themes of darkness and light. There are varying structures to a number of the poems, and I liked the different styles, that they weren't all the same. Many of the poems reminded me of my favorite songs or a line from the lyrics because they had the same feeling, and I enjoyed that aspect of the author's writing.-Literary Titan
LeBlanc’s Paper Heart dives deep into darkness, while still clutching the light. This autobiographic work deals with love and heartbreak, as well as abuse, sexual assault, and the complicated emotions that accompany the loss of an abusive parent. Throughout the text LeBlanc remains highly experimental in structure, spanning from regular rhyme schemes to free verse to acrostics to prose poems and beyond, while still maintaining accessible language that appeals to a broad audience.
Poet Jennifer LeBlanc has a frank style in her free verse collection which is easy to read and absorb, making it ideal as a poetry volume of emotional outburst and exploration. LeBlanc gives a deceptively simple format a deeper level of excellence once her words hit you, and the book is beautifully formatted to complement the experience. Overall, Paper Heart will make a lot of sense to anyone who lives with their heart on their sleeve, and those in emotional distress are sure to find comfort and solidarity in Jennifer LeBlanc’s work.- K.C. Finn for Reader's Favorite
Paper Heart by Jennifer LeBlanc won the Gold Medal in the 2019 International Reader's Favorite contest in the Poetry Love/Romance category.
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
Paper Heart is a collection of emotive poetry penned by Jennifer LeBlanc. Written in the most raw sense, the poems are largely only suitable for adult readers due to some graphic content, and the work spans a variety of emotions in the author’s life. Covering the full spectrum from hopeful moments of joy down to darker, more painful experiences, the volume contains more than eighty poems for its readers to consider. Most, like its title poem Paper Heart, are short considerations which capture a single moment; in this case an appreciation of beauty and fragility. Others, such as Be You, follow the acrostic method where each line begins with a letter from the title.
Poet Jennifer LeBlanc has a frank style in her free verse collection which is easy to read and absorb, making it ideal as a poetry volume of emotional outburst and exploration. One poem in particular which really spoke to me was Beautiful Boy, a consideration of regret and love that wasn’t meant to last, which used the bare minimum of words to create some really beautiful images of fragility and the healing, but also potentially destructive, power of love. LeBlanc gives a deceptively simple format a deeper level of excellence once her words hit you, and the book is beautifully formatted to complement the experience. Overall, Paper Heart will make a lot of sense to anyone who lives with their heart on their sleeve, and those in emotional distress are sure to find comfort and solidarity in Jennifer LeBlanc’s work.
The Gold Award is bestowed on books that we found to be perfect in their delivery of original content, meticulous development of unique characters in an organic and striking setting, innovative plot that supports a fresh theme, and elegant prose that transforms words into beautifully written books.
