by Amie Woleslagle
publisher’s synopsis
You’re not alone.
You’re not the only person who struggles with mental health issues, not the only person with demons floating in your mind.
Amie Woleslagle wrote Fifteen because she deals with them as well. Not to fix your pain, but to reach out and hold your hand. To remind you that you are not alone, to ask you to stay and make the world a better place. Because the world will never be the same without you and your unique take on life.
Fifteen is a book of poems crafted from one teenager dealing with mental health issues to another teenager in the same place. It walks through the battle of pretending to be okay, of having people you thought were trustworthy shatter your heart, and the battle of not giving in when your brain has given up.
Fifteen covers true friendships, embracing joy, self-acceptance, and living your faith while struggling with mental illness, all the while showing that, in the end, flowers will bloom in the ashes of your pain.
As someone who rarely reads poetry and is not a poet, I don’t feel qualified to make any sort of comments on the structure and prose of Fifteen. But I can still tell you about what it was like to read Fifteen.
It’s clear when reading Fifteen that mental health and those who struggle with it are something that Amie cares a lot about. She is open and honest on the page about her own struggles and gives loving reminders to those who share in mental health struggles.
As someone who is blessed to not have to struggle with mental health, it opened my eyes to some of the things that may be going on “behind the scenes” of those who are struggling with it.
Overall, Fifteen is a beautiful, touching, honest collection of poems that gives a glimpse into the journey of mental health struggles. If you want to read an interview I did with Amie, check out my post from the Fifteen Blog Tour!
Content warning: none
Hailey Huntington 
Great review
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