The Secret Beautiful by Ximena Escober

Release Date: June 14, 2024

In this captivating collection, Ximena takes us on a journey filled with vivid imagery and powerful prose that captivates the senses. Her words breathe life into emotions as vast as the ocean, weaving a tapestry of passion, love, discovery, and grief. All delicately entwined within her heartfelt verses, mirroring the tide’s eternal ebb and flow.

Every turn of the page reminds us that, while time flows ever forward, our heart is never so constrained. Her evocative storytelling deftly blends past and present, beckoning readers to embrace the undulating rhythm of life’s experiences.

Within the storms of love and grief, she reveals the hidden beauty waiting to be discovered. Dive into its pages and let the author’s words wash over you, leaving behind a profound appreciation for the transformative magic and secret beauty found within the ever-changing tides of the heart.

Overall Rating

4/5

Quick Take

The Secret Beautiful by Ximena Escober is a collection of poetry that explores the human experience through aquatic imagery. I enjoyed the varying themes, such as love, grief, and passion, but I did find that some of the lines were clunky, and the structure of some of the poems was odd, which detracted from my enjoyment of them. However, it is a heartfelt and unique collection that is sure to resonate with a multitude of readers.

Tell Me More

Ximena Escober winds a wide variety of poems together through the common thread of water visualizations in her collection, The Secret Beautiful. Some of her poems are lighter in nature, such as the ones that focus on themes like love, while others are darker and more graphic, especially those concerned with grief. The beauty of the water theme throughout the novel is that it helps poems that might not otherwise belong in the same collection have a common ground. They all encompass the very universal emotions that we experience as humans, and some of the phrasing is truly spectacular.

Reading this collection felt like diving into Escober’s soul, and her ability to portray such intense emotions through her writing was admirable. It is clear just through reading her poems how deeply she feels her emotions, and as a deep feeler myself, this was beautiful to see. I think that empathic readers will particularly find enjoyment in such an intense poetic collection, and I look forward to seeing all of the feedback her poems receive.

*Thank you to Ravens Quoth Press for the ARC!