“In a pure and raw way, she battles her depressions, broken hearts, and growing up in her poetry”
Title: Swimming Lessons: Poems
Author: Lili Reinhart
Published: September 2020
Pages: 224/240
Publisher: Terra (I read this book in Dutch, review copy by Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency.)
Publisher: Macmillan Audio (And listend to the audiobook in English.)
Rating: 7/10
First posted in Dutch on December 8 2020 and updated on April 8 2026.
Swimming Lessons explores the euphoric beginnings of young love, battling anxiety and depression in the face of fame, and the inevitable heartbreak that stems from passion. Relatable yet deeply intimate, provocative yet comforting, bite-sized yet profound, Lili’s poems reflect her trademark honesty and unique perspective. Accompanied by striking and evocative illustrations, Swimming Lessons reveals the depths of female experience, and is the work of a storyteller who is coming into her own.
Poetry always feels like coming home to me. It can make you think and give words to the writer’s feelings. Lili Reinhart, too, found solace in writing poems. In a pure and raw way, she battles her depressions, broken hearts, and growing up in her poetry, revealing a vulnerable side.
Swimming Lessons is Lili’s debut, and that is clearly noticeable, but what also strikes is how she grows within her collection. I found the first twenty percent of her book quite brief. It reminded me of Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav; the poetry in that collection felt to me like a collection of opening pieces for a diary or a collection of personal thoughts. Poems don’t necessarily have to have a very deep layer for me, but most of the poems in Love Looks Pretty on You don’t exactly have much opinion or substance.
In the first part, however, there are a few poems that I consider to be of higher quality. In fact, one of my favourites by Lili is in that first piece, which kept my hopes alive for the rest of the collection.
After the first part the somewhat complicated poems, along with the prose, stand as my favourites. Sentences with double meanings and a narrative arc. As a result, we can read the writer’s raw emotions. Lili is clearly not afraid to open up completely. She does not shy away from writing about her depressions, thereby demonstrating the power of poetry.
By using details in fleeting sentences, she quickly drew me into her thoughts, and I could soon visualize the situations she finds herself in. In my eyes, Lili is an artist who knows how to tell an entire story with just a few brushstrokes. Personally, I think that is also her strength, and I hope she continues to grow so that she can become an even better writer in the future.
When we take a closer look at the title, Swimming Lessons, it feels like the perfect fit. Because even though we as humans want to keep our heads above the water, we will drown in emotions from time to time. We can’t help them from not happening, but we can learn how to swim in those emotions. How beautiful!
However, because of a weaker start, I cannot give a score higher than a 7 at the moment, but the author’s potential is already clearly visible. I am certain that if she continues to put raw emotions into words and keeps moving the reader, many more collections by her hand will appear.
With Swimming Lessons, Lili Reinhart has produced a good debut, in which the poems, thanks to her openness and detailed writing style, can be a remarkable story for the reader.
Love,
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