Title: Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself

Author: Sabrina Ward Harrison

Pages/Format: 176/Paperback

My Thoughts: I’ve had this on my bookshelf, and the last time I looked at it was when I first bought it.  It’s a mix of being a personal journal, photography, art, and collages.  I loved it when I first got it, but now, it’s okay.  There are still several things she says that ring true, and resonates with me, but overall, I had mixed feelings this time around.  I found the text hard to read, and some of the pages had too much going on for me to fully enjoy it.

It was fairly repetitive and angsty at times, which didn’t really bother me, since my journals are somewhat similar in that regard.  And since it’s the diary of a young girl discovering who she is, it was somewhat expected.  There’s a fair amount of rambling, iand sn’t really coherent.  That was disappointing, but again, for a personal journal-type book, it wasn’t that surprising either.

I loved some of the quotes she had scattered throughout the book, but found she relied too much on them at times.  It would have been nice to see more of her own thoughts, even if the actual text was disjointed, and didn’t always make sense.  That was another thing I didn’t like- the text was all over the place, and it was hard to connect some of the thoughts together. 

I loved a lot of the artwork and photography, which quickly became one of my favorite parts of the book.  However, it did overwhelm some of the pages, since there was too much to focus on and look at.

Rating: I give it a 4 out of 5.  The artwork was great, and she captures what it’s like to be a young woman really well, which is why it gets a higher rating than it really should have received.  Also boosting the rating is the fact that I feel inspired to be more creative with my own journal.