Hello everyone!
Happy 2025! Its been awhile since I posted but I promise I've been reading and have quite a few posts planned for the next couple of weeks. Today's book was something I stumbled across on Edelweiss and Netgalley over the weekend. I love Taylor Swift's music and I enjoy literary criticism but I never thought that anyone would combine the two. While I don't typically enjoy poetry, I decided to step out of my comfort zone to give this book a whirl. I created a playlist on Spotify to listen too as I read the book which made the reading experience long but added to the dissecting I was doing of the text. I think it really added to my experience while reading the book. I'll link it below in cause anyone is interested in listening along while they read the book. Thank you to Edelweiss and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Let's get into it!
Here are the quick facts:
eBook
Publishers: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publishing Date: January 28, 2025
Genre: Literary Criticism / Poetry
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
240 pages
I am not a huge poetry person but I do like literary analysis and Taylor Swift, so I decided to give this book a try. While there were a lot of things I liked about the analysis and the writing style, there were a few things that could have been expanded on. The book is styled like an academic paper with an introduction, conclusion, and literary analysis from a variety of Taylor Swift songs. That being said, I wish that if the tone was going to be academic that the introduction and conclusion were longer. The introduction posed a thesis that Taylor Swift should be considered a poet, but the conclusion was less than a full page. I wish the conclusion tied everything together and that McCausland had created more of an argument than having the reader decide. The conclusion felt like something that was written at the eleventh hour, crammed at the very end before submission. Which is ironic considering the author is professor who teaches a course on Taylor Swift. If the academic style of writing wasn't going to be fully fleshed out than I don't think it should have been framed that way.
Another issue I had with the writing style was the fact that the book was set up as an academic read but there were no citations for any of the references made by the author. While adding analysis to for each song, she would made specific connections to Swiftie theories or popular social media posts made by Swifites, but there were no citations for these ideas. They were thrown into the book almost as if the author would assume the reader knew the reference and didn't feel the need to expand on it. Again, this particular gripe stems from the book being framed in an academic way and almost felt too casual.
I did like the variety of songs chosen from each album. Considering Taylor Swift's discography is well over 250 songs, I can't imagine how difficult it was to narrow down the song choices. There were a couple left off that I found surprising, like "Would've Could've Should've" from Midnights and "cardigan" from Folklore which were both referenced quite a lot within the analysis of the songs but not included for their own analysis. I enjoyed that a lot of the songs were track fives from her different albums. Track five songs refer to the fifth song on each Taylor Swift album that is specifically saved for the most "sad" or "vulnerable" songs from the track list, songs like "The Archer" from Lover, "my tears ricochet" on folklore, or most famously "All Too Well" from "Red". There were other nods to Swifitie culture and song titles referenced in the introduction and conclusions.
Overall, I think this book is a great starting place for literary analysis. It can be intimidating to try and read through someone else's theories and arguments around literature so a fun quick read on Taylor Swift is probably a great starting place for some people. The book wasn't particularly long but with listening to the songs and reading the book it was a great way to pass my afternoon.
Stars Around My Scars: The Annotated Poetry of Taylor Swift is out today, January 28, 2025. I can't wait to hear other Swifities thoughts on the analysis and the songs McCausland picked. I'll link places to purchase the book below.
Until next time!
Links
Simon and Schuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Stars-Around-My-Scars/Elly-McCausland/9798881600815
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