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Women Are Some Kind of Magic #1
The Princess Saves Herself in this One
Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Best Poetry (2016)"Ah, life- the thing that happens to us while we're off somewhere else blowing on dandelions & wishing ourselves into the pages of our favorite fairy tales."
A poetry collection divided into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, & you. the princess, the damsel, & the queen piece together the life of the author in three stages, while you serves as a note to the reader & all of humankind. Explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations.
A poetry collection divided into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, & you. the princess, the damsel, & the queen piece together the life of the author in three stages, while you serves as a note to the reader & all of humankind. Explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations.
199 pages, Paperback
First published April 23, 2016
About the author
Amanda Lovelace
52 books7,151 followersAmanda Lovelace is a bestselling American poet who rose to fame through her poetry posted to Tumblr and Instagram. She is the author of the women are some kind of magic series, including the Goodreads Choice Award-winning the princess saves herself in this one and women are some kind of magic.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 13,136 reviews
February 14, 2017
Okay. Yeah. That was....well, not my favorite ever thing. I feel like I just read my middle school AIM away messages or 200 pages of emo Myspace updates. I need to go listen to some Dashboard Confessional STAT.
I love the idea. I love the sentiments and the lessons, and CERTAINLY the feminist ideas at work here. If I saw any of the platitudes expressed in the "you" section on Tumblr, I'd happily reblog them. I definitely appreciate the raw emotions that very clearly went into the writing of them, and how personal the author was willing to get about her life. BUT. Um. Ummmmmmmmm. What the fuck.
But that...well. That's just not the kind of poetry I respond to. I find minimalist poetry EXTREMELY hit or miss, and when I (VERY RARELY) read poetry, it's usual the lusher, more ornate kind--or at least the more visually creative. Because this...I mean, there's nothing new here. It's generic Tumblr platitudes. It's emo angst that should be emblazoned over a picture of a sad girl on the beach and put on Pinterest. It's beyond basic metaphors and cliche imagery about hearts and stars and oceans. It's
hitting
enter
after nearly
e v e r y
w o r d
and
m
a
k
i
n
g
it
feel
deep.
To me that's just a waste of trees, but hey, to each their own.
Again, i APPRECIATE the raw angst here, but it's pretty clunky. There's no subtlety or nuance, which is why it makes me think of 13 year old me, just scribbling out PURE FEELINGS to the page because it was the only person who'd listen and all the feelings FELT SO NEW. Which, I mean, thank you for the nostalgia, if that's what was intended, but as a book of POETRY--sophisticated poetry for the modern feminist--it's a hard pass. I mean, this book of poetry even touched on things that are very personal to me, like grief, but I got zero feels. It was all so distant and buried in cliches.
Examples:
everyone i love leaves.
I...what? What Peyton Sawyer bullshit is this? That's the whole poem?? ONE TREE HILL WAS WANGSTING LIKE THIS TEN YEARS AGO.
i hope you
treat her better
than you
ever
treated me.
Did you carve this on the door of a bathroom stall or
he loves me.
he loves me not.
he loves her.
he loves her not.
he loves me.
he loves me not.
he loves her.
he loves her not.
he loves me.
he loves me not.
he loves her.
he loves her not.
he loves me.
he loves me not.
he loves her.
he loves her not.
he loves me.
he loves me not.
- i ran out of petals.
And I ran out of fucks.
November 16, 2016
hitting
enter
after
every
word
does
not
make
it
poetry.
Or maybe it does these days. Between the highly praised Lang Leav and this latest Goodreads Choice finalist, I guess these emo tumblr quotes are the modern version of poetry.
Call me old school, but I kind of expect something more. Some of these sentences are nice, sure, and some of them tickle the inner emo that lives inside us all, the one that occasionally makes us stay up late sobbing over Elliott Smith songs (oh wait, that's just me?) but come on, is this really the best we have to offer up nowadays? At a time when we just lost the wonderful Leonard Cohen, I can't help feeling sad at the direction poetry is moving in.
Consider these by Cohen:
And then this:
How is that even a poem? It's just a badly-punctuated sentence that sounds kinda cool. Put it in a pretty cursive font and it would get so many reblogs on tumblr.
If you came here because, like me, you thought the whole feminist aspect sounded really interesting, I recommend you check out the witty and darkly comical Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty instead.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Store
enter
after
every
word
does
not
make
it
poetry.
Or maybe it does these days. Between the highly praised Lang Leav and this latest Goodreads Choice finalist, I guess these emo tumblr quotes are the modern version of poetry.
Call me old school, but I kind of expect something more. Some of these sentences are nice, sure, and some of them tickle the inner emo that lives inside us all, the one that occasionally makes us stay up late sobbing over Elliott Smith songs (oh wait, that's just me?) but come on, is this really the best we have to offer up nowadays? At a time when we just lost the wonderful Leonard Cohen, I can't help feeling sad at the direction poetry is moving in.
Consider these by Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah.
And then this:
the princess
jumped from
the tower
& she
learned
that she
could fly
all along.
How is that even a poem? It's just a badly-punctuated sentence that sounds kinda cool. Put it in a pretty cursive font and it would get so many reblogs on tumblr.
If you came here because, like me, you thought the whole feminist aspect sounded really interesting, I recommend you check out the witty and darkly comical Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty instead.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Store
September 22, 2021
i
can
write
poetry
too
but i
prefer
to
write book
reviews
so i
have
done
a
poetical review
here goes
this book
is
not poetry
nor
is
this review
poetical
i have just
decided
to
bash
my
enter key
because
for
some reason
people
will
like it
and call
it
poetry
when really
there
is
no art
or
skill involved
a chimp
could
do it
i have not even
been
clever with words
or their
placement
but i
did
randomly use
italics and put
some words in
bold
i am also
afraid
of
grammar
and
capital letters
though really
i have
just
bashed enter
and sold
it
as poetry
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
can
write
poetry
too
but i
prefer
to
write book
reviews
so i
have
done
a
poetical review
here goes
this book
is
not poetry
nor
is
this review
poetical
i have just
decided
to
bash
my
enter key
because
for
some reason
people
will
like it
and call
it
poetry
when really
there
is
no art
or
skill involved
a chimp
could
do it
i have not even
been
clever with words
or their
placement
but i
did
randomly use
italics and put
some words in
bold
i am also
afraid
of
grammar
and
capital letters
though really
i have
just
bashed enter
and sold
it
as poetry
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
April 26, 2017
"when i had
no friends
i reached inside
my beloved
books
& sculpted some
out of
12 pt
times new roman
-& it was almost good enough"
I've been eyeing this book for quite a while now. I saw it on GR and Instagram and tumblr - so often, that I finally made the decision to buy it. I should give myself a high five for that. It only took one single page (the dedication) for me, an undying Potterhead, to fall in love with this beautiful collection of poems. So raw, so hurting, so emotional and empowering, that's what words are made for. This book teaches self-love and -respect, it teaches how to be strong and unapologetic, and that your life is to be written by your own quill, not by anybody else's.
By the way, here is the dedication:
for the boy who lived.
thank you for inspiring me to be
the girl who survived.
you may have
a lightning bolt
to show for it
but my body is a
lightning storm.
Find more of my books on Instagram
no friends
i reached inside
my beloved
books
& sculpted some
out of
12 pt
times new roman
-& it was almost good enough"
I've been eyeing this book for quite a while now. I saw it on GR and Instagram and tumblr - so often, that I finally made the decision to buy it. I should give myself a high five for that. It only took one single page (the dedication) for me, an undying Potterhead, to fall in love with this beautiful collection of poems. So raw, so hurting, so emotional and empowering, that's what words are made for. This book teaches self-love and -respect, it teaches how to be strong and unapologetic, and that your life is to be written by your own quill, not by anybody else's.
By the way, here is the dedication:
for the boy who lived.
thank you for inspiring me to be
the girl who survived.
you may have
a lightning bolt
to show for it
but my body is a
lightning storm.
Find more of my books on Instagram
January 15, 2019
I'm sorry (I'm actually not sorry) BUT THIS ISN'T POETRY.
WTF is this?
ah, life—
the thing
that happens
to us
while we're off
somewhere else
blowing on
dandelions
& wishing
ourselves into
the pages of
our favorite
fairy tales.
THIS IS A FUCKING RIP OFF OF A JOHN LENNON QUOTE.
I shit you the fuck not.
“Life is what happens to you, while you're busy making other plans.”
These are tumblr quotes. This book should never have been published, OR, if it was going to be published, should have been a photo album like Kim Kardashian's #SELFIE with the actual tumblr and Instagram photos with girls braiding their hair in sunsets with cursive text and sentimental bullshit overlaid on it.
This is what this book is.
Does anyone SERIOUSLY disagree?!
ETA: If we're going to compare minimalist poetry, Lovelace has NOTHING on Rupi Kaur. Kaur's poems are not rip offs of other people's quotes, and her words are loaded and powerful.
Lovelace's words ... wow, is her surname a pseudonym? Because her words are as sparkly and frilly as her surname. Compare this:
go on,
collect words
& polish them up
until they shine
like starlight
in your palm
with Kaur's.
One is loaded and powerful, the other is frilly sparkly tumblr shit. Guess which is which?
ETA 2: (because I'm still seething this is poetry) remember MSN statuses??! THAT'S WHAT THESE THINGS ARE. They are emo one-liners that I used to write when I was 14 to fit on a fucking MSN status box to get my crush's attention.
WTF is this?
ah, life—
the thing
that happens
to us
while we're off
somewhere else
blowing on
dandelions
& wishing
ourselves into
the pages of
our favorite
fairy tales.
THIS IS A FUCKING RIP OFF OF A JOHN LENNON QUOTE.
I shit you the fuck not.
“Life is what happens to you, while you're busy making other plans.”
These are tumblr quotes. This book should never have been published, OR, if it was going to be published, should have been a photo album like Kim Kardashian's #SELFIE with the actual tumblr and Instagram photos with girls braiding their hair in sunsets with cursive text and sentimental bullshit overlaid on it.
This is what this book is.
Does anyone SERIOUSLY disagree?!
ETA: If we're going to compare minimalist poetry, Lovelace has NOTHING on Rupi Kaur. Kaur's poems are not rip offs of other people's quotes, and her words are loaded and powerful.
Lovelace's words ... wow, is her surname a pseudonym? Because her words are as sparkly and frilly as her surname. Compare this:
go on,
collect words
& polish them up
until they shine
like starlight
in your palm
with Kaur's.
One is loaded and powerful, the other is frilly sparkly tumblr shit. Guess which is which?
ETA 2: (because I'm still seething this is poetry) remember MSN statuses??! THAT'S WHAT THESE THINGS ARE. They are emo one-liners that I used to write when I was 14 to fit on a fucking MSN status box to get my crush's attention.
March 29, 2019
Sorry, but these poems were just not my cup of tea at all. I appreciate that the author has been through A LOT and I am proud of her for being brave enough to share her words. But unfortunately I couldn’t connect to her writing, I didn’t feel any kind of emotions from reading. I’m sure there are loads of young teens who will relate to these poems, but for me; I’m past the age where writing like this would affect me.
June 5, 2020
The Princess Saves Herself in This One was a fairly emotional read for me. This poetry collection is divided into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, & you. And there were a lot of parts that really hit home (especially the princess), so much so that I had to put the collection down for a minute and think.
The Princess Saves Herself in This One explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations. And I loved and felt everything deeply.
Here are a few poems that made me both contemplate and feel:
Overall, this collection harrowed and punctured my heart deeply.
*Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying The Princess Saves Herself in This One, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!*
This review and more can be found on my blog.
The Princess Saves Herself in This One explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations. And I loved and felt everything deeply.
Here are a few poems that made me both contemplate and feel:
Overall, this collection harrowed and punctured my heart deeply.
*Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying The Princess Saves Herself in This One, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!*
This review and more can be found on my blog.
June 5, 2017
This was such an empowering collection of poems. It was brutal, honest and deeply personal.
March 5, 2017
scattering
words
on
different
lines
is
not
poetry!
words
on
different
lines
is
not
poetry!
July 15, 2017
“the pain
did not
make me
a better person.
it did not
teach me not to
take anything
for granted.
it did not
teach me anything
except how
to be afraid
to love anyone.”
WOW.
TW: Abuse, self harm, eating disorders, suicide
I was expecting I would never read this, and if I did, I really wouldn’t like it. In my head, it fell under the same category as Milk and Honey, which I really, really did not enjoy because to me it lacked a lot of depth, creative writing, and—well, poeticness. I started this hesitantly, but I can confidently say that although I gave this book an average rating, it still far surpassed my expectations and I can’t wait to get my hands on a finished copy so that I can mark my favorite poems.
The good poems in this are REALLY good. I was driven to tears within the first few pages. I just wish there were more poems that blew me off my feet. I would say that for every poem I loved, there were 5 that I flipped right through without blinking. Many of these poems read like normal sentences, which is my biggest gripe about modern poetry books like Milk & Honey. I crave poetry that has metaphor and depth and wordiness, so reading a 6 word poem that could literally just be a sentence is disappointing to me. At worst, some poems relied on typing words like t h i s to create e m p h a s i s and I didn’t read it with the intent I think it was written with. Some of her poems that included that style felt a bit cheesy and overdone, but it’s just my preference to have the words more straightforward. In short, I wasn’t a massive fan of her poetry formatting, but I respect her actual writing style.
The format of her poems was mostly this:
A stanza or two
talking about something
or someone
there’s a little
bit of t h i s
and maybe a metaphor
-and then it ends with this little salutation thingy that adds a little summary or extra tidbit of info
I’m not a fan. I liked the stanzas to stand by themselves. It’s a stylistic preference, but I felt like the extra last lines added nothing or, worse, took away from the depth or mystery of some of the shorter poems. I eventually figured out that I enjoy the poems way more without reading them, so I started skipping them altogether.
the last section “you” is gorgeous in its intent. it’s giving advice about feminism and self love and confidence, but this section lacked the most punch for me. There was little imagery, metaphor, and playing with words. Out of all the section, this read most just like regular sentences with skips in the lines. Especially for advice that I hear a lot (“say no!" "don’t let a man save you!” “be strong!”), I prefer it to be packaged in an original way that transforms it into something new for me, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by most of them.
Despite all this, I still really really really loved a lot of the poems. A definite step up from Milk & Honey if you didn’t like that one but were considering trying this one!
did not
make me
a better person.
it did not
teach me not to
take anything
for granted.
it did not
teach me anything
except how
to be afraid
to love anyone.”
WOW.
TW: Abuse, self harm, eating disorders, suicide
I was expecting I would never read this, and if I did, I really wouldn’t like it. In my head, it fell under the same category as Milk and Honey, which I really, really did not enjoy because to me it lacked a lot of depth, creative writing, and—well, poeticness. I started this hesitantly, but I can confidently say that although I gave this book an average rating, it still far surpassed my expectations and I can’t wait to get my hands on a finished copy so that I can mark my favorite poems.
The good poems in this are REALLY good. I was driven to tears within the first few pages. I just wish there were more poems that blew me off my feet. I would say that for every poem I loved, there were 5 that I flipped right through without blinking. Many of these poems read like normal sentences, which is my biggest gripe about modern poetry books like Milk & Honey. I crave poetry that has metaphor and depth and wordiness, so reading a 6 word poem that could literally just be a sentence is disappointing to me. At worst, some poems relied on typing words like t h i s to create e m p h a s i s and I didn’t read it with the intent I think it was written with. Some of her poems that included that style felt a bit cheesy and overdone, but it’s just my preference to have the words more straightforward. In short, I wasn’t a massive fan of her poetry formatting, but I respect her actual writing style.
The format of her poems was mostly this:
A stanza or two
talking about something
or someone
there’s a little
bit of t h i s
and maybe a metaphor
-and then it ends with this little salutation thingy that adds a little summary or extra tidbit of info
I’m not a fan. I liked the stanzas to stand by themselves. It’s a stylistic preference, but I felt like the extra last lines added nothing or, worse, took away from the depth or mystery of some of the shorter poems. I eventually figured out that I enjoy the poems way more without reading them, so I started skipping them altogether.
the last section “you” is gorgeous in its intent. it’s giving advice about feminism and self love and confidence, but this section lacked the most punch for me. There was little imagery, metaphor, and playing with words. Out of all the section, this read most just like regular sentences with skips in the lines. Especially for advice that I hear a lot (“say no!" "don’t let a man save you!” “be strong!”), I prefer it to be packaged in an original way that transforms it into something new for me, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by most of them.
Despite all this, I still really really really loved a lot of the poems. A definite step up from Milk & Honey if you didn’t like that one but were considering trying this one!
January 20, 2021
A Rupi Kaur-esque "poetry" collection with a good theme but a bad execution.
Or should I say...
a rupi kaur
-esque
poetry
collection
with
a
g o o d
theme
but
a
b a d
execution
- an ode to tumblr emo girls and the enter key
This is a collection of reflections on the author's experience with emotional abuse and heartbreak. Some poems were very lyrical and made me think, while some were... uh...
It reminded me very much of Milk and Honey. Some poems were nice, some could have easily been real sentences had she pressed backspace between every other word. Lovelace is overfond of the enter key.
This would have been better as a novel written in prose, or even free verse.
I'm just grateful I could finish this in no time at all. I didn't suffer for long. This is great for my reading challenge, which I am currently very behind on.
2.5 stars, would probably read the second book just for content
Or should I say...
a rupi kaur
-esque
poetry
collection
with
a
g o o d
theme
but
a
b a d
execution
- an ode to tumblr emo girls and the enter key
This is a collection of reflections on the author's experience with emotional abuse and heartbreak. Some poems were very lyrical and made me think, while some were... uh...
i spent
my dreams
picking
my teeth
out of
the
carpet
- what does dream dictionary say?
It reminded me very much of Milk and Honey. Some poems were nice, some could have easily been real sentences had she pressed backspace between every other word. Lovelace is overfond of the enter key.
This would have been better as a novel written in prose, or even free verse.
I'm just grateful I could finish this in no time at all. I didn't suffer for long. This is great for my reading challenge, which I am currently very behind on.
2.5 stars, would probably read the second book just for content
December 18, 2016
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i didn't realize
that poetry could be achieved
by hitting the enter key &
then breaking up a sentence
with
a
space
who knew that all this time
my english teachers were wrong?
- go to hell, robert frost
---
So this is going to be a tricky review to write, because opinions have really diverged on this book. Looking through the reviews of THE PRINCESS SAVES HERSELF IN THIS ONE, you immediately see that some people adored this book and others found it deplorable. Age seems to be the dividing factor - this book is a hit with younger readers, and I think the generational gap has something to do with it. The Tweet-sized snippets of text remind me of the emo blogs that were so abundant on Xanga in 2005. That probably betrays my age, though. People in the "know" are calling it "Tumblr poetry." I can't vouch for that, though - this fogey-in-process doesn't have a Tumblr.
Anyway, Andrews McMeel is going to publish this book, and I'm sure the fact that the author won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Poetry has something to do with this book deal. Andrews McMeel is a quirky publishing company that does a lot of novelty books, comics, cookbooks, and poetry. Since I've loved pretty much every book Andrews McMeel put out, I jumped when I saw this title appear on Netgalley. The fact that this book won the GCAs did make me more interested in reading it, even though poetry really isn't my bag, baby, and when one of my favorite publishers acquired it, that was the final painted nail on the elegantly manicured grabby hands. To my surprise I actually liked most of the "poems" in this volume, even if I can't really bring myself to call them that.
THE PRINCESS SAVES HERSELF IN THIS ONE is divided into four sections. Each one appears to address a different topic, and as far as I can tell, they are organized as such:
"the princess" is about how she grew up and came to be the person she is
"the damsel" is about suffering and how she almost lost sight of who she is
"the queen" is about healing and how she came to love who she is
"you" is directed towards the reader, and full of advice on what it means to be a human, and also a woman
There is a lot of suffering in this book, which is part of what makes it so raw. It's hard to get mad at someone who was brave enough to put their words to paper and then put that paper out into the world. We can mock how she chose to do it, but the fact of the matter is, she did it. Good for her. If writing this book helped her achieve cathartic release, as she claims at the end, then that is a good thing. If reading this helps others gain comfort through their suffering, that is also a good thing. Some of the "poems" are a little sappy, but there are also some great insights in here as well about self-harm, death, grief, rape, empowerment, feminism, and body dysmorphia.
At the end of the day, your opinion is your own. I'm not condemning the people who didn't like this book, because poetry is such a sensitive and subjective thing that is so deeply personal, expecting poetry to be universally beloved by all is ridiculous. Reading THE PRINCESS made me nostalgic about the blogs I kept as a high school student, which also got me through some angsty times. If you ever subscribed to "emo" culture, had an angsty blog, or the whole "chicken soup for the ____" phenomenon, read THE PRINCESS SAVES HERSELF IN THIS ONE. It'll warm your heart.
Thanks for the advanced reader copy Andrews McMeel/Netgalley!
3 to 3.5 stars.
February 17, 2020
roses
are
not-affordable
violets
don't
look like
shoe-lace
this
book
is
FRAUD
so
someone
please
go
Sue
Amanda Lovelace
wooooooooooooooooo
now i'm gonna write hundreds of pages of award winning inspirational poems!!!
WTF
are
not-affordable
violets
don't
look like
shoe-lace
this
book
is
FRAUD
so
someone
please
go
Sue
Amanda Lovelace
wooooooooooooooooo
now i'm gonna write hundreds of pages of award winning inspirational poems!!!
WTF
March 9, 2018
2,5 stars.
Hmm...
Hmm...
December 6, 2016
I want to review this honestly and go into the details about why I do not like this book of poetry. Every time I do though, I get attacked by random people who seem to have a fascination in seeing me die in random, and unimaginative, ways. Therefore, under duress:
This book of poetry changed me. It is utterly 'brilliant' and 'should' be read by everyone. The way the author puts this piece of 'amazing' literature together is done 'incredibly' well. I 'love' how the poems flow and are in no way staggered and stop/start. A really 'A1' piece of literature which will, I am sure, be 'loved' by all.
Addition 6/12/2016: So this won the Goodreads award for poetry. Really? This is just a mess and shows how the vote is now a popularity contest, not about how good books actually are. If this is used as the standard of poetry nowadays, you can class this whole review as an epic.
This book of poetry changed me. It is utterly 'brilliant' and 'should' be read by everyone. The way the author puts this piece of 'amazing' literature together is done 'incredibly' well. I 'love' how the poems flow and are in no way staggered and stop/start. A really 'A1' piece of literature which will, I am sure, be 'loved' by all.
Addition 6/12/2016: So this won the Goodreads award for poetry. Really? This is just a mess and shows how the vote is now a popularity contest, not about how good books actually are. If this is used as the standard of poetry nowadays, you can class this whole review as an epic.
January 9, 2023
that is what abuse is:
knowing you are
going to get salt
but still hoping for sugar
for nineteen years.
And so began my journey of love with this collection.
You'll notice I didn't use the beginning quote. Well, I didn't love this from the very beginning. Towards the beginning, I found the formatting slightly annoying. Some poems were fantastic and new and interesting, but some almost made me snort from their cheesiness. At times I feel Amanda Lovelace got so caught up in sounding profound she forgot the true emotional core of her poems. For example, saying “we were crafted from ocean waves and starlight” looks pretty, but means nothing when you think about it.
Towards the second third, though, she hit her stride. I liked her poetry far more when it felt like a coherent stretch, a long length of feeling flowing from left to right across page after page. Her three-word poems did nothing for me. But God, some of the longer poems almost made me cry. The sheer emotional weight of section II's poems is amazing.
sticks and stones
never broke
my bones,
but words
made me
starve myself
until
you could
see all of them
I also appreciated the intersectionality of the feminist themes presented here. Lovelace's poem on 183 especially made me cry, with both joy and sadness and something in between.
Yes, it's not the best poetry of all time. But the emotional weight is quite good.
And one more quote!!
the love
some girls
have for
other girls
is
so gentle
& so soft
& so fucking
beautiful,
&
these girls
deserve
to have
better stories
than the ones
where they
are murdered
because they love
with too much
of their
hearts.
December 26, 2018
I love poetry! However, I think that my love for poetry froze at the end of the nineteenth century. I'm not a fan of the poetry from the twentieth century and if this is how poetry looks in the twenty-first century than no, thank you very much.
I'm not going to say this is not poetry though my personal opinion might be different. (If you gave me one page from this and asked me if it was poetry, I would say a hard NO. But, as the author says:
a) poetry is ____________.
- anything you want it to be. )
So, here you have it.
However, in all honesty, I believe that when the calligrams appeared at first many probably thought that this was not poetry as well. I still do not like Calligram poetry, but I can respect it because that's crazy how much the poet has to plan to make it happen! 😲
And now everyone knows this one. ⬆ Maybe in hundred years, Amanda Lovelace will be perceived as the biggest poet of the twenty-first century, who knows!
I also sort of liked what the author was trying to say. I really liked the third part, the Queen.
when you choose
to sit upon a
throne
made up of
lies
&
the bodies
of the people who
mistakenly thought
they could
t
r
u
s
t
you,
the only
thing left
to do
is
f
a
l
l.
However, that was about it.
“no” is short for “fuck off.” No, is not short for anything! NO means NO and nothing else.
The story (I assume that it's the author's life story and for that, I'm sorry because it sounds terrible) however several times I had to disagree with her statements. For me, it was too much pushing her agenda, it tarnished the "poetry" and did not feel genuine.
To conclude, if you like it/love it, I'm happy for you. However, I will stay with my poetry from the nineteenth century or older. Because for me personally this is not something I perceive as poetry.
This would be 1,5/5⭐.
I'm not going to say this is not poetry though my personal opinion might be different. (If you gave me one page from this and asked me if it was poetry, I would say a hard NO. But, as the author says:
a) poetry is ____________.
- anything you want it to be. )
So, here you have it.
However, in all honesty, I believe that when the calligrams appeared at first many probably thought that this was not poetry as well. I still do not like Calligram poetry, but I can respect it because that's crazy how much the poet has to plan to make it happen! 😲
And now everyone knows this one. ⬆ Maybe in hundred years, Amanda Lovelace will be perceived as the biggest poet of the twenty-first century, who knows!
I also sort of liked what the author was trying to say. I really liked the third part, the Queen.
when you choose
to sit upon a
throne
made up of
lies
&
the bodies
of the people who
mistakenly thought
they could
t
r
u
s
t
you,
the only
thing left
to do
is
f
a
l
l.
However, that was about it.
“no” is short for “fuck off.” No, is not short for anything! NO means NO and nothing else.
The story (I assume that it's the author's life story and for that, I'm sorry because it sounds terrible) however several times I had to disagree with her statements. For me, it was too much pushing her agenda, it tarnished the "poetry" and did not feel genuine.
To conclude, if you like it/love it, I'm happy for you. However, I will stay with my poetry from the nineteenth century or older. Because for me personally this is not something I perceive as poetry.
This would be 1,5/5⭐.
October 13, 2019
❥ 4 / 5 stars
The Princess Saves Herself in This One (#1) : review
The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One (#2) : review
The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One (#3) : review
silence has always been my loudest scream.
Kinda true.
food
is
not
the
enemy
- society is.
Also true.
just because
they don’t
hit you
doesn’t mean it
isn’t
abuse.
wouldn’t you
think it
a crime
to look up
at
the night sky
& tell
the stars
that they have
no sparkle?
guess what?
you shine
brighter
than all the
starlight
there has
ever been
or ever
will be.
- emotional abuse is still abuse.
Dang! It’s absolutely true!
The Princess Saves Herself in This One (#1) : review
The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One (#2) : review
The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One (#3) : review
May 28, 2017
This
Got
Annoying
Got
Annoying
June 20, 2018
Still loved it the second time around.
I have no words. This was unbelievable. I'll write a proper review once my heart settles down.
I have no words. This was unbelievable. I'll write a proper review once my heart settles down.
November 6, 2016
I did not
intend to read
this book
but
somehow
I did
and
I fell in love
So. . . I’m not usually into poetry. Yes, I’ve always found it quite intriguing and fantastical how a few short rightly placed words could hold such powerful and deep message. How a few short rightly placed words can create a world and a galaxy and a universe of unlimited possibilities. How a few short rightly placed words can evoke emotions of sadness, love, anger, or happiness.
But I decided to give this book of poetry and try and this was so much more than I anticipated.
Sadness, power, anger, tears, love, joy, growth, hate, this book of poems is so wonderfully constructed. The story that it tells of the princess and her journey is expressed through short excerpts and it is truly magnificent.
The quotes were exceptionally powerful and strong and beautiful; I don’t think I can pick a favourite.
Every page was a new tale, a new feeling, a new life.
The princess
jumped from
the tower
& she
learned
that she
could fly
all along.
~ she never needed those wings.
5 stars!!
December 5, 2018
I wish I could give this 5 stars. But hitting Enter after each word (or Space after each letter) does not make for poetry. It simply doesn't.
Other than that, I love The Princess Saves Herself in this One! Amanda, I understand your feelings completely. I know all about the sugar and the salt. My fingers were never slender enough. Nor were my ankles. Then I was too skinny. Then I became too fat. I was always told when getting a bad grade that I would never even get a job at sweeping floors. Then I was admonished for lacking self-confidence, for finding joy in the roles of wife and mother. I'll never please them, and no matter what anybody says, the hurt always follows you.
Thank you for the courage to speak up your mind. I'll always treasure your book.
*I thank Amanda Lovelace, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
Other than that, I love The Princess Saves Herself in this One! Amanda, I understand your feelings completely. I know all about the sugar and the salt. My fingers were never slender enough. Nor were my ankles. Then I was too skinny. Then I became too fat. I was always told when getting a bad grade that I would never even get a job at sweeping floors. Then I was admonished for lacking self-confidence, for finding joy in the roles of wife and mother. I'll never please them, and no matter what anybody says, the hurt always follows you.
Thank you for the courage to speak up your mind. I'll always treasure your book.
*I thank Amanda Lovelace, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
November 11, 2016
Let me start by saying if there was a 0 star review this collection would have gotten it. Honestly feel like I've been robbed, and rarely do I have that feeling. Moral of the story, don't buy a book based on the title and Goodreads review alone, research into its content first. Here's a list of reasons why I am doing you a favour if you don't buy this book:
1. If you thought you were getting a modern Sexton or Carter, based on the idea of modernised, feminist fairytale retellings you are sorely mistaken. Instead what you get is pages after pages of quite literally moaning, and the occasional one poorly written poetic line.
2. I'm sick of young poets thinking the ability to put you emotions down on paper makes you a good writer, unless it's done poetically (which in this collection it rarely is) you are not writing poetry, you are writing a diary.
3. Following on from the idea of writing a diary I want to stress to you, THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE GETTING, sorry for caps I'm still angry at the 30 minutes of my life I spent reading this 'poetry' in hope I might get a few gems out of it, I didn't. Writing about your life and it's depressing, teenage angst is fine when it's done creatively. This could have been knocked up by any GCSE student.
Now despite this very harsh review I do have one positive. The opening poem. Untitled, but linking into Harry Potter and the idea of survivors Lovelace's first poem was moving and enraptured every young, lonely teenage bookworms inner thoughts and feelings. It made me remember how much I had relied of the Wizarding World to get through bad breakups and hateful friends.
But that was it. If I wanted to read a teenage girls diary I could dig out my embarrassing collections from the attic boxes and become depressed over by own pre-adolescent problems, I don't need/want to do it with other people's!
Sorry for spelling mistakes - angry typing and the editing hasn't worked!
1. If you thought you were getting a modern Sexton or Carter, based on the idea of modernised, feminist fairytale retellings you are sorely mistaken. Instead what you get is pages after pages of quite literally moaning, and the occasional one poorly written poetic line.
2. I'm sick of young poets thinking the ability to put you emotions down on paper makes you a good writer, unless it's done poetically (which in this collection it rarely is) you are not writing poetry, you are writing a diary.
3. Following on from the idea of writing a diary I want to stress to you, THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE GETTING, sorry for caps I'm still angry at the 30 minutes of my life I spent reading this 'poetry' in hope I might get a few gems out of it, I didn't. Writing about your life and it's depressing, teenage angst is fine when it's done creatively. This could have been knocked up by any GCSE student.
Now despite this very harsh review I do have one positive. The opening poem. Untitled, but linking into Harry Potter and the idea of survivors Lovelace's first poem was moving and enraptured every young, lonely teenage bookworms inner thoughts and feelings. It made me remember how much I had relied of the Wizarding World to get through bad breakups and hateful friends.
But that was it. If I wanted to read a teenage girls diary I could dig out my embarrassing collections from the attic boxes and become depressed over by own pre-adolescent problems, I don't need/want to do it with other people's!
Sorry for spelling mistakes - angry typing and the editing hasn't worked!
January 4, 2017
I told myself that I would read this poetry book very slowly, even if it meant reading only one poem a day, a week, or however long in order for me to take the time to fully appreciate the words. Obviously that didn't happen when I finished it no more than 20 minutes later from starting it. XD It wasn't a very long poetry book to begin with but I didn't expect to devour The Princess Saves Herself in this One in less than 30 mins! :P
I was just instantly hooked and couldn't put it down. Some of them I couldn't personally relate to but they touched me anyways. Others hit so close to home that it actually made me tear up while reading. I definitely wasn't expecting that but it was good feeling being able to put your emotions into words.
There were some poems that did feel a bit cliche and some that I've heard before in different variations because of how common those sayings already were. The Princess Saves Herself in this One is a great collection of short poems but they weren't exactly the best I've came across. Still, I enjoyed some of the poems a lot and related to a few of them.
I know that some people complained about the style and the amount of spaces being used but I actually thought it was cute and creative. I know it's not the first poetry book to do so but it's the first that I've seen personally and I thought it was a nice little touch. :)
I was just instantly hooked and couldn't put it down. Some of them I couldn't personally relate to but they touched me anyways. Others hit so close to home that it actually made me tear up while reading. I definitely wasn't expecting that but it was good feeling being able to put your emotions into words.
There were some poems that did feel a bit cliche and some that I've heard before in different variations because of how common those sayings already were. The Princess Saves Herself in this One is a great collection of short poems but they weren't exactly the best I've came across. Still, I enjoyed some of the poems a lot and related to a few of them.
I know that some people complained about the style and the amount of spaces being used but I actually thought it was cute and creative. I know it's not the first poetry book to do so but it's the first that I've seen personally and I thought it was a nice little touch. :)
May 2, 2020
#1: The Princess Saves Herself in this One ★★★★☆
#2: The Witch Doesn't Burn in this One ★★★☆☆
#3: The Mermaid's Voice Returns in this One ★★★★☆
once upon
a time,
the princess
rose from the ashes
her dragon lovers
made of her
&
crowned
herself
the
motherfucking
queen of
herself.
Amanda Lovelace is another poet whose work I've admired from afar for a while thanks to the internet, but I've never actually read her work in collected form until now. Though this collection wasn't published until 2016, I felt like it was an incredible throwback to the mid- and late 2000s, for what it's worth. Does anyone else read Amanda's writing and hear MCR in the background? Just me? Anyways.
if he was
my cup of tea,
then you are
my cup of
coffee.
tea simply
isn't
enough
for me
sometimes,
but
coffee
can get me
through
anything.
I expected the side of Princess that covered grief, heartbreak, abuse, and healing, but I didn't expect the incredibly sweet love poetry that filled a substantial section of the book. I took it as a surprisingly profound view into the fact that, in her lows, Amanda's writing is absolutely heartbreaking, but in her highs, her love soars. I related to this thought much more strongly than I'd like to discuss here today, but let me just say that I saw a lot of myself in many of the words in these poems, and I will certainly be looking forward to her next collection.
Content warnings: all of them. Seriously, this book comes with a page-long trigger warning sheet in the front, that ends with the same advice I would give you, too: "practice self-care before, during, & after reading".
March 16, 2018
This is a deeply personal set of poetry that all tells a story. It was moving to read someone's story with a heart so open.
I found these 2 poems meaningful to me:
1 You were sent down from the stars exactly the way you were supposed to be- the way you would love, the way you would lust, & the way you would find your wings-- & no one should have been given the power to take that away from you.
2 The only thing required to be a woman is to identify as one.
She has four section and each poem tells a piece of a story for that theme. Amanda has been so brutally honest in her poetry. He has laid herself bare. I can only be in awe of that and see it for the gift it is.
I found these 2 poems meaningful to me:
1 You were sent down from the stars exactly the way you were supposed to be- the way you would love, the way you would lust, & the way you would find your wings-- & no one should have been given the power to take that away from you.
2 The only thing required to be a woman is to identify as one.
She has four section and each poem tells a piece of a story for that theme. Amanda has been so brutally honest in her poetry. He has laid herself bare. I can only be in awe of that and see it for the gift it is.
December 27, 2016
I'm not criticizing, belittling or making fun of what the author has gone through by any means, it's just pure personal opinion of a book whose title I found to be intriguing.
I only read this book because it won the Goodreads award for Poetry, and honestly I wanted to know why, and I somehow couldn't find the reason, maybe it's me.
I'm gonna make this review as simple as the poems.
So, why two stars?
1. The poems were very personal that I actually felt uncomfortable, and this is not how you should feel while reading.
2. I tried reading them out loud, and my brother thought I was mimicking Siri.
3. I thought modern poetry is written in sentences. But then I was hit with the fact that no, it can also be written in one word per line form. Even some extremes as one letter per line.
"it is strange
how
s
i
s
t
e
r
s
can
be
s
a
v
i
o
r
s
or
s
t
r
a
n
g
e
r
s
&
sometimes
a bit of both.
- sisters"
How do you read that?
4. It could've been a bit tolerable if these poems were just normal texts on tumblr. I would reblog this many times!
5. I don't see the literature? Where's the literature? Poetry is supposed to make you feel something, and when it does then it's literature, and if it's literature then it's talent. So?
6. I finished this book in a matter of 36 minutes, and I spent another 36 minutes searching for other alternatives of the modern poetry that I know. Also I hate when I finish books so fast, but it was that simple. Too simple.
7. The princess didn't save herself anyway. It was just angst all over, I love reading angst, but this was a bit strange and jumping from a topic to another to the point where I got a headache.
8. This one here is all me. I promised myself that I won't read any more free verse modern poetry but, I couldn't resist when it has a title like that. You know you have to read it. And I had high hopes.
So, why two stars?
1. The title.
2. The pain the author had to go through while writing this. It's spilled all over the pages.
This is a written note for myself to not read any more free verse modern poetry again because it's not my thing and authors invest time in writing these poems for people who actually do like it, so I don't have to waste mine reading something that isn't for me.
I only read this book because it won the Goodreads award for Poetry, and honestly I wanted to know why, and I somehow couldn't find the reason, maybe it's me.
I'm gonna make this review as simple as the poems.
So, why two stars?
1. The poems were very personal that I actually felt uncomfortable, and this is not how you should feel while reading.
2. I tried reading them out loud, and my brother thought I was mimicking Siri.
3. I thought modern poetry is written in sentences. But then I was hit with the fact that no, it can also be written in one word per line form. Even some extremes as one letter per line.
"it is strange
how
s
i
s
t
e
r
s
can
be
s
a
v
i
o
r
s
or
s
t
r
a
n
g
e
r
s
&
sometimes
a bit of both.
- sisters"
How do you read that?
4. It could've been a bit tolerable if these poems were just normal texts on tumblr. I would reblog this many times!
5. I don't see the literature? Where's the literature? Poetry is supposed to make you feel something, and when it does then it's literature, and if it's literature then it's talent. So?
6. I finished this book in a matter of 36 minutes, and I spent another 36 minutes searching for other alternatives of the modern poetry that I know. Also I hate when I finish books so fast, but it was that simple. Too simple.
7. The princess didn't save herself anyway. It was just angst all over, I love reading angst, but this was a bit strange and jumping from a topic to another to the point where I got a headache.
8. This one here is all me. I promised myself that I won't read any more free verse modern poetry but, I couldn't resist when it has a title like that. You know you have to read it. And I had high hopes.
So, why two stars?
1. The title.
2. The pain the author had to go through while writing this. It's spilled all over the pages.
This is a written note for myself to not read any more free verse modern poetry again because it's not my thing and authors invest time in writing these poems for people who actually do like it, so I don't have to waste mine reading something that isn't for me.
July 19, 2019
This was kind of the same book as milk and honey
April 10, 2021
nope, sorry.
February 25, 2017
This book wasn't for me. I just didn't find the poems that profound or that good. However they were extremely honest and personal and that's what I did like about them. While I was reading this, I just kept thinking "what makes this poetry?". I don't mean to sound horrible but I just don't see how a lot of these poems are actually considered to be poems. I also felt like I had read so many of them before. It felt sort of like deja vu, not only with an individual theme but also with how they were phrased and how they were worded. There was also a lot of regurgitated themes from other feminist works so this isn't really any way innovative. I also felt like Lovelace was trying to do something visually with these poems but she missed the mark for me. Sure, she hit enter after random words to make it look a certain way (which is a crime in itself) but she also put spaces inbetween the letters of some words (e x a m p l e) and formatted the poems in weird ways. This kind of visual effect for the poetry just did not work. I feel like if she had incorporated some kind of illustrations in some of the poems it would have looked better because to me, it looked like just words randomly placed on some paper. There was only one poem were I liked the formatting and the visual effect in relation to she poem and that was "-did it really happen if I can't remember it?" in which the poem is about locking memories away and it's made to look like a keyhole. The others like this were all misses for me.
I could relate to some of the poems and that is why I gave this book 2 stars instead of one. I probably wouldn't read another book by Amanda Lovelace and I wouldn't recommend this book.
* I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is what abuse is:
Knowing you are
going to get salt
but still hoping for sugar"
"If a house
does not
automatically
make a home,
then a body
doesn't
automatically
make a home
either."
"the world begins
& ends
when you say so."
The poems I liked overall:
-did it really happen if I can't remember it?
-but you kept trying, didn't you?
-my most loyal lover.
-what it really means to lose your innocence.
-immortalized by a voicemail. (Probably the best poem of the bunch).
-the sign you've been waiting for.
-slay those dragons.
I could relate to some of the poems and that is why I gave this book 2 stars instead of one. I probably wouldn't read another book by Amanda Lovelace and I wouldn't recommend this book.
* I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is what abuse is:
Knowing you are
going to get salt
but still hoping for sugar"
"If a house
does not
automatically
make a home,
then a body
doesn't
automatically
make a home
either."
"the world begins
& ends
when you say so."
The poems I liked overall:
-did it really happen if I can't remember it?
-but you kept trying, didn't you?
-my most loyal lover.
-what it really means to lose your innocence.
-immortalized by a voicemail. (Probably the best poem of the bunch).
-the sign you've been waiting for.
-slay those dragons.
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