This is the third book in Lovelace’s “you are your own fairy tale” trilogy, but it can be read as a standalone (which is what I did). It’s loosely inspired by a few classic fairy tales, most obviously Beauty & the beast. It’s mostly filled with affirmative poetry, the kind that is all about justifying yourself, self-care, feminism, diversity, and the value in loving a normal life. I feel like I wasn’t really the audience for this—this kind of Instagram poetry—but I imagine it’s perfect for teenagers who seek for meaning. It’s a bit of a frustrating collection for me, because as much as it is filled with platitudes, it sometimes teases a poem of some imagination, a neat idea, but never capitalised on it. The main thing I dislike about this kind of collections is that they are TOO positive: yes, I get it, people read this kind of stuff to feel good about themselves, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a poem every so often to make people question themselves. Disclaimer: I received an ARC for this book in exchange of an honest review. |
G. Lowie
Goran Lowie is an avid reader of all kinds of speculative fiction and poetry. For years, he's been rotting away in some rural hellhole in Belgium, but luckily he has literature to keep him going!
His real obsession with the genre sparked with the incomporable works of Ursula K. Le Guin, and his heart stayed there forever. Other favourite authors include Patricia A. McKillip, Mary Soon Lee, John Wiswell, Robert Silverberg and Italo Calvino.
When Goran isn't reading books, he's either editing this very magazine or creating lesson plans for his day-job as a high school teacher! You can find him on Twitter: @GoranLowie
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