i didn't come here
to be civil.
i didn't come here
to sit you down
with a mug of tea
& a blueberry muffin
to coddle you as
i try to convince you
that respecting
my existence is essential.

Much like the first book in this poetry series, Amanda writes about feminism with a pleasantly surprising level of intersectionality and care; she touches on topics like transphobia, menstruation, rape culture, body-shaming, eating disorders, romanticization of abuse, and more. Her thoroughness is the reason I keep coming back to her writing - as well as her unapologetic nature when it comes to tackling rape and abuse culture in particular.

That said, I struggled to even give this 4 stars (instead of 3, which I considered) because I struggled with the same problems I saw in her first book:

1) Repetition - much of the poetry in this book feels and sounds so much like the first book, or like other poems within the same collection. I feel like I read the same phrasing a few too many times, though I won't count off for this one as it'd probably be less noticeable if you didn't read every poem back-to-back like I did.

2) Her writing - something about her writing voice reminds me very much of the poetry I wrote on MySpace as a teenager, and not in a good way. If it was occasional, it would be a really enjoyable, nostalgic touch, but since it's almost every single poem, it begins to feel very dated.

3) Inspirations used - there were three or four pieces in this book that felt like that had been lifted almost verbatim from inspirational quote images and tumblr posts I've been seeing float around the internet for years. It would be one thing if it was vague wording or base paraphrasing, but some of the imagery painted is just too on-the-nose to ignore. It gave me a weird feeling of deja vu throughout several pieces.

All in all, I'm willing to round this up to 4 stars because, regardless of how I feel about her writing itself, the content is important. We need more feminist pieces. We need more rants about rape culture, abuse, transphobia, misogyny, and body shaming. I will forever applaud Amanda for taking the steps that she does to promote intersectional feminism through her work, and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys poetry of its kind. While I will probably not pick up her future works, as I think this book made me accept that her writing is not my cup of tea, I would still encourage you to give this book a try.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for granting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Using the motif of the fire that burned our female ancestors, Amanda Lovelace uses that same wrath and fury through scathing poems about the female experience and the related women-rage-fire within us. Especially with the rise of the “me too” movement in the past months, this is an important (and quick) collection that everyone should read to get a better understanding of rape culture, abuse, self-love, eating disorders and weight, the importance of sisterhood, and of writing poetry to further share our experiences. Many of these poems, especially the last section function as a rallying battle cry for women everywhere, literally mentioning the current social and political climate and how it must be upended and changed for future equality.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not one of those “feminazi SJWs” that get so much heat from the internet. Some of these poems did rub me the wrong way. Especially two sequential poems that glorify murder and dismemberment in order to communicate rage against male abusers, ironically followed by a poem where she denies being the “crazy ex girlfriend.” I have a lot of feelings about the societal approach to feminism that I haven’t quite figured my full opinion on, but I will say this: many of these poems are fueled by anger and make me feel the anger through the words. Rightfully so, a lot of the anger is directed towards men, which works for some poems, but after a while starts sounding a little too Tumblr-y for me. This works best when the overarching theme of witchcraft is tied with that fury, which was a very interesting concept.

Overall, there were many poems that made me smile, feel tons of emotion, and audibly cry “DAMN” in my living room, so despite my gripes, I do believe this is an excellent and important collection of poems from Amanda Lovelace.

I would recommend this book for those who like to call this format "poetry". As for myself, I prefer actual poetry. Admittedly, I didn't read the first in the series, so as soon as I saw this one was available, I decided to give it a shot, see what the hype was about... I was left utterly disappointed.

I spotted that this was available on read now, immediately downloaded it and have read it in 2 sittings, only stopping because I had plans.

The Princess Saves Herself in this One was one of my favourite reads of 2016- Amanda Lovelace just speaks to my soul. Her poetry is raw and beautiful and inspiring. I didn't personally relate to as much of this one but it still made me cry with both joy and anger. How do so few words make me feel so deeply?

I can't wait to buy a physical copy of this and add it to my collection, it's just wonderful. Now the wait for The Mermaid's Voice Returns in this One begins.

I rarely give a book one or two stars, but this was just awful. This is not poetry. And I will not recommend this to anyone. Best of luck to the author in her future endeavors.

I didn't expect anything less than amazing and that's exactly what I got.

White the first book in this series felt a little sad, this one felt like it was full of anger. Anger in the best way possible. Reading it made me powerful and confident, like nothing could bring me down. I'd like to hold onto this feeling (I'll have to reread this one a few times I think). There was anger about the world, about men pushing women down, about women never being good enough, but my favourite part was that there were solutions too. There were mentions of being confident because woman ARE good enough. There were mentions about how women should always be sticking up for one another. The whole thing just made me feel so GOOD.

As for the writing style, every word felt like it was chosen deliberately and placed in exactly the right spot. The formatting on some of the poems were different which only made it more interesting to read.

I couldn't wait to read this book and I can't wait to read her next book.