Amanda Lovelace is easily one of my favourite poets of all time, and this book is one I fell in love with, just like the two books before it.

I've loved this previous two books in this series, and this one held its own. I didn't like it quite as much as "The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One," but it was still great.

Amanda Lovelace’s poetry may not be everyone’s cup of tea but seeing as how i prefer coffee (and I know for a fact that she does too) that’s good enough for me, so to hell with the haters. It’s not my cup of tea but it’s my cup of coffee. But in all seriousness, poetry is very emotional and personal, so while it may resonate with some, it may not for others and that’s okay.

The Mermaid’s Voice Returns In This One is the final and beautifully written conclusion in the ‘Women Are Some Kind Of Magic’ poetry collection, which has this three books in total.

While I did enjoy this book, I have to say that it wasn’t my favorite of the tree. Still, there was some beautifully written poems within this book that touched my heart and I cherished.

True to the title of this book, the theme centered around mermaids and The Little Mermaid story, which I enjoyed as i love mermaids.

Something else I loved about this collection was the fact that it contains some guest poems from other other poets. That was a very nice surprise!

And my favorite thing of all: the fact that one of her poems paid homage to the Chronicles of Narnia aka a series very dear to my heart and one of my favorite series of all time.

Overall, not my favorite book from Amanda but not a bad one by any means! She is one of my favorites and I will continue to support her and be on the lookout for anything she releases in the future.

I personally think Amanda Lovelace is becoming a little bit repetitive, personally I didn't enjoyed this book like the previous ones.

I do not make it a secret that I absolutely adore Amanda Lovelace and her poetry, and so, like every other collection of hers, I've thoroughly enjoyed this one as well! I'm so glad that I got to read this one, because it's just so poignant and thought provoking, while being absolutely heart-breaking at the same time. Everything about this book is amazing and I just love it.

Amanda Lovelace is one of the poets that got me into poetry and I love her work. This collection was beautiful. I loved the style.

I’m making pretty fantastic progress on my resolution to read more poetry in 2020–the mermaid’s voice returns in this one by Amanda Lovelace is my third so far this year–but unfortunately I haven’t adored any of the collections so far. This book is the third in the “Women Are Some Kind of Magic” series which pulls in magical elements with confessional style poetry about the demons that Lovelace has tackled in her life. In the past, I have really appreciated that blend of magic and brutal honesty, but unfortunately I just found the mermaid’s voice returns in this one lacking when it came to the actual poetry. It often felt more like line breaks in sentences, and while the emotion was strong, the imagery didn’t leave me with much emotion.

There are a handful of poems in the collection by other contributors, which is an interesting choice, and in fact one of my very favourites, if not my favourite, poem in the book is not by Lovelace at all, but by Clementine Von Radics (who I do love). Overall, I loved the message and the intent behind the mermaid’s voice returns in this one , but not the words themselves. I do already have another couple books by Lovelace, so I will be giving her poetry another try, and hope to fall back in love next time.

“ I went ahead & painted the sun back into my sky.”

Wow, just wow! I’m shook!

In 2019 I was approved on Netgalley for the book of poetry called “ The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One.” Being both new to Netgalley and poetry, I didn’t realize that this was the third in the series and I’m not the kinda girl that can start in the middle of anything. I must see this story all the way through! I need the full experience of all the nuts and bolts combined to make this tale as powerful as it is, it does after-all have three volumes ( hopefully more to come!) Basically- what I’m trying to say is I cant half-a$$ it!

I have been on hold for this book for one year at my local library and as of January 31st,2020 my request expired. There are still two people waiting that came after me. I’m sorry to say, I think that this copy is a goner. I’ve had a hard time tracking these books down; I hope that the second book won’t be the same way. The ARC review WILL come...eventually, I promise.

I am so happy that I was persistent enough to get my hands on this bad boy. I have never resonated with poetry much at all, but man this was a punch in the gut. Every topic that Amanda touched on hit home so hard. From relationship issues, to feeling not good enough, verbal abuse, losing a parent to cancer, the struggle to find oneself, using physical items to replace human interaction, hoping that the hearts of others are as good as yours, coping by being silent and shutting down, you name it- I felt like I was holding her hand through it. I feel like Lovelace and I would be best friends, that despite everything we’ve been through—-we’re still here. We overcame; moved on but that doesn’t mean that the scars still don’t reside within us; that those wounds can’t be ripped open by a word, a sound, a smell, a touch, an action. Life. Is. Hard. At times — so difficult that it can be crippling.

I found the writing (all small letters) aesthetically pleasing as well as the constant use of the ampersand symbol, I use it for everything &&&& anything. The lowercase lettering reminded me of e.e.cummings, the punctuation of myself. The solid; basic colored book cover was a soft quiet holding together a rolling thunder of emotion to follow once opened.

I have made note of some of my favorite quotes & phrases below. They won’t spoil the entire book, but if you plan on going in blind...please stop reading this review here.

I immersed myself in this entire experience. Words jumped off of the page and grabbed me by the throat. The tears welled up; my mind kept reiterating, “ Me too!”

On myself & my love ( and friendship) with books-

“Ah, life—the thing that happens to us while we’re off somewhere else blowing dandelions & wishing ourselves into the pages of our favorite fairytales.”
My most-loved has always been Beauty & The Beast, but I think that this message also gave me the preconceived notion that all men would ( eventually) turn into a dazzling prince. Boy-oh-boy was I wrong!

“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.”
While I did ( and still do) have plenty of friends, these thoughts meant something much more to me. When I was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder at 28 my life completely changed. I could no longer do all of the things that I used to love doing. I became a hermit; my books were my savior. I began buying more and more of them just so that I could escape into another world because I was too scared to face my own.

On relationships & abuse-

“...That is what abuse is: knowing you are going to get salt but still hoping for sugar...”

“ You may be gone, but I still have a stomachache.”

“He was made of fire & I was made of ice. I came too close to his flame & he melted me with his embers, reducing me down to a puddle. With time, I froze over again, but I was never quite the same—a fragile, watery imitation of what once was.”

Even hearing YOUR name mentioned gives me that sinking feeling, like someone is calling you at 5 am and you stare at your phone unwilling to answer because you know the news can be nothing good.

You know who you are.

“I have to believe the day will come where I don’t flinch whenever I hear his name.”

Losing a parent ( specifically to cancer)-

“You will think your parents are shatterproof until one day you find out they aren’t.”

“I’m sick to death of everyone telling me how strong I am. Me? Strong? I only act strong because it’s the only distraction I have from the thoughts of my inevitable [ father/mother-less] life. A feather disguised as steel.”

“Everyone urges me to hold on to my dreams to pass the time, but what happens when your dreams are nightmares stuck on repeat repeat repeat? Please wake me up.”

“Fuck you cancer, for taking away the possibility of the [ parent] I will never ever get to have now.”

“ & I try to imagine what you would say if I told you I haven’t been able to laugh in the longest time because whenever I do someone tells me I sound just like you, but I guess these are just the kinds of things I’ll have to bottle up & give to you later.

Amanda lost her mother to cancer in November 2010 , I lost my father July 2019. The wounds are very fresh and I have no further comment at this time. She said it best.

Because life happens & so on-

“But a girl can only bleed so much before she meets her demise.”
When is this world going to stop destroying me? Every year gets worse instead of better.

“Silence has always been my loudest scream.”
I hear you girl, loud and clear, words shouldn’t have to be spoken for someone to KNOW how you feel. When I’m sad, please just leave me be. No, I DON’T want to talk. I’d rather lock myself in a dark room and just be left alone with my thoughts...or shower with hot water beating down on me until every last tear is gone. But words, forget about it. Some take this as rejection or that I don’t care, but they’ll learn. I won’t change how I cope for anyone.

“Then I learned that society is broken, not me.”

Final thoughts-

I left this book with the following as quite possibly my favorite quote ever...

“ forever a collector of words.”

^This now resides at the top of my instagram profile.^

This is not the review of the 3rd or the 4th book that I just recently was blessed to be approved for, but being approved to read the 3rd book is what got me here! Those reviews are to come, I promise.

Compared to the first two installments of <i>women are some kind of magic</i> collection, this one was underwhelming.

Even though the theme supposedly focused on the mermaid's tale and how she loses her voice, it is inconsistent throughout the novel as there were poems about Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel that appeared out of context.

The poems focused on victim vs survivors were my favorites and I do wish they had been the overall focus of this work.

Despite being divided into four different parts, everything was muddled together and I honestly couldn't explain them apart. Overall, it was a bit of a miss to me.

It always amazes me how poetry can manage to get me feeling angsty for the character even if it’s not in story format like other books.

I love the Homage poems because it’s sort of an answer to another poem so you can feel the other poem in the poem, but you still feel like it’s wholly Lovelace’s poem. And you also get a feeling for which poems Lovelace thinks about – which I like.

This book is about re-finding yourself, which probably doesn’t make sense (the word, re-finding, I’m not even sure it’s a word); but you see Princess was about finding yourself and then Witch was about standing up.

Out of all three books in the trilogy, Witch is definitely my top. One thing I’ve always liked with Lovelace’s writing is the theme about self-love and self-acceptance, and I could probably not get enough of either one of the themes.

I'm not sure if this kind of poetry is just not my cup of tea anymore, or if this poetry book in particular was lackluster. I connected with a few poems, but most of them didn't make much sense to me.

3.7/5
I love Amanda lovelace's words, she moves the reader's with her words. Though my favorite remains the Princess Saves Herself in This One..

Poetry is such a deeply personal thing. I feel like there are some who don’t “get it” (my husband being among them), but for me, poetry is so lovely and cathartic. I used to write poetry (admittedly, usually terrible) in high school and college, but stopped after. Now, I just delight in reading it from time to time.

Despite this being the third book in this series of poetry, this is the first I’ve read of hers. It is raw, full of emotion and pain and hope. It is lyrical and powerful, with snippets of prose and scattered thoughts. While I enjoyed reading it, I also felt the undertones of loss that made me feel deeply for the author of these tragic words.

In recent years, I have been trying to read more poetry. Before this, I was not aware of the concept of Instagram Poetry. The poems tend to be shorter, and the poets younger, and often female. Names like Rupi Kaur, Nikita Gill, and amanda lovelace (yes, lowercase) come up in this category. The first did not work for me, the second blew me away (and I now follow on Instagram), and now I've tried the third, and I have become a fan of her as well.

The collections The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One and The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One are part of a series of poetry collections that examine feminist themes through. The first uses imagery from witch burnings, and the second The Little Mermaid (where the mermaid sacrificed her tail for a man who turns to someone else). They are taking the stories we grew up on and giving them a little twist for the modern era.

When I started reading this type of poetry, it took a while to get used to it. My memories of poetry in school was of longer poems with complicated rhyming schemes. Instagram poets tend to be short free verse, verging on being slogans. When well done, they can definitely provoke thought.

And being short, these books are perfect for reading a few pages before bed (or, I hate to admit it, sitting on the toilet)

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read The Mermaid's voice.

I have yet to read the first two installments of this trilogy but the poetry in this book was nice to read – I've been getting into poetry more and I think Lovelace's work will be the kind of poetry i continue to read and reread in the future.

I loved this conclusion to this series of poetry. I love everything she has to talk about in her poetry and I seriously cannot wait until her next one comes out.

Thank you netgalley for this advanced copy!

Another edition in this wonderful poetry series focusing on abuse, acceptance, relapse, and more self-acceptance. These short poems are so powerful. I feel a real talent in poetry it to pick one perfect word or one perfect series that conveys so much feeling. She definitely has mastered this ability. Some poems are a single sentence, but there is so much life inside of them. There is both a need to heal and erase one's past, but also knowing that the past makes us who we are. This is challenging and cathartic poetry.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: suicidal thoughts, abuse, depression and sexual assault. The book itself has a list of all trigger warnings which was amazing to see and much appreciated. Something I think is necessary in the book community so props to the author/publisher for including it.

First, I need to say that I haven't read the previous books in this poetry series and I'm aware they go together and perhaps should be read as companions to get the overall feel. Given that I haven't read the others yet, I still feel that this collection of poetry was inspiring.

It was raw and emotional. It was gritty and chilling. It was everything it needed to be. Impactful in so many ways. It made me realize just how much people don't know what others are going through or why they do the things they do.

With the Me Too movement in recent news, this collection of poetry that includes poems from other women as well (that I understand is not the norm for this series), is a wonderful homage to the movement.

The poem that hit me and affected me immediately was:

you worry
so much
about
the comfort
of others
that you
cannot
remember
a time
when
you did
something
just
for
yourself.

-you are worth spoiling

This is something that I have been actively working on in my life. I have forever been the person to give and give and give, yet many times felt let down by others. Yet, I cannot stop giving. I always say yes. Personal life or work life, I just can't say no. BUT - over time and with help, I have learned that it's not about everyone else ALL THE TIME. It's a hard thing to remember, but it's important to put yourself first no matter what is happening in your life. You can't move on or up if you don't lift yourself up first. This poem is something that I want to have with me as a reminder.

This will be a book I recommend to others to have the same heartfelt and inspirational experience that I did. I will definitely be reading the previous books in the series so I can experience the magic.

This poetry book explores themes such as healing and personal growth, by combining realistic narrations with mermaid lore. While I like the concept of this book and appreciate how the author was able to merge mermaid lore with themes such as feminism and healing, I feel that after two previously published books in the same vein, this new entry in Amanda Lovelace’s poetry trilogy misses the mark a little. The book felt a bit convoluted to be honest. And there were times when it was trying too hard to keep the mermaid theme going. Having read the previous two books in this poetry trilogy, I thought that there was little to nothing here that I hadn’t previously already read. If you are starting the series with this book (you can read them in any order), you might probably enjoy it more than I did. For me however, it just didn’t work. And I have to say, I’m getting a little tired of these poetry books that are pretty much compilations of Tumblr musings. There is beauty in these words, yes, but a lot of the content of this book felt more like something you could have just read online in an Instagram or Tumblr post.

I really wanted to love this... I loved her first two in this series (even though that is an unpopular opinion when it comes to the second book), but I found this lacking a voice. There were some individual poems that I really enjoyed, but as a whole, this just didn't have the same power as the first two. It was definitely underwhelming.