Amanda Lovelace's *Women Are Some Kind of Magic* series include some of my all-time favourite collections of poetry. *The Princess Saves Herself In This One* and especially *The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One* are two of my all-time favourite poetry collections. Lovelace is somehow able to grasp the reader's heart in one hand with her extremely raw and emotional poetry, and on the other hand, fill us with so much power that I just want to roar to the heavens. Her poetry *gets* me.

Although I typically describe Lovelace's works as a firestorm celebrating womanhood and healing, *The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One* lacked that power which has previously defined Lovelace's works as so powerful and unique. There seemed to be a disconnect when I read the poetry, as though there was a haze that made my ability to fully embrace the words so wholeheartedly as I have previously in her works. I don't mean at all to detract Lovelace's healing process and the way in which she expresses herself, but it felt repetitive. Repetitive in the sense that I felt as though I have read these poems before - it was the same theme, similar poems that lacked the rawness of her previous two collections. I feel as though this collection was not needed, in the sense that this series could have been left as a duology and thus, it would have maintained its incredible panache.

In terms of structure, it maintains the thematic division of poetry from the first two collections of this series. It is divided into four sections: (i) the sky; (ii) the shipwreck; (iii) the song; and, (iv) the surviving. These 'chapters' connect with the overarching 'theme' which was the fairytale of *A Little Mermaid* and the concept of demonising women throughout history. The one addition that was not found within the other previous two collections, was that *The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One* included poetry from other poets.

The poetry from other poets actually emphasised how much I was not connecting with Lovelace's words, in that, the featured poets provided more power and rawness in their little additions than the entire collection. Even though I did enjoy the poetry from other poets, such as Nikita Gill (who is literally my favourite of all time), Clementine Von Radics, Sophia Elaine Hanson, Yena Sharma Purmasir and nine others, they were placed within the overall narrative in a way that was supposed to flow from Lovelace's perspective to theirs, and it did not work to its fullest potential. It became quite fragmented and thus, exasperating to jump from Lovelace's perspective to another poet's personal experiences. I feel as though Lovelace may have also done this in terms of trying to incorporate more diverse voices and a more intersectional understanding of feminism, than just the white feminism that her other two previous collections could be claimed to perpetuate.

In this instance, these featured poets just emphasised the lacklustre poetry of Lovelace herself within this collection and it worked against her.

Overall, I do feel as though I need to reread this collection when it releases so I can try and fully immerse myself within her experience and see if that makes a difference. I do think that reading it as an E-Book diminishes the magic of it, so to speak. I do still adore Lovelace's poetry collections and I rate *The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One* 3 out of 5 stars.

I’ve never been a huge fan of poetry despite my best efforts. In the past few years this trauma porn/recovery genre makes me feel... something. In Lovelace’s three volume collection, vague allusions to fairy tales and their dismantling frame her narrative. I’m on board.

My complaint with the final installment is “the surviving” – the final section with a chorus of voices, but no conclusions. I’m all about giving talented up-and-comers a foot in the door but I didn’t want or need this to be a compilation. The author I wanted to read has very sparse, waterfalling prose and some of the extras are literal walls of text. The subject matter may fit but the interjecting styles are jarring and unnecessary. I rate this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Having read the past two books in the Women are Some Kind of Magic series by Amanda Lovelace this book ranked very highly on my to-be-read list! And it did not disappoint! I read the whole of this book within two sittings, it would have been one but I had to go to work!
I really enjoyed these poems and I believe it created a nice conclusion to this trilogy. I also thought it was cool how she tied in other authors this time that wrote about similar experiences. As well there seemed to be more nods to literary works and I really like those, especially since the author is an avid reader she is going to be inspired by other works.

One of my favourite poems is "I believe in endless worlds" and man does it ever hit home. I'm excited to continue reading her work in the future!

I received book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by Amanda Lovelace. I'd skimmed through some of her books before while browsing through bookstores but never fully committed because of how bad I've been burned by poetry books lately. I've always loved her titles though so I was excited to read this.

It held up ! I love the fairy tale vibes she emits in her work, having grown up a Disney kid and obsessed with the brothers grimm and other tales. There wasn't a lot of things relating back to mermaids surprisingly but that was completely fine. Very feminine based, very big in the metoo movement, and very relatable.

If you're familiar with her work you'll like this.

I'm a neophyte to Amanda Lovelace's poetry collections, though I'm familiar with some of her individual poems from Booklr (book Tumblr). Based on what I'd seen in the past, I got the impression that the poems were similar to Rupi Kaur or Nayyirah Waheed--fairly simple, sparse, and heavy on the lowercase letters. That impression is correct, based on <i>the mermaid's voice returns in this one.</i> The collection is apparently inspired from the Andersen and Disney versions of <i>The Little Mermaid</i>, and it's organized into four parts: the sky, the shipwreck, the song, and the surviving.

In general, these poems deal with personal stories of sexual assault, survivor's guilt, and recovery. In that regard, this collection has some powerful moments; it's important to amplify as many survivors' stories and voices as possible. For instance, when Lovelace writes about a past abusive relationship, she writes,
"if only
they had
taught
me

how to
recognize
the warning
flares

instead
of
wasting
their time

teaching
me
how
to

mistake
them
for
flattery."

But as a 25-year-old woman, I found some of the poems to be simplistic:
"I. when they can say 'no.'
II. when they can't say 'no.'
--they're both assault"

Because of that, I suspect the target audience could be younger teenagers, maybe who have not thought deeply about issues of consent and sexual assault. It doesn't personally appeal to me not only because of the fairly surface-level discussions of bodily autonomy, but also because of the poetry style and figurative language used. Although there are some allusions to mermaids--"i needed to swim away from you"--I felt like there could have been much richer and more explicit connections to mermaid mythology of the Andersen and Disney variety and beyond. I just needed more challenging material, more unexpected images and turns of phrase, and fewer filler poems from a collection like this.

The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One is a beautiful conclusion to this Trilogy of poetry collections. It is filled with emotional poems, but also has enough positive, strong and hopeful ones sprinkled in there to not make the whole book too depressing.

I really enjoyed most of these poems and bookmarked quite a few, but overall I didn't feel a strong enough connection to give it the full 5 stars. I would still recommend anyone to check these poetry collections out. There are some very special gems in this one and I was definitely touched.

**Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

Amanda Lovelace wraps up her “women are some kind of magic” series with her final installment of the mermaid's voice returns in this one.

While I had high hopes for this one, I did not enjoy it as much as I did the previous few in the series. I believe my biggest issue with the writing was how I found some of the poems incoherent and mal entendre.

The book, like the series, reflects back again on the MeToo movement, but as a result, the messages that it contains become a bit repetitive. When reading Lovelace's second book, the witch doesn't burn in this one, I found a sense of empowerment and passion that was laced in each and every poem. This one, however, lacked the strong feelings and backbone that the rest of the series had.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing all the homages and cultural references, whether it's Maleficent, the little mermaid, or Romeo and Juliet. And needless to say, among the words and constant parallel structures, there are several phrases that are quite memorable.

i don't write what i write to hurt you.

i write what i write to heal me.

I am a huge fan of amanda's work and credit her poetry for getting me into modern poetry. Despite loving the overarching narrative of the mermaid finding her voice and becoming strong, the individual poems were not as strong as some of her previous work. However, since this is a collection about healing it is hard to make critiques about it. Who am I to say she didn't present her healing the right way? But, I will say that despite feeling her pain in certain poems, I could not connect to this collection in the way I connected to her previous works.

I also was not a fan of intermixing the other poet's poems in the last section. I liked their poems, but going into this I thought they would be in a separate section. It was jarring to keep switching from amanda's narrative to another. I do like the idea of so many poet's showing different ways of healing and overcoming one's demons, but intermixing them lost some of the value of both their words and amanda's.

I also always forget that I should not read eARCs of poetry because the formatting is usually weird. The formatting of this collection was pretty good, but I still think I need to reread it to truly get meaning out of some of the poems.

Unfortunately I can't read this because the format is not compatible with my laptop. Very sad, I was really looking forward to reading it.

The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One is the third and final book in Amanda Lovelace's Women Are Some Kind of Magic poetry trilogy.

On the surface Mermaid's Voice goes along in the same vein as the previous two books dealing with tough to talk about subjects such as abuse, assault, loss, etc. with moments of triumph on a pathway leading out of the darkness.

But as I went along I really felt like Mermaid's amped all of the emotions up tenfold. This wasn't a read I could charge through like I did with the other two books. This was one that I had to take longer breaks in between reading.

I enjoyed the inclusion of guest poets. I felt like it was almost a statement of "you're not alone" that these other authors were showing support. It was interesting and nice to hear some different voices within the running narrative.

No matter how difficult and raw I found some of these passages there's always a sense of the weight lifting off shoulders when you get to the end. Like you've poured so much of yourself out that you feel lighter. I definitely felt lighter after getting to the end of Mermaid's.

Overall this trilogy has showcased the strength and perseverance of the body and mind. How life can throw all sorts of things at you, but you can live through it and there can be happiness on the other side.

The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One by Amanda Lovelace is a collection of powerful, heartfelt poetry, covering some intense topics and themes. While there were many great pieces within this collection, there wasn't one that I personally connected to. I honestly had a bit of trouble focusing because the formatting of the poetry was off-putting for me. Other might not have the same problem as I did.
If I had to pick a favorite piece in this collection, it would be one of he shorter poems:

will i have to spend the afterlife
finding ways to hide from you?

One of the things that I did love about the collection was how the writer made sure to include a trigger warning ahead in the collection to properly prepare me for any potential poems that would be too much for me.
Toward the end of the collection, the writer had other poets contribute a bit of their work into the collection. At first, this had left me very confused because their poems were included in a different font and it wasn't until the end of the poem itself that I'd realized what the situation was.
Despite the problems I'd had with the collection, I would love to see more of Amanda Lovelace's work.

This was a great final book in the series. I think it might be my second favorite. I loved the inclusion of other poets that Lovelace chose to incorporate. While I lost myself with the second book because it just didn’t click with me, this one more than made up for it.

As an active member of the Netgalley community, I have been eyeing Amanda Lovelace's poetry works for some time. The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One is the conclusion to her Women Are Some Kind of Magic trilogy. Much like ee cummings, lovelace writes all her poetry in lowercase lettering.

she didn't kiss frogs.
she kissed great white sharks.

I don't feel the need to place a trigger warning in my review because as you open the collection, the author begins with a caution that her poetry does cover a variety of sensitive material and so if you are an educator reading my review, I would strongly suggest that you take the time to make up your own mind before bringing into the classroom library.

some days, i still want to believe we can traipse into the forest & come across an enchanted pocket watch that will take us back in time to erase it all& start from scratch.
this isn't that kind of fairy tale.

I have never felt myself to be an expert when it comes to reading poetry and I always come away with mixed emotions. Having read the reviews left by readers who have experienced the entire trilogy, Amanda Lovelace appears to have brought forward a variety of reactions. I found the poetry to be honest and personal, but I am not sure I am completely on Team Lovelace yet.

I've had a kind of weird relationship with Lovelace's poetry. I consider The Princess Saves Herself In This One to be one of my favourite poetry collections of all-time, but I really didn't get along with her second book. I like this one better than that, but it still didn't quite stand up to the first one. I really liked the inclusion of other poets—I liked seeing poets I already like such as Nikita Gill and Clementine von Radics, while also giving me a few new names to check out.

I truly enjoy reading Amanda Lovelace’s poetry and I was very excited when I was able to read this one. I admire Lovelace’s bravery throughout the entire trilogy and I found it very inspiring to hear her story and how she merges popular fairy tales with modern day reality. The conclusion to this series was very powerful and I love the inclusion of other poets. Through this book, Amanda Lovelace helped other poets find their voice, as well as her readers, find their voices. This was an amazing conclusion to the Women Are Some Kind of Magic series.

I was gifted the first book in the "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" set and though I liked it, it didn't blow me away. In fact there was just one poem that really struck me (it involved sisters). That being said, I saw "the mermaid's voice returns in this one" on NetGalley and was interested enough to request it. So happy that I did.

Not only did more of the poems grab me but I really enjoyed that this was a collaborative effort with a couple other poets. It gave the whole collection a little extra. Poems are so hard to judge though. While some were great for me, others not so much. I also think their was a lot of missed opportunity in tying in the mermaid theme into the overall collection.

3.5 stars round up to 4

DNF at page 140
This poetry collection is not for me it is sooooooo depressing and i don't like this kind of books i love the one who gives me motivation and make me happy special in poetry so i'm not going to finish it i'm so sorry !

This was such a powerful poetry collection, and I just flew through it. The messages in the collection are inspiring and leave me in awe every time. I always love reading Amanda’s poetry because so many of the poems speak to me. I understand her pain and suffering, and her finding her self in the midst of everything. I still think that the first poetry collection in this series is my favorite, followed by the second one, and then this one. It’s not that I didn’t like this one, it’s just that there weren’t as many poems that I just fell in love with. There were several that were frankly just repetitive or had no meaning whatsoever. I can’t say this is a bad poetry book, simply because of the trauma and healing that is shared within. Those are important stories to share, and with each poem, you learn a little bit more of the story. I just didn’t like all of the poems. I thought that the additions from other poets was a really nice touch, and I loved those poems. I will be sure to check some more of their work out. Overall, it was a pretty good poetry collection for those that liked her first two in this little series.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this collection for me to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

the mermaid's voice returns in this one is a collection of poems that revolve around heartbreak and empowerment. For someone who is lucky enough never to be in an abusive relationship with someone on an opposite sex, I cannot relate with the messages inside. However, some passages might benefit me and others for a lifelong read.

An enjoyable read, although it didn't wow me as much as the previous two books in the series. I conceptually like the theme of the mermaid, however, I often felt myself losing sight of the concept throughout, as I didn't feel it was as prevailing across the whole text as the previous two books. I still plan to purchase a copy for my classroom for fans of the series.