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bookishwelshie's review against another edition
4.0
I felt like reading a poetry collection and right from the introduction I knew I Am Not Your Final Girl was going to be an important, empowering, read.
Each poem is told from the perspective of a different "final girl" from horror stories. If you are familiar with the plots, and each final girl character, you will get more out of reading this. As an avid horror movie fanatic, this unique collection really appealed to me. The characters’ voices are all captured remarkably well, even in the shortest of poems.
A line that really stuck out to me was in the Sally from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre poem:
"There is nothing else in this world like realising you’re going to live and not being sure you can".
That one quote succinctly sums up a lot of these characters’ experiences.
Classics like Rosemary’s Baby are covered, and also more modern films like The Descent. This is a broad range of strong female characters who survived the odds until the very end. I highly recommend this collection to any horror fan, as I do think a familiarity with the characters would be essential. I am very pleased that my two favourite horror heroines - Laurie Strode from Halloween and Clarice from Silence Of The Lambs - were included.
The only critique is that it could be considered as kind of one note, as the poems only focus on a quite similar type of character throughout. The fast pace of the collection makes it feel not too repetitive though.
"We’re strong and slutty, quiet and confident, outspoken and sarcastic, and we don’t feel like smiling because we have work to do. We defy definition. And we’re not going down without a fight."
Each poem is told from the perspective of a different "final girl" from horror stories. If you are familiar with the plots, and each final girl character, you will get more out of reading this. As an avid horror movie fanatic, this unique collection really appealed to me. The characters’ voices are all captured remarkably well, even in the shortest of poems.
A line that really stuck out to me was in the Sally from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre poem:
"There is nothing else in this world like realising you’re going to live and not being sure you can".
That one quote succinctly sums up a lot of these characters’ experiences.
Classics like Rosemary’s Baby are covered, and also more modern films like The Descent. This is a broad range of strong female characters who survived the odds until the very end. I highly recommend this collection to any horror fan, as I do think a familiarity with the characters would be essential. I am very pleased that my two favourite horror heroines - Laurie Strode from Halloween and Clarice from Silence Of The Lambs - were included.
The only critique is that it could be considered as kind of one note, as the poems only focus on a quite similar type of character throughout. The fast pace of the collection makes it feel not too repetitive though.
"We’re strong and slutty, quiet and confident, outspoken and sarcastic, and we don’t feel like smiling because we have work to do. We defy definition. And we’re not going down without a fight."
elthereal's review against another edition
I Am Not Your Final Girl is a short poetry collection inspired by horror films/characters. A lot of the enjoyment of each poem is really tied to whether or not you've seen that movie (if you haven't, it isn't always clear what Holland is talking about).
Some poems are better than others while others might come off as cringey. All of the poems are really short and don't have a ton of substance to them, but if you're really into horror movies, this could make a great coffee table collection.
I personally prefer my poetry to have a bit more substance so it wasn't a home run for me but there were 2-3 that I liked a lot.
Some poems are better than others while others might come off as cringey. All of the poems are really short and don't have a ton of substance to them, but if you're really into horror movies, this could make a great coffee table collection.
I personally prefer my poetry to have a bit more substance so it wasn't a home run for me but there were 2-3 that I liked a lot.
isabelleroyall's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
thereadingbunny's review against another edition
5.0
I binged this within an hour. I couldn't help myself. Now to go back through it slower and watch the movies, some as new experiences and some to remember.
caitlynd13's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.0
marleyrollins's review against another edition
3.0
First off, I feel like I should preface this review by saying that I’ve never been the biggest fan of poetry. I’m not really sure why, but I feel like I’ve never really ‘got’ it, so that will likely colour my review.
But…for me this was only okay. I thought the concept was interesting and something I’d never seen before, however I feel like the actual execution was a little bit patchy. There were some lovely lines, and some lines that felt a bit clunky and like I’d definitely read variations of them many times before. Sometimes it felt a tiny bit like the poet had just discovered feminism and so was trying a liiiitle bit hard.
Some of the poems were great though, for example, I really enjoyed Carrie, Clarice, and Selena. I will say, I feel like I definitely liked the poems better when I’d actually seen the film, as the themes were a little bit confusing on some of the ones where I hadn’t, and some of the films mentioned were quite niche. However, as a horror fan, it’s given me more titles to add to my list to check out, which I’m a huge fan of!
Final thing I observed was that some of the poems would start really strong or have one really great verse, and then it felt like they struggled to build around that verse and so the quality tailed off a bit, meaning not all the poems felt as cohesive as they could have. For example, Clarice was one of my favourites, but the second verse pales in comparison to the first. I also found some of the layouts and line breaks a teeny bit pretentious, and like they weren’t quite adding meaning or value to the text, but tbh that’s such a big trend with Instagram poetry, so she can’t be blamed for this becoming a thing.
Overall, this wasn’t bad at all, and I’d like to do a reread in the future to see if I pick up more from the language and imagery, but for now I’m saying that it was okay, but I’ve read better.
But…for me this was only okay. I thought the concept was interesting and something I’d never seen before, however I feel like the actual execution was a little bit patchy. There were some lovely lines, and some lines that felt a bit clunky and like I’d definitely read variations of them many times before. Sometimes it felt a tiny bit like the poet had just discovered feminism and so was trying a liiiitle bit hard.
Some of the poems were great though, for example, I really enjoyed Carrie, Clarice, and Selena. I will say, I feel like I definitely liked the poems better when I’d actually seen the film, as the themes were a little bit confusing on some of the ones where I hadn’t, and some of the films mentioned were quite niche. However, as a horror fan, it’s given me more titles to add to my list to check out, which I’m a huge fan of!
Final thing I observed was that some of the poems would start really strong or have one really great verse, and then it felt like they struggled to build around that verse and so the quality tailed off a bit, meaning not all the poems felt as cohesive as they could have. For example, Clarice was one of my favourites, but the second verse pales in comparison to the first. I also found some of the layouts and line breaks a teeny bit pretentious, and like they weren’t quite adding meaning or value to the text, but tbh that’s such a big trend with Instagram poetry, so she can’t be blamed for this becoming a thing.
Overall, this wasn’t bad at all, and I’d like to do a reread in the future to see if I pick up more from the language and imagery, but for now I’m saying that it was okay, but I’ve read better.