A review by yellowbinge
The Elk in the Glade: The World of Pioneer and Painter Jennie Hicks by Bruce E. Whitacre

3.0

Publishing date: 21.10.2022
Thank you to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC. My opinions are my own. 

I expected: A book with multiple artworks and poems written by the subject matter (Jennie Hicks)
I got: A book with a few artworks and free-form poems written by the great grandchild of Jennie
The book left me: Once again romanticizing pioneer life

Poetry style: 
A combination of free-form and novella. It works well here, but the "poems" have a tendency to span up to three or four pages. I would classify this as a more lyrical book than a poetry collection. 

Amount of poems: 16 poems, spanning a story of Jennie's life

Features: 
Pioneer lifestyle and setting, a person lost and forgotten with time, 4 paintings by Jennie

Final ranking and star rating?
3 stars, C tier. This was a fine collection, one that I was mostly interested in because of the artworks featured. I got the artworks, but also a lyrical almost autobiography of Jennie's life. It was a nice and heartbreaking story at the same time, of a woman that could accomplish so much more. But because of the time and circumstances never got to reach her full potential.