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A review by bashsbooks
the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
0.5
the princess saves herself in this one and its sequels are poetry books I've heard about for years, and they've been on my TBR for just as long. As a poet and vast consumer of poetry myself, when I tell people I like poetry, they're liable to say that this is the only poetry they've read and/or enjoyed lately.
Now that I have read the princess saves herself in this one, I find that to be a deeply disappointing thing to hear.
Lovelace's poetry is juvenile and saccharine, melodramatic in an uninspired and unoriginal way. She seems to think that clever wordplay is the only tool in poetry's bag. There is no sense of specificity in her imagery (on the rare occasion she describes something enough for it to be imagined), no room for readers to draw their own meaning, and no escape from the cliché and heavy-trodden.
Much like her poetry, Lovelace's politics are not particularly groundbreaking, either. They're not bad, she's on the right track, but they're as juvenile as the writing itself. I mean, seriously, hailing this as a great feminist text when she still appears to be in the 101 level of her understanding is frankly embarrassing.
I give this one a lower rating than usual for bad poetry books because 1) Lovelace considers herself a poet by trade and 2) because it has done irreparable damage to poetry as a form since its popularization. I'm all about loving a shitty piece of writing (ask me how I feel about My Immortal) but let's be honest about quality, please. (Personally, I don't even think this book has enough substance to be bad in an interesting way, but if you've found it, more power to you.)
Also, I can see now that this text heavily inspired Megan Fox's Pretty Boys Are Poisonous and can't help but think the popularity of Lovelace's work have something to do with how Fox's ended up so badly.
Now that I have read the princess saves herself in this one, I find that to be a deeply disappointing thing to hear.
Lovelace's poetry is juvenile and saccharine, melodramatic in an uninspired and unoriginal way. She seems to think that clever wordplay is the only tool in poetry's bag. There is no sense of specificity in her imagery (on the rare occasion she describes something enough for it to be imagined), no room for readers to draw their own meaning, and no escape from the cliché and heavy-trodden.
Much like her poetry, Lovelace's politics are not particularly groundbreaking, either. They're not bad, she's on the right track, but they're as juvenile as the writing itself. I mean, seriously, hailing this as a great feminist text when she still appears to be in the 101 level of her understanding is frankly embarrassing.
I give this one a lower rating than usual for bad poetry books because 1) Lovelace considers herself a poet by trade and 2) because it has done irreparable damage to poetry as a form since its popularization. I'm all about loving a shitty piece of writing (ask me how I feel about My Immortal) but let's be honest about quality, please. (Personally, I don't even think this book has enough substance to be bad in an interesting way, but if you've found it, more power to you.)
Also, I can see now that this text heavily inspired Megan Fox's Pretty Boys Are Poisonous and can't help but think the popularity of Lovelace's work have something to do with how Fox's ended up so badly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
The tagged warnings are listed the front of the book, along with these untaggable ones:
-Trauma
-Menstruation