This is the first modern poetry book that I have ever read. Sure, I’ve read what English lecturers at uni consider to be ‘modern’ poetry… from the 20th century. But I mean like MODERN poetry. I have heard so many amazing things about this collection of poetry and I follow Amanda on Twitter and she is one hilarious, yet truthful human being.

A poetry collection divided into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, & you. the princess, the damsel, & the queen piece together the life of the author in three stages, while you serves as a note to the reader & all of humankind. Explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations.

Whilst I was reading this poetry collection, I kept my coloured tabs handy so that I could tab all of the poems that really captured my heart. By that I mean the poems that I could really relate to, not in a broad sense because that would have been nearly every single one, but the poems that seemed like they came right out of my autobiography. And there was a lot! I wish that I could share with you all of the poems that I loved, but in order to do that, you should just go out and buy the collection, otherwise, I would be writing down nearly every single poem in this blog post. But I’ve picked out a couple for you that really sum up what this poetry collection is like:

the princess i was born

a little bookmad

i could be found stroking

the spines of my books

while i sat locked alone

inside my tower bedroom.

all the while, I hoped my books

would spill their exquisite words

over the lush green carpet

so i could collect them one by one

& savor them like

berries inside my mouth

– forever a collector of words

fuck the idea

that there is

such as thing

as destiny,

that there exists

some kind of

mysterious master plan,

that there is a god who

simply

does not

give us anything

we cannot handle.

the pain

did not

make me

a better person.

it did not

teach me not to

take anything

for granted.

it did not

teach me anything

except how

to be afraid

to love anyone.

i am

dar too

young

to be so

goddamn

broken

&

if i could go back

in time

& give

myself

her childhood

back,

                       i would.

– what was the point?

I have heard (and read) a lot of debate surrounding this type of poetry, with people calling it ‘Tumblr spacing’ and saying that anyone could do it and get published. My answer? Do it then. Try and see how easy it is to put your deepest and darkest secrets down onto paper and turn them into fluid yet snappy poetry that people across the world can relate to. It’s hard. And anyway, what is the definition of poetry? It doesn’t have to rhyme or look a certain way or talk about a certain subject. Poetry can be/look/sound anything that you want it to be and modern poets have done exactly that; Amanda included.

This collection of poetry was heart-breaking and I related to so many of the poems on so many different levels. They were beautifully written and Lovelace conveyed her point of the poem with excellence but still left some of them open to interpretation, letting the reader add their own story into the poem.

Overall, I was impressed with the collection but it’s not the type of poetry that I’m blown away by. It took me 45 minutes to read and I was pondering over the poems for a good two hours afterwards.

Disclaimer: this was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review