I’ve heard many good things about Lovelace’s poetry, and finally, finally I decided to give it a try. I haven’t read much modern poetry and was skeptical of this after not really caring about Rupi Kaur’s milk and honey, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It’s truly a talent to convey so much emotion in so few words, and that’s what Lovelace does in the princess saves herself in this one. The book is divided into four parts—princess, damsel, queen, you—with the first three about their life and the last more generalized, directed toward readers and society. What all four have in common is how emotional they are, how raw and real each one felt as they discussed various life struggles and societal issues.

i am
a lioness
who is no longer
afraid to let the world
hear her
roar.

  - an ode to me.

However, there were two things I wasn’t such a big fan of. One, the dashed notes at the end of each poem were hit or miss for me. Regardless of my thoughts on individual poems, sometimes those notes...ruined the vibe, so to speak? And two, while there were a handful of pieces that really spoke to me, some others felt too short or too plain, like an oddly-formatted sentence. Take what I say with a grain of salt, as I personally know very little about poetry. I’m just expressing opinions.

So anyway, the princess saves herself in this one was a good, super quick read and a nice introduction to Lovelace’s work. I’m not currently sure if I’ll read more from them, but I do know, at least, their poetry can be used to catch up on my Goodreads challenge.

CW: abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, suicide, depression, grief