You can find this review and more on my blog!

#1: The Princess Saves Herself in this One ★★★★☆
#2: The Witch Doesn't Burn in this One ★★★☆☆
#3: The Mermaid's Voice Returns in this One ★★★★☆

i didn't come here
to be civil.
i didn't come here
to sit you down
with a mug of tea
& a blueberry muffin
to coddle you as
i try to convince you
that respecting
my existence is essential.

Much like the first book in this poetry series, Amanda writes about feminism with a pleasantly surprising level of intersectionality and care; she touches on topics like transphobia, menstruation, rape culture, body-shaming, eating disorders, romanticization of abuse, and more. Her thoroughness is the reason I keep coming back to her writing - as well as her unapologetic nature when it comes to tackling rape and abuse culture in particular.

That said, I struggled with the same problems I saw in her first book:

1) Repetition - much of the poetry in this book feels and sounds so much like the first book, or like other poems within the same collection. I feel like I read the same phrasing a few too many times, though I won't count off for this one as it'd probably be less noticeable if you didn't read every poem back-to-back like I did.

2) Her writing - something about her writing voice reminds me very much of the poetry I wrote on MySpace as a teenager, and not in a good way. If it was occasional, it would be a really enjoyable, nostalgic touch, but since it's almost every single poem, it begins to feel very dated.

3) Inspirations used - there were three or four pieces in this book that felt like that had been lifted almost verbatim from inspirational quote images and tumblr posts I've been seeing float around the internet for years. It would be one thing if it was vague wording or base paraphrasing, but some of the imagery painted is just too on-the-nose to ignore. It gave me a weird feeling of deja vu throughout several pieces.

Despite the issues I felt, the content is important. We need more feminist pieces. We need more rants about rape culture, abuse, transphobia, misogyny, and body shaming. I will forever applaud Amanda for taking the steps that she does to promote intersectional feminism through her work, and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys poetry of its kind. While I will probably not pick up her future works, as I think this book made me accept that her writing is not my cup of tea, I would still encourage you to give this book a try.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for granting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!