Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thunderousdandelion 's review for:
The Lioness Awakens: Poems
by Lauren Eden
“We are the ones who found more peace in the wild.” – Roam, Lauren Eden
I sat down last night determined to devour a collection of poetry and boy was I satisfied with The Lioness Awakens. Eden crafts this feminist journey from an insecure adolescent eager to fall into the arms of any man who’d take her to an adult that understands the path they took in life and stands firm to love herself as she is. I found this narrative refreshing. So often in the literary world as well as in real life, we’re given this story where the female protagonist is lacking, and the male savior will make their life better. This is simply a toxic idea forged by the hands of those seeking to keep women subservient. I was so glad Eden broke out of the tired narrative, to give the reader an empowered woman growing into herself.
I found this metaphor she used in her introductory poem to be so true of the modern woman: “But slowly, as time passes and healing begins, her survival-mane starts to fall out one strand of hair at a time as she learns to shed her aggression, her fight, her masculinity, her lion, to live again as the lioness she was born to be.” She truly set this call to action by pointing out the patriarchal system we live in, where dominant women are driven to cast off the femininity inside us, to act more as a man, to be not like other girls. She grips her reader to remind us that there’s nothing inherently wrong with being feminine.
In a world determined to put us in a box, may it be that of girly girl or tom boy, I echo Eden’s proclamation that a woman doesn’t fit in any box at all. We are a spectrum of lionesses on our own journeys, exploring our own interests, conquering the world by our own design. No one woman’s journey is better or worse than any other. There is no one way to be a woman.
So I say, if you’re looking for an empowering feminist read, I highly recommend The Lioness Awakens by Lauren Eden. There are so many poems in this I enjoyed, but Higher Purpose, Ready, Cloth, Written, Tangled, Snare, and No spoke to me particularly.
I sat down last night determined to devour a collection of poetry and boy was I satisfied with The Lioness Awakens. Eden crafts this feminist journey from an insecure adolescent eager to fall into the arms of any man who’d take her to an adult that understands the path they took in life and stands firm to love herself as she is. I found this narrative refreshing. So often in the literary world as well as in real life, we’re given this story where the female protagonist is lacking, and the male savior will make their life better. This is simply a toxic idea forged by the hands of those seeking to keep women subservient. I was so glad Eden broke out of the tired narrative, to give the reader an empowered woman growing into herself.
I found this metaphor she used in her introductory poem to be so true of the modern woman: “But slowly, as time passes and healing begins, her survival-mane starts to fall out one strand of hair at a time as she learns to shed her aggression, her fight, her masculinity, her lion, to live again as the lioness she was born to be.” She truly set this call to action by pointing out the patriarchal system we live in, where dominant women are driven to cast off the femininity inside us, to act more as a man, to be not like other girls. She grips her reader to remind us that there’s nothing inherently wrong with being feminine.
In a world determined to put us in a box, may it be that of girly girl or tom boy, I echo Eden’s proclamation that a woman doesn’t fit in any box at all. We are a spectrum of lionesses on our own journeys, exploring our own interests, conquering the world by our own design. No one woman’s journey is better or worse than any other. There is no one way to be a woman.
So I say, if you’re looking for an empowering feminist read, I highly recommend The Lioness Awakens by Lauren Eden. There are so many poems in this I enjoyed, but Higher Purpose, Ready, Cloth, Written, Tangled, Snare, and No spoke to me particularly.