A collection that surprisingly began as a Wattpad book! Ikr.
Dates Read: 21/05/2023 to 23/05/2023
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Word to describe: Average
Genre: Poetry
Never in my days did I think I would find a poetry collection by Amanda Lovelace that left me feeling like I had read beginner and average poetry. Now, I'll acknowledge that this particular book originated on Wattpad and was later edited and published for the fans but I feel like there was so much that I had expected this book to be and yet, I failed to grasp the deeper meaning of the words and the poetry felt dry and emotionless.
There is a trigger warning right at the beginning of the book that describes the poetry the reader is about to read and contains the themes of abuse and possible sexual abuse amongst many other things. And, as much as I don't like to say this I was looking forward to a gritty collection of poems that encapsulate the true horrors of this world and the people that abuse their power against their victims. The poems in this though, didn't feel that they covered these topics at all. The writing was extremely vague and the limited level of imagery and the heavy focus on monsters (fangs, claws, and much more) came across as a collection of poems that had been haphazardly placed together and a so-called trigger warning was added for the sake of intrigue for the reader.
There are many things that this collection could evolve to be. The common theme of monsters and broken people was brilliant and with more work on these poems and truly finding ways to dissect them and come to terms with a deeper meaning that properly represents the poetry would work better. Or maybe I just completely misunderstood the poems? My point is that these poems did not live up to the standard I had set in my heart and the expectations I had for Amanda Lovelace's writing based on her more recent publications (honestly if I had read this book first and not her newer poems I can't promise I would have deep dived into buying all of her collections).
Judgment aside, I did like some of the poems. I can't say they were all bland and average because there were a few that really captured the essence of youthful and messy life. Take for instance the poem titled "This isn't a haunting; it's a hunting" (photographed to the right). This poem immediately caught my attention and I can relate to the denial that this character has towards the negatives of a previous relationship. I could dissect this poem and offer my own interpretation of the words - but I'll leave that up to you. I will say that out of all the poems in To Make Monsters Out of Girls, this was the one poem that I felt truly met my expectations and was a perfect match to the theme, the trigger warnings, and my general expectations.
Overall, I do enjoy poems written by Amanda Lovelace. Her writing is beautifully poetic and she will, most likely, always remain my go-to poet to read. In this instance, I could not fully connect to the writing and was, sadly, left disappointed.
Comments