What happens when the man of your dreams turns out to be a nightmare with sharp teeth and claws?"
Winner of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Poetry, amanda lovelace presents her new illustrated duology, “things that h(a)unt.” In this first installment, to make monsters out of girls, lovelace explores the memory of being in an abusive relationship. She poses the eternal question: Can you heal once you’ve been marked by a monster, or will the sun always sting?
Review: This is a fabulous new collection of poetry by one of my favourites, Amanda Lovelace. This is going to be the first in the Things That H(a)unt Duology. If you loved Amanda's previous books then you will definitely like this one and this has awesome added illustrations which loosely connect with some of the poems in this book. I can definitely see myself going back to this book and looking at these beautiful illustrations again.
This book is broken into three sections; Monster-Boy, Monster-Girl and Sun-Heart. So the book itself forms the same sort of story arc that a novel might, we see the girl, we see her go through some things and then we get a happy ending of sorts. I really like the fact that we have this kind of arc because I think that this is what makes Amanda's work so accessible to those of us who are newer to poetry but read lots of novels, they are very easy to follow.
Some of my favourite poems in the book include 'The Question II and I'; 'Two Sentence Horror Story' and 'Don't Try to Waste Your Time Again'. The writing in this book is so beautiful, despite the fact that is covers serious issues and topics which may make people uncomfortable, it is always just wonderful to read and definitely fills me with hope. I did cry at a couple of these poems too, which is a first for me. The book does cover some topics which require care warnings including abuse, eating disorders, self-harm, alcohol, religion, death, gore, fire and blood. Overall I thought this was a great addition to my bookshelf and I am sure it will be a great addition to yours too!
I also have a video review of this one over on IGTV if you would rather hear me speak about this rather than read the written review!
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