The Princess Saves Herself in this One by Amanda Lovelace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved the interplay of fairy tale elements and female growth in this magical poetic journey. I think some of the readers maybe didn’t make it all through–even things that are seemingly clichéd seem meant to be so as this piece offers a complicated perspective on the female’s role in the world. Sections on themes such as falling in love are meant to be clichéd, I think, because accepting the heteropatriarchy is itself something of a cliché.

I am especially excited to bring this to future students as a text that well demonstrates how we can bring the everyday into our writing—and how the mundane itself can be something magical. I particularly love love loved “what are you/going to do with your/english degree?”—it reminded me of Ruth Forman’s “I Will Speak Genius to Myself” as a piece about how much is spoken in our silences.

Fabulous debut! I’m so thrilled to only have a few months left before the next in this series is released.

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