Women Are Some Kind of Magic Series by Amanda Lovelace
In Amanda Lovelace’s first collection of poetry she explores the hopes and struggles of her past and present by leaning into fairy tales and themes we all grew up with. She explores subjects of toxic relationships and self-love by setting them against the backdrop of fairy tales to give herself (and her readers) a happy ending.
This first collection is separated into four parts; the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. Lovelace lets the last part, “you” focus on the reader while the first three sections focused on herself. Lovelace explores a raw and honest take on love, loss, grief, and healing with this collection that connects to the reader in a personal way.
This second collection follows a singular character more so. We have the witch, who is powerful, independent, and now – she is indestructible. Lovelace focuses on being strong and unapologetic and excepting of self-love and feminine power in this collection. She also advocates for the reader to realize all of those things and to embrace that in their own life.
The final collection of poems shows that, like a mermaid, we are all more than what people see. Instead of just being the “siren” we are soft and in need of a safe space. One of Lovelace’s themes in this collection is the idea of healing and the courage it takes to get to that place. This collection also contains some guest poems by other poets, to allow more voices to showcase unity.
This isn’t your typical poetry. Lovelace doesn’t focus on rhyming lines or meter, nor does she have a heavy emphasis on syllabic beats, Lovelace writes her poems in a more modern way. She focuses on stream of conscience – on how we think or talk.
Note: This entire collection of poems does contain themes of abuse, assault, and healing that Lovelace does warn the reader about at the beginning of each book.
Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.