I was expecting something more is why I feel disappointed with after reading this book. Some of the poems are great, but for me a lot of them I simply can't relate. The art is very beautiful, I just wish there are more to it or did something in me. But unfortunately this time, this collection is not for me.

Overall Rating: 3/5⭐
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💭The description had made me have high expectations with its promising words.
💭While some of the poems were absolutely filled with depth and meanings I failed to connect with some of them even or neutral basis (talking about poetry in general)
💭Maybe because some of them were excerpts from another languages and books so a brief background check before every poem would have made the respective poets thoughts more vivid to the reader.
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Overall, this book is a lovely enough compilation of poem and prose. I’d say about half are outstanding, empowering pieces. Some of the others I found a bit obscure and a bore, lacking both poetic artistry and content.

This is a really round book, carefully crafted. I was delighted reading the introduction - seeing in the real world all the feminist theories I am currently studying at uni - and I really enjoyed reading the poems. I was particularly excited to be reading poems by certain writers like Margaret Atwood, Gertrude Stein and Sandra Cisneros because I already had heard of them, although later it surprised me and I only enjoyed reading the one by Cisneros - I also discovered other amazing poets along the way.
The only thing I felt was missing in the book is a brief description/explanation or even a really simple analysis of each poem, either before or after each one. I hope this review can reach either the publisher or the author and maybe they can consider including this in further editions.

This beautiful collection is designed for those who can appreciate the art poetry in all of its manifestations.

These poems are deep and complex. I was delighted to see some of my old favorites such as Mary Oliver, Margaret Atwood, and Emily Dickinson alongside other female poets who were new to me.

The collection begins with a fascinating essay that traces the the roots of feminism. Although I already knew a great deal of the information, the essay in and of itself was poetic and perfectly set the stage what the reader was about to encounter.

Although this book is relatively short, it has incredible depth. It took me several days to work through these poems because these pieces demand to be taken seriously. I found myself retreading all the pieces and working to tease out their meaning. It was an excellent mental exercise and extremely edifying.

The collection's opening volley is the eponymous "Here Are Girls Like Lions." This booming number made me sit up and take notice.

This piece is then followed by a fleet footed translation of the famous Sappho. Carson does an excellent job bringing this ancient poet leaping forth into modern English.

The collection moves from references to ancient mythology, with a delightful inversion of the Siren's song by Atwood, and at last brings the reader into the present. It is clear that the pieces have been carefully arranged. Each piece picks up on the nuances of the surrounding works. The juxtaposition of the various poems helps the reader to draw out the themes that connect the diverse poems.

My favorite aspect of this collection was the excellent diverse representation of female poets. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing my sisters' voices from across the world. I was also introduced to many poets who were entirely new to me.

The book is ornamented with bright and colorful illustrations that add a depth as well as a sense of untamed wildness to the poems. These illustrations make the perfect compliment to the text.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of poetry, especially if you are interested in the voices of women or other traditionally marginalized groups.


Note: I received a free digital advanced reader copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a wonderful collection of work spanning the female experience with love, loss, identity, and self. This collection ties in beautifully with all the poems while maintaining the individuality of each poem. I got this collection from NetGallery and I'm so glad I did!
I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for good collection of poems!

I really wanted to like this work but found I couldn't. The poems skewed towards a very dark view of womanhood, which was disappointing, as was the decision to rehash very well known poems in what would be a very slim (although very nicely illustrated) volume. I would have preferred more diversity of poets and perspectives.

This collection of poems was so boring. I expected it to be interesting and full of woman empowerment, but it wasn't.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Here are girls who'll play tug o' war
with your heart or your wishbone
Or your throat, oh."

The foreword is an insightful piece on feminism through the years, and I'd recommend reading it. The artwork in this books was so good that it made adobe digital editions crash multiple times.

I love the sheer variety of authors and subjects within this collection. There wasn't really any connection between the poems other than they were about the experience of women. I would recommend picking this book up.

I think I was hoping for a lot more impactful poems that punched you and proclaimed womanhood in a stronger way? These were all great poems, but I wanted more of the lion theme suggested in the title to exist throughout the collection, for the poems to be more motivating and inspirational for all women.

I don't read a lot of poetry but when I saw There are Girls Like Lions on Netgalley, I loved the cover and the title and I
decided to step outside my wheelhouse and try it. The collection covers many different styles and eras from the ancient Greek poet, Sappho to present day. For the most part, I enjoyed this collection although perhaps because I do not normally read poetry, I admit that some of the poems seemed incomprehensible to me and, to be honest, I liked the illustrations and the forward best of all. However, as a woman who grew up in the era of second-wave feminism and has watched with sorrow, the loss of so much that was fought so hard for and, as I follow the struggles both old and new, of third-wave, I can only applaud any collection whose intent is to empower women.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

I really enjoy poetry collections.  I like them when it’s a collection from one author, but more so, I like curated collections from a variety of authors that focus on one topic.  Its refreshing to read different voices and tones that discuss a similar topic.  In There Are Girls like Lions, the subject at hand is women.  The poems in this collection cover a wide range to time and race, as well as different aspects of womanhood of what that entails in life.  I was offered an eARC of this book to review through NetGalley.  Thank you so much to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for allowing me to read this text before it is published on March 5th, 2019. 

I would 100% recommend this for anyone to read, especially women.  The foreword to this book, written by a contributing poet, is a very intriguing and powerful short piece.  It discusses, loosely, some of the feminism movements in the United States and how they have had an affect on the lives of women as they were happening, as well as today.  Sometimes, it is just nice to read about the power of women to reacquaint oneself with the power we hold.  Many of the poems collected in this book do just the same.  The foreword also makes a positive point to note the power of women’s words and poetry and how through the years the labels associated with literature and poetry written by women has changed so that in includes it as just ‘writing’ versus ‘women’s writing.’  In a world where semantics and language are important, this change and distinctive of social change.  Change that is needed and vital.

The artwork in this book is adorable.  The base colors are pretty simple, but the artwork is full of whimsy and just fun.  All the art features women.  The cover art features three women of differing skin colors, representing unity.  In a lot of the artwork, there are aspects tying it back to the poem it is associated with. 

More importantly, the subjects of the poems are the most significant feature of this collection.  I adore the use of the variety of authors.  There are several that I have heard of and read and others that I have not.  Relationships between women is something that has often been overlooked or portrayed negatively in the past.  You can see this reflected in how women call and talk to other women.  Issues of jealous and gossip help contribute to those negative ideas.  I enjoy that in this collection of poetry, relationships between women are brought up front and discussed.  Those relationships include those between friends, those between strangers, those between the living and the female ancestors, and those between mothers and daughters.  Reading poetry that highlights these relationships helped me, as a reader, to reconsider those relationships I have with women and what they mean to me in my life. 

Another aspect of womanhood that has been overlooked and downplayed over the years is the value of women’s work and everyday women’s life.  Women’s work, in a general sense is what helps keep a lot of households going.  I understand that this isn’t the case with all households and that the work that men may do is just a valuable.  Rather, the chief thing is that work done should not be looked over as it has been.  I appreciate that some of the poems in this collection call importance to this work and the prominence it takes.  I also loved that some poems incorporate ancestors and how women are connected to those women, just by being who they are. 

So, as I said earlier, I would highly recommend this book to so many people, especially women.  It’s really nice to read ideas of women and womanhood from today’s poets and those from years ago.  I gave it four stars on Goodreads because I wish it was longer.  Also, I wish there was some sort of introduction to each author.  There is a credit section in the back, but it only lists where each poem came from.  There are several poets who I would have loved to learn a little more about before reading their poetry.  Otherwise, it was good and I hope everyone reads it when it comes out!

I really enjoyed this small collection of poems by women - from ancient Sappho to modern-day Warsan Shire - about being women. The accompanying artwork was gorgeous. My one complaint: it's too short! There are way more women poets and poems that deserve to shine alongside these gems!

A great concept with beautiful illustrations but I only really enjoyed a few of the poems. A little lackluster and didn't really live up to the great idea and lovely cover. A little disappointed but a gorgeous package nonetheless.

A collection with an empowering title and a beautiful cover. The poems were okay, but none of them stood out to me. I do, however, appreciate the intention and overall message.

This is a lovely collection of poems that can appeal to women of any age, especially in our current society. It details the hardships and happiness, as well as so much more. It is a great collection that anyone would find joy in..

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This collection was okay, but I can't help but feel disappointed by it. A few of the poems were enjoyable but I just didn't click with the vast majority of them.

I really like the concept, and the artwork was really nice, but I only actually liked 5 of the 28 poems (my favourite being "There Are Girls like Lions")
That's not to say the other poems were bad, they just weren't really for me.
One thing to consider is to not put a full-page artwork in the middle of a poem, as this confused me a few times.
All in all, this was okay, but not really great

Disappointingly not my kind of read~

I’m not sure if I was too shallow to understand the poems or if it was because the poems didn’t really make much sense to me. I did not enjoy it that much although I did find some parts that I could relate to.

It was not a negative experience but I did not truly enjoy it too. Even so, I must give praise to the beautiful illustrations. They definitely captured women uniquely.

I got a copy of this book to review from Chronicle Books through NetGalley.

As a note, a copy of this novel was sent to me via NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

While I didn't totally hate There Are Girls like Lions, and found a good few poems to be thought-provoking, new-to-me and powerful, the collection as a whole just didn't work for me. Not completely. I found that the foreward was wonderful, that there were some standouts in prose, but the better portion of this collection felt choppy and incoherent. And I'm so, so, so disappointed in myself for just not connecting with it full-time.

But, it happens. My experience with There Are Girls like Lions wasn't fully negative but it wasn't exactly positive, either. In the better moments, there were various poems that made me nod my head in something like encouragement or agreement. In its lesser moments, I spaced out and had that nagging thought: am I going to finish it? In its in-between moments, I had just enough curiosity to finish the collection and consider what I was feeling.

In half, I did find the collection to have that emotional charge required in poetry. Some of these works, or writers, were familiar to me and there was already that groundwork of kinship between the words and me. I liked the illustrations that I could see (my galley was a bit... off, so I'm not certain that I was able to view everything) and thought they amplified the experience.

Throughout, I couldn't shake the feeling that not everything fit together. Did it excel in vocalizing the experience of being a woman? Yes. I just felt like, in order to be all it could be, there should have been more to it--and a lot more coherency.

Then again, is life ever coherent?

There Are Girls like Lions wasn't my favourite collection but it certainly was an experience in its own right, and I don't regret picking it up.