This is the final installment to Amanda Lovelace's Women Are Some Kind of Magic series, and I freaking loved it. The author poured her heart and soul and her voice into this one!

I don't know about you guys, but I *always* used to pretend that I was a mermaid when I was younger - whether it was in the pool, at the beach, bath time, the living room floor (wait, I might of been doing the worm). Anyways. Somewhere along the way many of us lost or had our voices weakened - we lost our fearlessness to just be ourselves. We've become so heavily weighed down with the burdens of society nowadays and what is and isn't considered acceptable. We're told not to speak up, voice our concerns/opinions, to act our age (me: nevaaaa), or we're told to just "forget about it." So, often times (and I don't think this applies to just me), I would immerse myself in books to escape reality. Cuz let's be honest, I'd rather be living a world full of elves (oh heyyy, Legolas).

star light,
star bright,
first star
i see tonight;
i wish i may,
i wish i might
flee my skin
for but a night.

- bibliophile

Amanda Lovelace reminds us that it's okay to trust (again), it's okay to speak up, to be yourself, and it's okay to escape reality and pretend to be a mermaid, too. So, if you're looking for an inspiring collection of modern poetry, then give this a try <3.

PS. Please practice safe reading. This book contains triggers of sexual assault, abuse, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Thanks a million to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. Quotes are subject to change upon publication.

i don't write
what i write
to hurt you.

- i write what i write to heal me

Disclaimer: I was granted an e-ARC of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Amanda Lovelace did it again. I've only read a few poems from her previous poetry collections (making a mental note to read other books in the Women Are Some Kind of Magic collection), but I would say that the mermaid's voice returns in this one is a culmination of all the past two books -- powerful, heart-wrenching and full of hope.

This book doesn't only tell Lovelace's story, but it is a collective effort of women who wanted their voices to be heard. It's so beautiful to see that even mermaids who lost their voices can find serenity from words they've been longing to speak. Recovering from the past may be a long process, but talking about it is one step closer towards self-healing.

I couldn't recommend this book enough. I hope you pick this up once it's released on the 5th of March. Pick up the other books from the Women Are Some Kind of Magic collection too. Because poets like Amanda Lovelace will change the world, one poem at a time.

I'll preface this by saying I haven't read the first two collections in the "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" series, or anything else by Amanda Lovelace. That said, I would consider The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One a fairly solid introduction to this poet's work.

The first thing that struck me as noteworthy was the poet's use of a trigger warning at the beginning of the book. Given the majority of this focuses on themes of sexual assault/abuse, I thought this was very thoughtful, and demonstrated a certain amount of care for potential readers.

Considering the content—and after reading the synopsis—I had expected the collection to have an angrier, more aggressive tone. Rather I found the collection's tone to be subtle and uplifting as the poems are also laced with themes of personal growth and change.

I enjoyed seeing the guests poets featured in this collection and I found their poems to be appropriately placed within it. They were just as impactful as Lovelace's, without taking the focus away from her work.

I didn't love every single poem though—where some were lyrical and overflowing with insight, others felt generic. However, this was a beautiful collection overall and one I would highly recommend.

The Mermaid's Voice Returns in this One is the final book in Amanda Lovelace's Women Are Some Kind of Magic series. It was a powerful end for a powerful series.

These poems, inspired by the #metoo movement, are haunting and invoke such anger and fear and hope from the reader. It's a collection of poetry about healing and relearning to love yourself and how you are worthy of love from others.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of poems from other popular poets. Their poems brought me to tears, and I think each writer dealt with trauma and survival in different & unique ways.

t is very rare to find poetry books that do not make me cringe and I relate to mostly. This is one of those rare ones. Amanda Lovelace and her feminist poetry collections is one of my favorite collections ever to had stumbled upon. They were easy to read for me and easy to understand, but they really sunk deep. There is not much to say aside from this was also my favorite out of her Women Are Some Kind of Magic series. This was the least cliche, it was cohesive, and ultimately the one that made me feel the most nostalgic while sticking to me long after I have read the passage.

I have always enjoyed Amanda Lovelace and her amazing writing. This book falls in perfectly with all of her previous books. Something that was very special about this book is that there were many other poets that contributed to this book. This was amazing because the poems fit flawlessly in the books but also because this exposed the reader to even more wonderful poets. I love how Lovelace writes poems that make woman feel strong. She gives them strength in any situation. Thank you to NetGalley and Amanda Lovelace for the chance to read this wonderful book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
I like Amanda Lovelace. I enjoyed her second book and when I finished that I grabbed her first off my shelf and read that too. I thought, I really enjoy her writing. After finishing the mermaid’s voice returns in this one I need to amend my statement to I love Amanda Lovelace’s writing.
Mermaid’s voice is a very personal collection, all of her writing has been personal, and I have always felt it in reading her work but I really felt it in this one. I find her to be incredibly brave to write the things she does and share that part of herself with her readers.
The poetry isn’t for everyone, I know there are some people who don’t enjoy the style in which has become quite popular the last several years and don’t think of it as poetry still. I love it though, I think it allows a different form of expression and I love how it gets played with.
The work that makes up mermaid’s voice is short, sweet, beautiful, painful, and just so incredible. It tells a story of healing, overcoming, and surviving. I love the use of fairytales and othe stories inside the poems, and the last section of the book that includes other writers work that helps further highlight what this collection is about is wonderful. I recognized some names but others I wasn’t sure about but you can bet I want to see if they have more out there.
I’m sad that this will conclude Amanda’s Women Are Some Kind Of Magic series but I can’t see what else she comes up with and shares in the future.

If you've read any of Lovelace's other books of poetry in this series, what you get in The Mermaid's Voice Returns in this one is much the same. I'm hit or miss with Lovelace's poetry. Some of her work I find very powerful, while others don't really click with me. I think the highlight of this volume is the contributing poets. I especially enjoyed the works from Clementine Von Radics, Orion Carloto, and Trista Mateer,

This was such a powerful, compelling read that puts words to Lovelace's deeply personal and traumatic experiences. As a reader unfamiliar with Lovelace's earlier work, this collection definitely made me want to read the first two in her "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" series. I so admire and respect the way that she chose to share her stories with this work and believe it will resonate with any woman who has ever felt that her voice or her agency was taken away. I particularly loved one of the poems in which Lovelace said that her experience is not mine, and mine is not hers, but we can pull out shared pieces from each other to make a sort of stained glass pattern. I found that to be a good depiction of the many stories of the #metoo era and how each is unique and different yet there is still a sense of community found in the sharing. I will definitely recommend this book to all of the poetry fans and women in my life.

• Title: The Mermaid’s Voice Returns In This One
• Author: Amanda Lovelace with guest poets
• Series: Women Are Some Kind of Magic Book #3
• Pages: 210
• Genre: Poetry
• Rating Out of 5 Stars: 3

“You’re the kind of intriguing that inspired thousand-page epics.”

My Thoughts:

I’ve had a hit or miss relationship with Lovelace’s work. This particular collection I liked far more than other’s that I’ve read. There were still pieces that I didn’t connect with but there were far more I did.

Lovelace takes the pain of her past experiences and presents to us a message of strength. That though we may be broken and bruised we are still beautiful and can rise from the ashes of the fire we’ve been put through. Her unique prose can lend to this effect but it can also cause it to lose momentum in places.

I really liked the feature of other poets as well. It was a nice addition to the overall effect of the collection.

I have become a massive fan of Lovelace’s work. I enjoyed this title the most from her Women Are Some Kind Of Magic series. It’s darker than the other two books which is probably why it’s my favourite. I like dark poetry. These poems use domestic abuse and violence as themes and are raw and brutal at times. This collection is certainly not light-hearted. I enjoyed every poem and enjoyed the fact that the lengths varied. I also enjoyed the poems included by other poets that tackled similar themes.

Lovelace's third and final book in her "Women are Some Kind of Magic" collection serves as a satisfying ending, overall improving my opinion of the collection as a whole. I enjoyed the first book immensely and found the second somewhat lacking. "The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One" seemed to fill in those gaps.

Short poetry books like this basically deliver what you expect, and there were as many poems that landed for me as poems that decidedly did not. Overall, it was a quick read. I breezed through it, but the poems that ended up getting me had me holding my breath.

Lovelace's depiction of various harsh issues wrapped in fairy tales and hope hits hard when it does manage to hit. She writes candidly about various issues, such as abuse, eating disorders, and self-harm. The format depicts growth in parts, moving away from abuse and towards hope. Empathy and simple human experience made me ache while reading, in a good way.

The book includes poems by several different guest authors, and while the poetry itself was fine. I didn't particularly enjoy it. I felt there was a bit of dissonance between Lovelace's voice and the voices of the other writers involved. However, there were some guest poems that I enjoyed.

Overall, this is poetry about healing, hope, and survivorship. Even if things aren't okay right now, it will leave you feeling like they will be someday.

Thank you for the early copy.

It is hard for me to assign a star rating or review poetry because it can be viewed differently with each reader. It was a solid collection.

I liked the imagery especially at the beginning, the escaping and story-telling. But as it went on, especially the last section, it did not flow as well with the various poems from other authors. I understand the idea of sharing everyone's unique experience, but it made it feel a little stilted. I think I enjoyed the others a little better, but still was a beautiful collection to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Mermaid's voice returns in this one by Amanda lovelace

*thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, I received a e-arc in exchange for my honest review*

I didn't read this series of collections in order. Which I don't really think is a big deal. I liked The Witch Doesn't Burn in this One. And the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. And I have The Princess Saves Herself in this One sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to read it.

The Mermaid however is one I was so excited for. But I just don't think it was for me. It is considerably softer than the other two. I find it lacks spark though. I do think it is the weakest of the three. But I'm thinking that is due to the fact that I have no connection to the type of trauma that the author has faced. Which is me just not connecting to the topics.

The writing as always is lovely. Amanda Lovelace has a wonderful style of writing. I always take a bit to adjust to the lack of capitalizations, but I get over it. It's a style that works well for this collection specifically. It is softer to look at it. And flows differently.

I'm going to give this a 3.5.

I want to enjoy Amanda Lovelace's poetry because it seems like it should be my jam. So I keep picking her collections up, but so far none has really touched me. Her poetry just doesn't seem to mesh with me. Part of that might be the fairytale references - I don't love fairytales and am not interested in retellings at all, so this is very much a "me" thing and not a "book" thing. On the other hand, the mermaid theme was much less present than the princess or the witch were before, which is definitely a plus in my books and makes me curious what the author will do with other poems that aren't so closely referring to fairytale imagery.

I do appreciate the overall message, but I just don't gel with the execution and the structure of the collection. I'm sure lots of people feel differently, but I find it very hard to relate to so many of these poems because especially in the first half of the collection, most of the poems are so filled with bitterness and pessimism, which is just not me at all. I understand the anger and where it comes from - and it definitely is justified - but sometimes it just feels like shouting at an empty wall and wondering why there is no feedback. While the second part of the collection takes a more positive turn (as the collections in the Women Are Some Kind of Magic series tend to do), it just takes too long to get there for my taste. For that reason, part iii ("the song") was also by far my favorite section - there are a few poems that I am sure will stick with me.

I think my favorite thing was when the author played around with the formatting of the poem and the words on the page. Experimental formats are something I always like and with this style of poetry - where most lines are just one to three words - it's so nice if there is something to break up the usual flow of the words on the page.

I appreciated that other poets were included in the last section, however it did make the collection feel a bit disjointed toward the end. Still, this was a great opportunity to read some other poets that I might be looking into more in the future!

The third book in the poetry collection by Amanda Lovelace is written in the vein of modern poetry. Personally, the final section of survival was the best part of the collection.

A solid follow up to her other poetry, This is a quick and thoughtful read. It made me think. I love her approach to twisting fairy tales into feminist messages

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC!

First of all, I wanna thank the publisher for including a trigger warning.
It's the final poetry collection of the “Women are some kind of magic” series.

It's a good book, that hopefully will encourage victims to speak about their experiences with sexual violence.

I have absolutely loved these poetry collections and I’m sad this is the final one! Beautiful poetry. Definitely a future reread.