This eARC was provided through NetGalley from Andrews McMeel Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw the third installment of Lovelace's "women are some kind of magic" collection, I squealed. A high pitched, girly, super exited squeal. I loved the first two of the collection- (read my reviews here and here) and I was pumped to find that NetGalley had the third, ready to download, no request required. It immediately jumped to the top of the TBR line, which I figured was perfectly fine because I knew I'd devour it in a day.

In The Mermaid..., Lovelace (as usual) starts the collection with a trigger warning, which moves on to a forward from Lang Leav that introduces the rest of the collection. Leav mentions what power the voice has, and sets the preface for what is to come while reading. Next, Lovelace tosses in a few "from the poet" stanzas that grab the reader's attention. Then, the collection is broken down into four parts: the sky, the shipwreck, the song, and the surviving.

The Sky kicks off with some powerful poems of what I interpret to be Lovelace's past traumas. There are poems of abuse, rape, and childhood molestation, which transition into how she escaped there terrors as a child with books and fairy tales. Though clearly affected by the past, the author still finds solace in the idea of love, of the fairy tale endings, even when she is struggling to believe in their true existence.

The Shipwreck is a continuation of The Sky, but progressing into adulthood and relationships. Still dealing with abuse, still trying to find solace in fairy tales, still trying to find love but only finding the heartache. I felt this section is where Lovelace is showing her loss of voice. She knows she should have spoke up, but wasn't able to find her voice to do so.

The Song is the return of the voice. It is where Lovelace calls out those that have done wrong, and stating that they will never take from her again. There is also forgiveness and closure, which I've noticed as a trend in Lovelace's work. The reader can see the therapy in the poetry and the power behind it.

Finally, The Surviving starts out:

"a chorus of mermaids cried out to her then, "DON'T BE AFRAID TO SING..."

Lovelace calls upon her fellow poets and together, they compose the last section of the collection, sharing poems from Caitlyn Siehl, Clementine von Radics, Trista Mateer, Gretchen Gomez, Noor Shirazie, Jenna Clare, Ky Robinson, Yena Sharma Purmasir, Morgan Nikola-Wren, McKayla Robbin, Sophia Elaine Hanson, Orion Carloto, and Nikita Gill. It's a strong roll call, and every other page is from Lovelace, filling in with "morals of the story"-style poetry.

Lovelace has yet again nailed it. At first, I wasn't sure if I enjoyed The Mermaid... as much as I enjoyed The Witch... because the latter was such a strong battle cry, but the more I read into the poetry, the more I understood that even though it's a quieter voice, it is still extremely powerful. I will be purchasing a finalized copy for my collection, and I encourage others to do the same.

Expected Publication Date: March 5, 2019

(This review will be posted on my blog (www.thelexingtonbookie.com) at a future date.)

The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One is the last book in Lovelace's Women Are Some Kind of Magic series.
I really appreciated how the author dealt with the theme of sexual assault and being both a victim and a survivor. I think it was really well done and I enjoyed all the poems about healing.

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

- i write what I write
to heal me.

This collection also includes some guest poems from leading voices in poetry and I must say that I really enjoyed them.

Amanda's writing always evokes a certain feeling in me. There's vulnerability and strength, hurt and healing, rawness and beauty in it. She opens up herself honestly and tells her personal story bravely. Not every poem speaks to me, but as a whole, this book reminds me about healing, hope and better days ahead.

Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy.

This book has a very storybook feeling, but for adults. It has many darker themes, as there is a trigger warning in the beginning. It definitely resonated with me and made me feel like I didn't have to guess the meanings. It was relatable with pop-culture references, like Harry Potter and fairy tales. Sometimes it felt romanticized and starry-eyed, and other times it felt hopeless and helpless. It is definitely worth reading.

I have always been a fan of Amanda Lovelace and have read every single one of her poetry collections. I find that she provides an intimate portrayal of womanhood, in it's raw, real form, the one that's irrevocably beautiful and utterly damaged by society.

Each of her collections has a different theme, and this one was based around the mermaid analogies and sexual abuse. Her narrator, presumably herself, experienced a great deal of violence and abuse in her relationship with a man who can be assumed deceased, based on her narration. It was as if she took to paper and wrote her experiences and poured onto what she had not yet dealt with internally. It was painful to read, but gave a voice to victims of all abuse and will hopefully spark social change.

I was surprised to see this come after "To Make Monsters Out of Girls" because I felt as though this was a painful reveal that should come BEFORE her more empowering novel to show the optimism moving forward. However, perhaps Lovelace had other intentions, and far be it from me to criticize someone who is clearly more in touch with femininity and vulnerability than myself!

I’m not always a poetry person, but I have really enjoyed all three of this series. The Princess Saves Herself in This One is still my favorite, perhaps because it was most relatable to me, but perhaps because I listened to the audiobook and got a better understanding of how it was meant to sound. To feel.

I’ll try to remember to pick this up as an audiobook when my library gets it.

I will admit that before I started this book of poetry, I already knew it would speak to me. Amanda Lovelace’s mermaid voice has sung throughout her books in this series and each one has found a different part of my soul and spoken directly to it. I am lucky enough to say I haven’t experienced some of the worst of what Amanda writes about, but that doesn’t stop it from being impactful. This book will make you think of your broken parts in new ways, and I left it with a determination to sing my mermaid song in ways I am able. This book had poems by additional authors and some of them spoke to me, others were not my style, but all built themselves into Amanda’s story and helped to make the tone universal and broader than even her other books. Overall, I recommend this to fans of this series, to those who have ever been hurt, who are healing, who need hope, who want to help others find their voice, and most of all to the princess/witch/mermaids inside us all.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Take a breath. You’ve been through a lot. You started as a princess, trapped. You found yourself a damsel, distressed. Then you made yourself a queen, took back your magic and raged at the world that did this to girls and women like you. It’s time to take care of yourself now. Think of this as a therapy session – it won’t all be soothing, some of it will be upsetting, but at the end, you’ll feel so much better. You’ll feel heard.

once again, Amanda has outdone herself. She is someone I look up to a lot in the poetry community, and I loved every second of this collection. She's the type of poet that makes you think, "I wish I wrote that." Each book in the "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" series followed the same pattern, but each brought something new to the table. I was so enchanted the entire time I was reading this. It is definitely something everyone should read. I wish to be at least 1/4 of the poet Amanda is <3

I read and really enjoyed Amanda Lovelace's first two poetry collections. While I hardly ever read poetry, these collections really spoke to me. I know these might not be for more 'classical' poetry lovers but I think these types of poetry can open up the genre to a whole new audience. And with topics like the one's Amanda is discussing I think these are so important to young people.

I liked the different types of formatting we got in this third collection. This was a bit different compared to the first one, as I only listened to the second one as an audiobook I'm not sure how the formatting was there. But here we not only get the 'enter after a couple of words' format, but also one where the whole poem is written like a paragraph without any enters.

In the last part of this collection there are some poems by other people included. The font for these is a bit different so you can easily tell which ones aren't by Amanda. Unfortunately I wasn't as interested in most of these. I think there were two I really loved but the others weren't really for me. I do like what the author tried to do there.

While reading the mermaid's voice returns in this one I am once again amazed at me not liking Rupi Kaur's work as I think most people will either like or dislike both authors. They have a similar poetry style, but while I find Amanda's work so heartfelt and it really resonates with me, I just don't click with Rupi's work. Or at least not when I listened to Milk and Honey (did I see a little reference to that in one of the poems here? or was that just me haha?), I might give her work another shot after once again enjoying this one.

I also just had to share one poem, because it brings together a heartbreaking message and my greatest fandom <3
"when i tell you i'm still waiting for my hogwarts letter, what i mean to say is i never meant to be here for so long.
-forever wandering lost & wandless."

I absolutely love Amanda Lovelaces poetry collections. They are so beautifully written. She is raw and brutally honest about the struggles that women face. It is absolutely heartbreaking but done so well. It has made me feel empowered as a women. I would highly recommend this and all of her poetry collections. I have already pre ordered this to add to my collection.

Reading this book is like taking a journey through recovery, for Amanda Lovelace tells her truth and speaks about her own experiences. But she’s not alone. In the last part of this poetry collection, “the surviving”, different poets contribute sharing their own pieces about surviving and healing.

“the mermaid’s voice returns in this one” is the third and final poetry collection in the “women are some kind of magic” series, and it’s a fantastic way to end this series.

I haven't read the two previous in this series, but now I think I'll go check them out! This book was able to stand on its own, but also feels like the final chapter of a series.

I can only offer a lay[wo]man's perspective on poetry, but once I got use to her style, I found the collection quite moving. It starts off especially heavy, heavier than I thought it was going to be, but we're broken down so we can be built back up by the author. The additional works by other contributors really added to the solidarity of Part 4. I appreciate the confessional quality of Lovelace and I enjoyed this glimpse into her personal journey thus far!

The third installment is as beautiful, heart-breaking and empowering as Amanda's first two poetry collections.
What a treat Netgalley!
All about finding your voice again after horrible things happened. Trigger warnings at the beginning of the book (which I think all books should have) for abuse, assault, gun violence, eating disorders and more.
If you like Andrea Gibson and Roxane Gay, please pick this up. You won't be disappointed.

"when I tell you i'm still waiting for my hogwarts letter, what i mean to say is i never meant to be here for so long"

Firstly I'd like to thank Netgalley for the oportunuty to read this amazing book by Amanda Lovelace, with amazing poems by amazing woman as well as hers about abuse, recovery, and loving it's self. Would like to thank Amanda and the other's that participated in this gorgeous book of poems for bringing this story to life with a few poems but that speak so much.

"can't
a prince
a princess
a n y o n e
just
come along
& gaze
upon me
with such
adoration
it's
as if i'm
the gem
of the deep,
not the rubble
of pompeii?"

It's not the first I hear about this books of poems from Amanda Lovelace, 'the witch doesn't burn on this one' was such a big name in 2018, even in Brazil, everyone was talking about. But this is the first one I'm reading. And now I'm for sure having to go and find the first ones.

the mermaid's voice returns in this one is separated in parts, all very moving, all very touching, with great poems that all together bring forth the story of abuse and slow recovery, of struggle. all with beautiful and well written little poems.

"today, i love the way i look in my sundress & its not because someone else convinced me too"

The first part is the start, how it all began, how she feels, the second is the aftermath, then we have the struggle of the recovery, of the trying to recover, and then we have the return of the mermaid voice.

It's not a easy read, and at the same time it is a easy read. the writting, the how the book was made, makes it easy and smooth to read, but it's the story behind that makes it hard. The fact that so many mermaids lost it's voice and still didn't recover it, the fact that it's really quite possible as how the world is that so many will lose it still. But it speaks of being strong, of being the Ariel of your own story and getting your voice back from Ursula, of the villain. Not to say it says it's easy, that it will be Disney and in a snap of fingers it will all be happily ever after. Oh no. But it speaks to you, even if you haven't been through it, and it moves you. And I think it's a very recommended read for sure.

"be stronger then than the villains.
be every storybook heroine come to life"

What a moving book of poetry. But I'd expect nothing less from Amanda Lovelace.
This book, I feel is targeted towards bookworms and shows us that it is okay to want to dive into our fictional worlds as an escape. But there is the point of knowing when we aren't using it as an escape anymore, when we are using it to cope, to hide how we are really feeling. Knowing when to seek help.

Incredibly written as always. A great read.

Amanda Lovelace wraps up the Women Are Some Kind of Magic series in spectacular fashion. It lives up to the evocative and exceptional language of the first two books. And as always with her poetry, I'm left feeling cleansed and calm.

I loved that she included poetry from other writers in the last section of the book. It's given me a whole list of poets to check out.

This is such a perfect conclusion to the ‘women are some kind of magic’ series. So many moments that feel just like a perfect strike to the funny bone... you’re laughing but it also hurts like hell. I already know I’m going to wear out this book from flipping back to my favourite pages.

Amanda Lovelace wraps up her Women Are Some Kind of Magic series with a beautiful and heart-wrenching collection of poetry, "the mermaid's voice returns in this one". Lovelace's poetry packs a punch, in large part due to her ability to write pain and strength succinctly. This collection focuses on sexual violence, rising from the ashes, and getting your voice back. She asks readers, "Victim or Survivor?" and eventually lands on the answer, "Both." The back cover of this book reads "and she tore the stars apart". This collection of poetry is an empowering and important read.

This is the second book by Amanda Lovelace i've read and i can confirm that i still do not like her poetry style. I managed 50% before i got annoyed with how the poems all felt pretty samey and they did not really connect to me. This tumblr style poetry works for some but it's not my kind of thing however much i try.