A standalone poetry collection, Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things ‘explores the complexity of femininity through alternating wildflower and wildfire poems‘. As always their eloquent words touch on sensitive topics such as sexual assault, misogyny, cheating, trauma, child abuse, body image, eating disorders as well as others. This addition to my Lovelace library is very much in keeping with their signature style of hard-hitting topics produced and presented in such an articulate and powerful way. This collection was released October 2021, and you can definitely tell its a book of the times with a few of its pieces relating to Covid-19. It’s full of such raw and touching imagery that you can’t help but let the words take you somewhere else.
The contrasting tones of soft, whimsy musings are contrasted with the fierce, warrior-rage that radiates all kinds of mighty, hell-raising divine energy. These contrasting voices are accompanied by artwork mimicking their tone. The soft with illustrating pages of a pastel pink meadow, full of blooming flowers while the fiercely voiced poems are mirrored by a starry night sky with tendrils of smoke rising from a field of red roses aflame; much the same as the book cover.
While these contrasting elements were absolutely beautiful and the artwork was a lovely addition, at times I did find it distracting. Some of the poems were so gripping and held such weight for me that I’d become entranced by that viewpoint (usually the fierce), only to flip the page and that energy dissipate because I’d flipped to the soft side. This happened a few times to me and if I’m being completely honest, was quite distracting. It weren’t something that ruined the book for me by no means but was just something that I noticed throughout my reading.
Overall, I loved this book. It’s such a welcome addition to my collection of their works and while I know there are some on the Goodreads page who weren’t that keen on it, I personally loved it! I cannot wait to return to it at some point in the future and experience it all over again.
Have you read Flower Crowns & Fearsome Things? What did you think? Let me know.
Cheerio for now!
withsomejam 