Dragonhearts by Nikita Gill, Amanda Lovelace, and Trista Mateer

OUT OF PRINT
Amazon

Content/Trigger Warnings: Partner violence, domestic abuse, child abuse, emotional abuse, stalking, queerphobia, sexism, mental health issues, body image issues, bullying, trauma/PTSD, death, violence, gore, self-harm

“There is a spell for almost anything and if there’s not a spell, there is at least a poem.”

The top three best selling poets; Trista Mateer, Nikita Gill, and Amanda Lovelace come together in this empowering poetry collection, Dragonhearts. The authors use fairy tales & myths to create something that is both timeless & extremely relevant to present-day issues, such as the #MeToo movement, reclaiming your voice, & the shared power of self-love & solidarity. This book is a reminder that romantic love does not need to be the main plot of your story, sometimes friendship is.

This has Amanda Lovelace so of course I was going to pick this up! However, trying to find a copy was incredibly difficult and I definitely think they need to do a reprint just for the fact that it is a very sought after poetry collection. If, you manage to snag one of these, never let it go because the words written within these pages…they will do something to you.

I say this all the time, but I love when a poetry collection shatters me in the best possible way or makes me feel things that I thought have been asleep for years. There are incredible pieces from this poetry collection that have broken me, pieced me back together, and broke me all over again. It’s the best kind of heartbreak to feel because it means you feel what the author or in this case, authors are sharing on a deep and emotional level. It made giant waves in my heart and I think the best way for any reader to take this book on is to go in blind and know that there are heavy topics that will make you emotional or be triggers.

I’ll be honest, I never read anything by Trista Mateer and the only work I’ve read of Nikita Gill’s was Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul, and that wasn’t the best of experiences. However, I am very familiar with Amanda Lovelace’s work. Her poetry collection To Make Monsters Out of Girls completely wrecked me and since then I have loved her work. Seeing the three of these authors come together in this poetry collection, they really balance each other out, personality wise. This has made me reconsider Gill’s work and has encouraged me to pick up more of her work (to test the waters, if you will) and it put Trista Mateer on my radar for more poetry collections to read, experience, and enjoy. We really get to see the uniqueness and individuality of each author and how well they bounce off of one another, and I kind of loved that!

My only issue with this poetry collection was the lack of organization, themes, and direction. We don’t get a sense of what’s happening and poems that are themed and bounce well with one another aren’t always paired together. To give a better understanding, think of a giant maze and you’re running around with no map or any idea of where you’re supposed to go, that basically sums up how this poetry collection is organized. There are quoted images in the book, but if the purpose of them were to be “chapters” or “separators” then they should have come at the beginning o each section and not the end.

“I will not give up the flowers in my heart for stones just because the world is a hard place. The world is only hard because it needs more flower-hearted people.”

Overall, I don’t want to say too much about this poetry collection because a lot of poetry collections are best left with the reader going in blind. As always though, please pay attention to the content/trigger warnings and make sure you are practicing self-care. I personally seek out books that make me emotional and push that border of triggering, but that doesn’t mean that it’s for everyone. And I highly recommend being in the right head space when reading this collection. On another note, I was very pleasantly surprised by this collection and how it left me feeling. Also, the guest poets were absolutely precious and wish we had a little more from both of those guest poets! Just a wonderful experience all around!