Book Review: The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

my neck bending back

as a white lily stem does

just before the

breath-taking & breaking

he leans down

to kiss me with his

beautiful, blood-rusted 

chainsaw mouth,

& the next morning,

all the ladies of the village

have their favorite shade of 

blood splatter lip stain

named after me.

- abuse is nothing to romanticize

the witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace

Amanda Lovelace’s recent women are some kind of magic volume of poetry, the witch doesn’t burn in this one is all about us women unleashing our woman-rage-fire on an unjust, unsafe, and deeply disturbing world like the fire-breathing dragon queens we are. Daenerys Targaryen better scoot over and make some space on the throne for us she-dragons. We’re here, we’re ready. 

Consisting of four acts-- I. the trial, II. the burning, III. the firestorm and IV. the ashes, the witch doesn’t burn in this one is a book of poetry centered around women’s resistance, activism, and pressing social and political issues. The trigger warning Lovelace puts at the very beginning acknowledges that some of her content is of a very sensitive nature (she includes domestic abuse, rape, murder, and child abuse among other topics) shows that she’s conscious of and thoughtful towards her readers. It marks the beginning of an urgent, enraged and unflinching pseudo-narrative that depicts the horrors women have been through, and many of the normalized but ultimately warped and dangerous mentalities (“boys will be boys!”) that dictate how we’re seen and treated. 

There are many things to appreciate in the witch doesn’t burn in this one but I have to touch base on what I found to be problematic, contradictory, and even puzzling in the book. 

Unpopular opinions? Maybe. But I’m not afraid to speak my truth. After all isn’t that one thing the book advocates? Smashing censorship along with the patriarchy? 

These are my feelings. 

1. Extremism runs rampant in this book.   
At times the witch doesn’t burn in this one is excessively harsh, burning with resentment and misandry.

2. It also seems to justify and encourage misandry. 
Listen, some men out there have done some unfathomable cruel and hateful acts towards women. But to dedicate much of a book that started off with the purpose to empower and unify women towards generalizing all men as nefarious, wicked abusers is a complete contradiction to Lovelace’s urging that “we can’t lose our empathy”.

3. It’s repetitive and emotionally draining. 
The sheer disgust, disdain, and refusal to be demure and silenced radiating off the pages of the witch doesn’t burn in this one started off packing a punch. A rousing call to action, it could easily get some readers to pump a fist in the air and scream, “You tell ‘em, girl!” But as the pages go by and the poems go (mostly) unchanged it rapidly became draining. It was emotionally exhausting to have to wade through so much of the repetitive rage.

4. The “ingredients” of the poems 
The poetry is well... very design focused. The format of it, or how appealing it is on the page seems to be what received the most attention. As a consequence, some of the content is rather one dimensional. It appears to have been sacrificed for the sake of making the pages look “edgy”, “powerful” and “cool”. This is apparent in the emphasis on the wide spacing in and between the stanzas and Lovelace’s love affair with using her “enter” key to make as many new lines of text with as few words as possible. White space is relied upon to encourage the poems to feel more potent and affecting but really, it just becomes tired and bland. The stylistic choice of lower case type I can deal with. All those spaces though… 

I do want to end this review on a positive note and say that while the witch doesn’t burn in this one didn’t knock the hula hoop cat socks off my feet I really like the book overall as a whole. I appreciate how *accessible* Lovelace makes this for readers. How it acknowledges all women, not just straight white cis women. It may be seething with misandry and hostility at times but it’s very women-inclusive and not pretentious. (Bonus points for including fierce literary + pop culture femmes June from The Handmaid’s Tale, Katniss from The Hunger Games and Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones in some of the poems!)

Despite my four possibly unpopular opinions, I do recommend this book. And I do respect Lovelace. That her book was published AT ALL is a heck of a victory. Not just anyone could pen and publish poetry like this. Nor would, say, 10 or 15 years ago just any publisher take this and give it a physical form and send it out to the world for millions of readers to experience. I commend Lovelace’s courage and strength to go forward with this. The topics she writes about in the witch doesn’t burn in this one are no cakewalk. Her resiliency, passion, and her unwavering drive to speak openly about these hot button topics gives her some serious cred in my books. 

I may not have fallen head over heels for Amanda Lovelace’s poetry in this volume but don’t let the be a deterrent. Please do hit up your local town or university library or bookstore and give the witch doesn’t burn in this one a glance. See how Lovelace’s words resonate with you and make your own decision about what the book means to you. 

gifs from Giphy 

So friends, have you read the witch doesn’t burn in this one? Or Amanda Lovelace’s first volume the princess saves herself in this one? What did you think?! 😊