Review: The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One by Amanda Lovelace

Title: The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One
Author: Amanda Lovelace
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date published: March 5th 2019
Format: eBook
Page Count: 210
Source: ARC via NetGalley

Rating: 2.5/5

**Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

Amanda Lovelace wraps up her “women are some kind of magic” series with her final installment of the mermaid’s voice returns in this one.

While I had high hopes for this one, I did not enjoy it as much as I did the previous few in the series. I believe my biggest issue with the writing was how I found some of the poems incoherent and mal entendre.

The book, like the series, reflects back again on the MeToo movement, but as a result, the messages that it contains become a bit repetitive. When reading Lovelace’s second book, the witch doesn’t burn in this one, I found a sense of empowerment and passion that was laced in each and every poem. This one, however, lacked the strong feelings and backbone that the rest of the series had.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing all the homages and cultural references, whether it’s Maleficent, the little mermaid, or Romeo and Juliet. And needless to say, among the words and constant parallel structures, there are several phrases that are quite memorable.

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

i write what i write to heal me.