99 pages
Published 2022
Read September 5
Rating: 4 out of 5
I hit a bit of a reading skid there. I was trying to do more with my kid before summer ended, and then some awful things happened at one of my favorite periodicals (which I’ll touch on in a later review). So I haven’t had the time or the heart to read much at all these last two weeks.
This is a lovely collection of poems that explores both the darkness and the magic of fairy tales. In “shades of darkness and blood,” Parent explores the cunning and secrecy required to survive as a woman in patriarchal society: the looming violence from wolves and men, the narrative of inferiority and expectation of submission, the steady suffocation of her own desires. Even the most dutiful and demure girl might lust for a taste of blood.
Eroticism and bloodshed pulse through many of the poems, wild and strange cruelties charged with birdsong. Cages and the branches of the wildwood are mirrors of each other; both can promise a form of escape. Love is a curse that binds its children to toil, to brambles, to emptiness. Parents make a wish in hopes for a child; the child is left to bear the curse of its consequence.
Some particular favorites:
“Into the Forest”
“Red Hood in the Woods”
“Clawed Creatures”
“Little Cages”
“Poissonnier”
“Part Two: Little Houses”
“Little Bones”
“The House on Chicken Legs”
“Thorns and Wings”
“Skin and Salt”
“Blessed Curse”
“Epilogue: Disenchanted”
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