Featured Review of Nasty Woman

This book is filled with hard-hitting lines that bring you back to feelings you've burrowed in the shadows. It's like a cup of coffee: bold, warm, and aquired taste, an instant favorite for most and for few, a thing that grows on you.

Samantha touches on how the body keeps the score, putting words to habits we all struggle with daily. Discussing the traumatizing events within poems like Untrue Lessons has your heart in a gut wrenching grip, seeing words that you've been afraid to admit aloud splain across a page.

She captures the true nature of the dark alleys of girlhood: self-isolation, going into places you don't wish to return, and subconciously recalling memories that you never want to experience again. Feeling isolated and doing everything possible to keep someone you don't even want to stay in Scars is almost a universal experience. In Love Languages, depicting the safe space we create [for men] as women who are seen as blankets to be thrown over rotting tables. In We Were All Eve Once and Build a Woman Workshop: portaying stripping off your identity to appease others.

As you read, you watch the struggle with letting go of the past and embracing the growth you have made because of it. She explores the human wrestling match of faith that we all ask ourselves, even if we won't admit it to anyone else. The reoccurant theme of finding peace within your body is a topic of conversation that doesn't diminish with time and wisdom, but she puts her honesty on a page for young girls and wise women alike to feel seen and heard. Samantha debuts with a beautiful collection of poetry that will have you thinking about it for days to come.