Book Review: “the princess saves herself in this one”

Amanda Betters
Staff Writer

Fall has come  and it can mean different things for many college students. It can mean wearing the newest fall trends or consuming as many pumpkin spiced lattes as one possibly can.

Others may find their solace in fall weather by reading books. There has been one book that I had the privilege of reading and it is called “The Princess Saves Herself in This One” by Amanda Lovelace.

WARNING: The book does contain material that may be sensitive to readers and Lovelace does include a note in there to practice self-care before, during and after reading the book. Also, it doesn’t hurt to be familiarwith poetry.

The book is broken into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen and you. It does deal with very heavy issues and there is a tone of feminism to it as well, but it doesn’t necessarily fall into the “in your face” category.

Lovelace discusses parental abuse and it is unclear if she herself was the one that suffered from it, but I think it can hit home for many readers. The book discusses eating disorders and one of her poems mentioned how sticks and stone never broke bones, but words made someone close to her starve themselves until her bones were visible.

This subject really tugged at my heartstrings because I have two family members who suffered from eating disorders. This particular piece of poetry can really make others take a step back and see it from another perspective and realize that words really do have an effect on others.

One of the heaviest subjects in this book is talking about death and one prose really dives into the death of Lovelace’s mother. It goes on to talk about how her mom who was a smoker for 40 years and she contracted lung cancer, which would ultimately take her life.

Lovelace has a very interesting way of stringing her poetry together, but I think there is many pieces that can be very relatable for others. Lovelace includes lighter subjects, where she discusses how she met her fiancé.

One of Lovelace’s proses mentions how her soul knew her fiancés before they even met, and she compared it to coming home from a very long day. This is relatable to me because before meeting my husband, days would seem long and heavy. It no longer feels that way because I am able to communicate my feelings to him and it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

The ending of this book is what surprised me most of all and it had poetry aimed towards Lovelace’s readers. I thought this was very interesting twist because most poetry writers will wait to leave a note for the readers to look at once the book has been completed.

It seems as though Lovelace is trying to communicate with the readers is to never let anyone tell you what you’re worth. If there should ever come a day when you look in the mirror and start questioning yourself, then it’s about time to take that mirror and smash it to pieces.  You should use those fragments to make stepping-stones towards your own self because the only person who can decide your own self-worth is you.