Book Review: Poisoned Apples: Poems For You My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

"A bloody poetic attack on the beauty myth that's caustic, funny, and heartbreaking." -E. Lockhart

I couldn't have put it any other way. I started and finished this book last night, and I've never been so overwhelmed by a handful of poems.

Poisoned Apples is a collection of 50 beautiful poems, relating to old fairy-tales and childhood stories but in a more realistic, teenage girl sense.

The book deals with themes of feminism, self-love, self-worth, dealing with boys, dealing with best friends. 

A personal favorite from the book would be:

Nature Lesson:
'The dress code says
we must cover ourselves
in
ample pants,
skirts that reach well below
our lascivious knees,
polos buttoned over
the rim of the canyon,
a glimpse of which can send a boy
plunging to such depths
he may never climb back up
to algebra.

We say
that if a hiker strays
off the path, trips, and 
winds up crippled,
is it really the canyon's fault?

Heppermann's writing was completely breathtaking. Another prime example is:

Sleeping Beauty’s Wedding Day

After the kiss and the trip to the castle comes the

showering, shaving, shampooing, conditioning, detangling, trimming,
moussing, blow-drying, brushing, curling, de-frizzing, extending, texturizing,

waxing, exfoliating, moisturizing, tanning, medicating, plucking, concealing, smoothing,
bronzing, lash lengthening, plumping, polishing, glossing, deodorizing, perfuming,

reducing, cinching, controlling, padding, accessorizing, visualizing, meditating,
powdering, primping, luminizing, correcting, re-curling, re-glossing, and spraying.

No wonder that hundred-year nap
just doesn’t seem long enough.

The book also tackles eating disorders. I loved The Anorexic Eats a Salad. It really opened my eyes to our teenage world.

Poetry wasn't really my thing, but now... even if you've never read a poem since third grade, read this. You won't regret it.

4.75 stars