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maiborn's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mistyknights's review against another edition
3.0
Not bad. Not great, but the concept of this collection is very appealing to me so that earns an extra star. I just wish all the poems were equally strong, but the quality is really up and down throughout the book.
serenaac's review against another edition
5.0
Jeannine Hall Gailey's Becoming the Villainess is a unique volume of poetry housing poems stemming in Greek mythology to comic book characters.
Gailey's images are crisp and immediate with recurring uses of pomegranates, wolves, and other items. Alice in Wonderland, Wonder Woman, Persephone, and many more make appearances in Becoming the Villainess, which is separated into five parts. At the end of the book, Gailey includes brief descriptions of the myths inspiring the poems enclosed within its pages.
From "Female Comic Book Superheroes" (Page 5)
Impossible chests burst out of tight leather jackets,
from which they extract the hidden scroll, antidote, or dagger,
tousled hair covering one eye.
They return to their day jobs as forensic pathologists,
wearing their hair up and donning dainty glasses.
Of all the goddesses, these pneumatic heroines most
resemble Artemis, with her miniskirts and crossbow,
or Freya, with her giant gray cats.
Each has seen this apocalypse before.
Each section in Becoming the Villainess examines the evolution of female characters from innocent girls to darker, vengeful women, but these characters are deeper than stereotypical comic book characters, mothers, and goddesses. While some of these poems have a lighter, tongue-in-cheek quality to them, some of them drive home the deep dark horrors found in many legends, myths, and real-life events. One particularly jarring poem in the collection is "RememberingPhilomel," in which a professor is asking for grittier details of the narrator's sexual assault.
Becoming the Villainess by Jeannine Hall Gailey is a wonderfully insightful collection that looks beneath the surface of myths and sexy comic book characters to find their motivation, their desires, and spunk.
Gailey's images are crisp and immediate with recurring uses of pomegranates, wolves, and other items. Alice in Wonderland, Wonder Woman, Persephone, and many more make appearances in Becoming the Villainess, which is separated into five parts. At the end of the book, Gailey includes brief descriptions of the myths inspiring the poems enclosed within its pages.
From "Female Comic Book Superheroes" (Page 5)
Impossible chests burst out of tight leather jackets,
from which they extract the hidden scroll, antidote, or dagger,
tousled hair covering one eye.
They return to their day jobs as forensic pathologists,
wearing their hair up and donning dainty glasses.
Of all the goddesses, these pneumatic heroines most
resemble Artemis, with her miniskirts and crossbow,
or Freya, with her giant gray cats.
Each has seen this apocalypse before.
Each section in Becoming the Villainess examines the evolution of female characters from innocent girls to darker, vengeful women, but these characters are deeper than stereotypical comic book characters, mothers, and goddesses. While some of these poems have a lighter, tongue-in-cheek quality to them, some of them drive home the deep dark horrors found in many legends, myths, and real-life events. One particularly jarring poem in the collection is "RememberingPhilomel," in which a professor is asking for grittier details of the narrator's sexual assault.
Becoming the Villainess by Jeannine Hall Gailey is a wonderfully insightful collection that looks beneath the surface of myths and sexy comic book characters to find their motivation, their desires, and spunk.
thndrkat's review against another edition
4.0
A nice, fresh take on fairy tale and fantasy characters, but some of the poems fall short of deep, satisfying characterizations and come off as mere sketches.
subtle_sarcasm's review against another edition
4.0
If you have any interest whatsoever in either feminism or poetry, you should probably own this book.
booksnomnom's review
5.0
I love the poems in this book. I love how the stories are timeless, although they incorporate modern myths like Wonder Woman, that the language sings, that I can find myself in them or a self I would like to be or a self I would like to hold my hand out to and help stand back up. They remind me to be strong.
I reiterate the other reviews: these are poems for those who may not think they like poetry, they are contemporary and timeless, and so very relevant.
I reiterate the other reviews: these are poems for those who may not think they like poetry, they are contemporary and timeless, and so very relevant.
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