[eARC Review] Poinsoned Apples by Christine Heppermann

Friday, September 26, 2014



Title: Poisoned Apples
Author: Christine Heppermann
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Poetry
Format: Hardcover, 128 pages
Release Date: September 23rd 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Source: eARC received by publisher via edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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Every little girl goes through her princess phase, whether she wants to be Snow White or Cinderella, Belle or Ariel. But then we grow up. And life is not a fairy tale.

Christine Heppermann's collection of fifty poems puts the ideals of fairy tales right beside the life of the modern teenage girl. With piercing truths reminiscent of Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins, this is a powerful and provocative book for every young woman. E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars, calls it "a bloody poetic attack on the beauty myth that's caustic, funny, and heartbreaking."

Cruelties come not just from wicked stepmothers, but also from ourselves. There are expectations, pressures, judgment, and criticism. Self-doubt and self-confidence. But there are also friends, and sisters, and a whole hell of a lot of power there for the taking. In fifty poems, Christine Heppermann confronts society head on. Using fairy tale characters and tropes, Poisoned Apples explores how girls are taught to think about themselves, their bodies, and their friends. The poems range from contemporary retellings to first-person accounts set within the original tales, and from deadly funny to deadly serious. Complemented throughout with black-and-white photographs from up-and-coming artists, this is a stunning and sophisticated book to be treasured, shared, and paged through again and again.



I really do not know where to start with this book because I loved it so much and I really do not want to ruin the experience for anyone else. I am usually not one to gravitate toward poetry of any kind, but when I saw that this one had a small page count and was related to fairy tales, I knew i had to know what it was all about. What I did not expect was to fall so hard for this author and the way that she writes.

These poems are about women and girls and what it is like to grow up in our world. It can be hard and there are thousands of ways that we get pressured by society, family and friends to look, act and say things in a certain way. And these poems do that by attaching themselves to fairy tale characters that most girls have either read or seen in movies. I think I loved this correlation because it made so much sense to me. Of course these characters from our favorite books and movies would have had pressures on them and it was that link that made me stop and think about what I was reading. These poems are not just wining girls talking about how much the world sucks, they are talking about real issues that face girls in our society today and honestly when I was reading I felt myself getting emotional because no girl deserves to think less of herself because someone else thinks she can be better.

I honestly cannot say better things about this book. I know many people will shy away from it because it is solid poetry but this book has an amazing message and i think it should be read by all because even if you don't like the way its written, the meaning behind it is still incredibly important.

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1 comments

  1. So you definitely caught my interest! I love the cover and I love fairy tales... I am not going to lie the fat that it is poetry did scare me a bit but it seems that it is still worth giving it a try :)

    Ashley @ The Quiet Concert

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