rupi kaur – …on the B.L.

Read Yes
Length 176
Quick Review Nikita Gill transforms traditional fairy tales into beautiful pieces of poetry in Fierce Fairytales extending beyond the stories we are familiar with. Reading this was supremely satisfying.

Petal_Crusade-62 — Reading *Fierce Fairytales* by Nikita Gill

This is one of those tiny books that pack a powerful punch. Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill is an intense 176 pages of poetry. She uses traditional stories to talk about issues affecting today’s world. It is a seriously feminist undertaking, but she advocates for men and women within the pages.

The stories are retellings. Although, I wouldn’t call it a traditional retelling. Some provide background, others new perspective, and some are epilogues. The women in the stories are strong without need of being saved. They are powerful yet underestimated. The women manipulate men the only way they can – the way women did for centuries – by allowing them to believe the women are in need of saving all the while gaining more power and confidence in themselves.

Gill uses fairytales to discuss abuse of many kinds because abuse is extremely present within them to begin with, but since we grew up with them as normal, we view them as acceptable behavior. Some of the abuse Gill touches on in Fierce Fairytales is gaslighting, rape, domestic violence, abandonment, and more. There is also a lot of focus on racism; how people of color feel they and their struggle has been forgotten by the world and society.

Petal_Crusade-56 — *Fierce Fairytales* by Nikita Gill

The book is a book of poems, but some of the poems are written in prose form. Even her prose has a beautiful cadence to it. Her syntax, language, and rhythm pulls you in deeper as you read. The poems are often paired with illustrations, which pull the reader into the story even more. The combination is stunning. It is reminiscent of Rupi Kaur’s poetry in the sun and her flowers (read my review: here).

One of my favorite things about Fierce Fairytales is the complexity of it. Gill forces the point that nothing is simple, black-and-white, cut-and-dry. Life and abuse are complicated issues. People have reasons and motivating factors behind their actions. Abuse leads to abuse is a running theme through the book. In one story, Gill explains Cinderella. In the following story, Gill takes on the perspective of the evil stepmother. This juxtaposition reveals the complexities of life; showing people are not born evil.

Fierce Fairytales is a piece of literature, which will stick with me for quite a long time.

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Memorable Quotes
“Princes fail all the time.”
“First and foremost, girls are survivors.”
“A clever woman is more lethal | than a freshly crafted wand,”
“anxiety makes more heroes than history would care to repeat.”

Title: Fierce Fairytales; Poems & Stories to Stir Your Soul
Author: Nikita Gill
Publisher: Hachette Books
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780316420747

Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review A collection of poetry that is both deeply emotional and eerily undemanding.

In honor of the sun and her flowers being on the shelf for a month, I am publishing my review of Rupi Kaur’s collection.

Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet, who rose in fame through Instagram. After self-publishing her debut collection milk and honey with extraordinary success, her book was picked up by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Two years after Milk and Honey, her second and much awaited for collection the sun and her flowers was published on October 3, 2017.

As a student of literature, I have spent an exorbitant amount of time reading poetry for both pleasure and scholarly necessity. Through much practice and discussion, I have been able to unlock the difficult language of poetry. Reading it is an exercise in patience and detection. Poetry is often inaccessible.

I have not read Kaur’s milk and honey… yet. I picked up the sun and her flowers a bit hesitant because I have stayed away from poetry for awhile. The two adjectives I would describe this book with are: deep and accessible. I have never read poetry quite so accessible. It is no wonder she has met with such resounding success. Kaur is creating a generation who can appreciate poetry for what it is: beautiful.

Thematically, the sun and her flowers span issues of heartache to sexual assault to masturbation to death to immigration to beauty to infanticide and more. It is safe to say, there are few emotional heart strings Kaur does not strum. As a woman, it is impossible to read her work without feeling a kindred spirit. You can find my favorite poems on pages 65, 91, 173, 220, and 224. Although I love them all, these were some of the most powerful for me.

Kaur’s work ranges from a few lines to several pages. Usually each poem is accompanied by an illustration Kaur drew herself. Though they are simple drawings, emotion is deeply evident. Kaur’s writing style is unique. She was born in India, but she grew up in Canada. Her poems do not utilize capitalization or punctuation outside of the period. This is out of respect to her cultural and linguistic heritage; the Gurmukhi script only has one case and one punctuation mark. Kaur has mentioned she enjoys writing in this style because it indicates an equality between letters, which is non-existent in the English language.

I could not recommend her work more. It is beautifully rich in issues, emotions, and thought provoking sentiments.

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Memorable Quotes
“you’re everywhere, except right here”
“from head to foot i am layered in dust”
“it takes a broken person to come searching, for meaning between my legs, it takes a complete. whole. perfectly designed person to survive”
“i am willing to pay any price, for a beauty that makes heads turn”
“how can i verbalize consent as an adult if i was never taught to as a child”
“if i just learn to act like a lady”
“i have survived far too much to go quietly”
“my twenties are the warm-up, for what i’m really about to do”

Title: The Sun and Her Flowers
Author: Rupi Kaur
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781449486792

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Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill

the sun and her flowers