I posted a bit about Embodied over on the Love in Panels Instagram account, but I loved this book so much I wanted to make sure it got to as many sets of eyes as possible.
I received a digital review copy of the book but never got around to reading it, so when I saw it's shiny glory on display at my local indie bookstore, I picked it up. The cover is truly gorgeous, a computer image doesn't do it justice. (It's shiny in that silver-blue-purple way that only the best drag gowns are.)
I got home and immediately read the whole thing, but I’m going to have to reread. Embodied is very good but also very layered, and I need to revisit now that I've read the discussion questions at the back.
One of my favorite things about the book is that each poem is done in comic form and then typed out in a page or two immediately following the illustrated version. As with a lot of poetry, many of these poems have a visual component just to the text and reading it both ways have me a deeper understanding of what the writer was going for, what the artist wanted to add.
Really loved this. It’s queer and joyful and sad and speculative and soft and violent and encompasses so many identities.
I’d love to have a group discussion about this someday. (Just say when, friends)
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Content Warnings: abuse, violence, prejudice, cancer, pregnancy, childbirth, body dysmorphia, pretty much anything that can and does come of living as a woman or someone with a female-presenting body
