Powerful and intimate…
Torrellas charts nearly thirty years of emotional survival, raw heartbreak, and eventual healing in this poignant collection. The book unfolds in thematic chapters, each capturing a stage in the poet’s emotional evolution. The early poems, filled with heartache, confusion, and unmet longing, reflect the voice of a woman still within the grip of her abusers. In “The One,” she writes: “Is it yes, or is it no?/ If you love me, tell me so.” Gradually, the tone shifts. As the poet reclaims the narrative of her life, anger surfaces—not unthinking rage, but a righteous clarity. In “Nothing,” she writes: “I was in a cage I never noticed/ Was in the room,” and then, with stark repetition: “You made me feel like I was nothing./ Nothing. Nothing. NOTHING”—a refrain as much as an indictment.
In later sections such as “Restoration” and “End of the Tunnel,” she turns her gaze toward family, new love, motherhood, and creative rebirth. “It feels good to want to be home,” she writes in “Restoration,” where love is finally safe and mutual. Though the emotional weight of the book can feel overwhelming when read in one sitting, it’s a necessary immersion. Torrellas asks the reader to sit beside her, not to look away. And in doing so, she extends a kind of quiet invitation: to reckon with our own stories, to name our own wounds, and perhaps, to believe in our own healing. A stunner.
Pub date July 1, 2025
ASIN B0FB2VC8RP
Price $34/99 (USD) Hardcover, 13.99 Paperback, $3.99 Kindle edition
