Lioness Awakens

by Lauren Eden

The Lioness Awakens is an illustrated work of short poems with a bite. Lauren Eden writes provocative poetry about love, sexuality, heartbreak, and feminism, combined in a creative expression of female empowerment and confidence...

I was always
suspicious of those
Happily Ever Afters
disappearing without a trace
with no other pages as evidence.

Genres: Poetry, Contemporary, Feminism

208 pages, Paperback

Published November 6, 2018

About the author

Lauren Eden is a writer from Melbourne, Australia, who began her writing career posting her daily musings on life and love on her popular Instagram account @ofyesteryear She has two published poetry books Of Yesteryear, and most recently Atlantis.

Reviews

[Charlie]

One of my favourite poem is:
"When you are not fed love on a silver spoon
you learn to lick it off knives."
There are a lot of truths coming out of these simple paragraphs.

[Sara Marie]

I seriously read this entire collection in one sitting and didn't regret one second of it! I resonated with almost all of her pieces and found them so clever, raw and insightful. A definite must for poetry fans!

[Ali Hammad]

My first poetry book. Very beautiful and eye opening. It talks about issues women face (which I obv can’t speak to) with very eloquent analogies. It was a very refreshing book and I will look back to my favorite quotes from it in the near future

[Grace (graceisbookedandbusy)]

“When you are not fed love on a silver spoon, you learn to lick it off knives”

I thought this collection was beautiful. So many of the poems resonated with me. It is a reminder that it is the hardships you face in life that can bring out your strength and resilience. It can awaken the lioness we have inside each and every one of us.

[Georgina]

This was a collection of feminist poems centering on the author’s pain, heartbreak and healing. At times it was very bitter and full of anger, and other times it was a deeply powerful sense of facing trauma and beginning to heal oneself. The prose was beautifully written and a reminder that even when we think we are at the worst of times- there will always be an innate ability to heal oneself and recover.

“The moment you were born, your presence was validated. You don’t need a second opinion.”

[Lealea ❤️]

Gorgeous, raw and empowering. I picked this up because of the cover and the title not knowing anything of the author. And now I will read everything that she publishes. If you are a woman (or supporter of women) and you’ve felt small, silenced and not confident to take up space read this. So many favourite poems but this will forever stick:

Yin and Yang

I counted on one hand
Those who had loved me most
Then counted on the other
Those who had hurt me the
Deepest
And when I clasped them
Both together
I could see that peace
Had come to me at last. 🙏🏻

[Rebecca Jane]

3.5 stars.

[Gery]

3.5⭐

[Scarlet]

It can be finished in one sitting but I took two. And I really can't pick one or two sonnets to drop here. Lauren Eden's writing brings out the truths of not so healed hearts of women & beyond to thrive.
Truly, "Sublime"!

[Dakota Boyer]

“We are the ones who found more peace in the wild.” – Roam, Lauren Eden
I sat down last night determined to devour a collection of poetry and boy was I satisfied with The Lioness Awakens. Eden crafts this feminist journey from an insecure adolescent eager to fall into the arms of any man who’d take her to an adult that understands the path they took in life and stands firm to love herself as she is. I found this narrative refreshing. So often in the literary world as well as in real life, we’re given this story where the female protagonist is lacking, and the male savior will make their life better. This is simply a toxic idea forged by the hands of those seeking to keep women subservient. I was so glad Eden broke out of the tired narrative, to give the reader an empowered woman growing into herself.
I found this metaphor she used in her introductory poem to be so true of the modern woman: “But slowly, as time passes and healing begins, her survival-mane starts to fall out one strand of hair at a time as she learns to shed her aggression, her fight, her masculinity, her lion, to live again as the lioness she was born to be.” She truly set this call to action by pointing out the patriarchal system we live in, where dominant women are driven to cast off the femininity inside us, to act more as a man, to be not like other girls. She grips her reader to remind us that there’s nothing inherently wrong with being feminine.
In a world determined to put us in a box, may it be that of girly girl or tom boy, I echo Eden’s proclamation that a woman doesn’t fit in any box at all. We are a spectrum of lionesses on our own journeys, exploring our own interests, conquering the world by our own design. No one woman’s journey is better or worse than any other. There is no one way to be a woman.
So I say, if you’re looking for an empowering feminist read, I highly recommend The Lioness Awakens by Lauren Eden. There are so many poems in this I enjoyed, but Higher Purpose, Ready, Cloth, Written, Tangled, Snare, and No spoke to me particularly.

[Ashley (FridayCab)]

Lauren Eden knows how to write about horrible things in beautiful and attention-grabbing ways. Most poetry is meant to be meditated on, not torn through, but you can muse on this book and still get through it pretty quickly: her poems are simple; the book is divided into sections by topic; and it’s really good.

[Nicole]

I can appreciate the work which is why I give it 4 stars, but the poetry was quite depressing and poetry in general is not my cup of tea. At least I could understand it though! Only read it to complete a reading challenge.

[Cari Miller]

If I could give minus a star I would

[❛ flavi ❜]

good if you're looking for an easy introduction to modern poetry.

i read this book shortly after i found one of Lauren Eden's poems (sentences) on Tumblr. Looking back on it i should have immediately understood it was the first sign that this wouldn't be great. i was hoping to find anew favorite since i feel like my love of poetry is slowly fading, but this was a letdown. it felt more like a collection of inspirational and feminist tweets. in the whole book (208 pages, so about the same amount of poems), i liked two of them.


𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍𝙑𝙀𝘿
"𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙖 𝙨𝙞𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙤𝙣,
𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙠𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨"

𝙋𝘼𝙍𝘼𝙉𝙊𝙄𝘿
"𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚
𝙞'𝙢 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙞𝙙
𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙞 𝙖𝙢 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙
𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙜𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚
𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚𝙣
𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜
𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚
𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚"

[Billie Flaming]

There are some genuinely good poems in this collection.
However, they’re in the minority and surrounded by so many other poems that I can only sum up as “meh”. The tone in each of the chapters/sections jumps around from self-satisfied to suffering to angry to depressed to angry again. None of those things are inherently bad, but I couldn’t easily get invested or connect with the voice of the poems with all the tonal whiplash.
I really wanted to like this collection, but beside the maybe dozen or so poems out of 200-ish, this felt very unremarkable.

[Emilie Pelland]

This book is raw, vulnerable, and powerful. I didn’t connect as much with the first part about a distant father and “daddy issues,” but I appreciated how openly the author shared those struggles.

The last third is where it truly shines. It captures a woman reclaiming her strength, her identity, and her roar.

One of my favorite pieces is the poem Kingdom, where the author declares she is not just a queen from the outside but the whole kingdom on the inside. That line captures the heart of the book, a reminder of resilience, and unapologetic strength.

[A. Faten]

They say that when you don't like a book it means it wasn't written for you.this one definitely wasn't written for me.
Feminism is not my cup of tea so i was just forcing myself to read it till the end because i hate leaving a book in the middle , the only chapter i enjoyed reading was the fourth one " nine lives" . But for sure this is not collection of poetry i would like to reread.
One star for that one chapter

[Jessica Brusven]

I enjoyed this seemingly chronologically organized set of poems on some difficult topics. A lot of the poems are quite bit sized and take just a few seconds to read. I liked that it’s a collection you can read end to end in a sitting (took me less than an hour). There are a few gems of poems, but I personally found many felt like fillers to draw out length. A nice set if you want an intro to some easy modern poetry.

[Samantha Tierney]

This book is not about female empowerment. It is about one woman’s experience with abuse, neglect and encounters with men viewed through this lens. This is not feminism. If you are looking for a book on female empowerment, strength and confidence, this is not it!

[Michelle Sims]

This is the second poetry collection of Lauren's that I have read. I don't think I loved it as much as her first book Of Yesteryear but I certainly enjoyed it a lot. I do highly recommend her poetry and will be reading all her works.

[Brick]

I liked it. I devoured it. Some lines pissed me off because they claim certain things have to do with “womanhood” but really what she is describing relate to many minorities. But these words are through her lens so I understand. My coworker asked to borrow this as soon as I finished it.

[Betty]

I just don't think I'm a poetry girly, I can't consume a lot of it in a short period of time.

If I had stumbled upon on of the poems on it's own I would have been really impressed and made me think a lot but this type of thing just doesn't fit my binge reading style.

[IX]

3.75 ⭐️
Such beautiful message this book was providing. Wasn’t in that much effect on me though because I never dated a man in my life and I shall not do that. But great and amazing writing and beautiful way to deliver a message. Loved it.

[Alliyah]

2.5
Some of these poems would have gone platinum on Tumblr


This felt more personal than anything, like the author is working thru her experiences (especially with men) and how they've impacted her etc. All which is very fair yk, this just wasn't what I was expecting from the blurb.

[Shadress Denise]

As an avid follower of Lauren's on Instagram, I was pleased to see each poem in this book had the same amount of well-thought intensity and passion as the pictures she post. Great book!

[Jovana]

The goddess of poetry never disappoints.

[Andi Valaitis]

This book is amazing. It is beautifully done and such a inspiration.

[Lisa Macon]

Very few poetry collections have empowered me as a woman, wife and mother more than this one. A must read in 2019.

[Erika]

3.5 stars

[Mena]

This book was everything I needed at the moment