Strawberry Blonde: a poetry book

by Gabriella Rose Loya

Strawberry Blonde is a book for those craving the words to loss, to grief, to heartache, and heartbreak. This book has dug deep to find those words, in hopes it finds its way to the hands of those looking.

96 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2018

Reviews

[Sara Vossler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poems was written by someone I knew and went to school with for many years. I have followed her writing through social media and am always amazed by the raw emotion she conveys through her poetry. This book was inspired by her grief after her boyfriend Tristan died. I never met Tristan, but I feel like I know his soul after reading this book. The poems vary in length from a line or two to a page. The poems are free verse and have no titles, and no clear beginnings or endings. You can read each page as if it is its own work or you could read the book from beginning to end. Each poem could flow into the next. Reading feels like the ebbs and flows of grief you feel when you have lost a love one unexpectedly. That raw, unrelenting rage, grief, and emptiness you feel on the dark days. Gaby's honesty is what makes this book so powerful. She holds nothing back. You feel the love and hope she had for her life with Tristan and then you feel it being ripped away again as she grieves. She ends with hope of how her life can continue and gratitude that she got to experience Tristan at all. The conflict between her happiest memories and her darkest days shine through and make this book into a worthwhile emotional rollercoaster.