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WOMXN: Sticks and Stones: Acrostics and Poems to Reclaim the Words that Have Hurt Us
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words need never hurt you. A tool for transformation and resilience for womxn
Sticks and Stones is a powerful reclamation of the slurs and insults thrown at womxn for centuries. It's a righting of wrongs - a rewriting of sexist, belittling and shaming language. It's a tool for breaking free from the stereotypes and impossible standards used to confine womxn, transforming them into messages of resilience and resolve. And, most importantly, it's a rallying call for change, healing and empowerment.
No matter your race, age, sexual orientation or gender identity, this book is for all womxn everywhere. It takes the words, slurs, insults and labels that are used to diminish womxn every day and breaks them down and tears them apart. It transmutes and rewrites these words - sometimes with all of the pain they trigger, sometimes in the form of positive affirmations, mantras and poems - all told in acrostics.
With their underlying meditative rhythms, these acrostics are also a remedy for healing wounds and empowering womxn to have the confidence to be their true selves. You can dip in and out, or read it cover to cover. You can come back to, and work through, any words that resonate with you.
Lexy also offers clearing meditations at the back of the book to help you tackle the words that hurt you most, helping to remove them from your past, present and future.
Sticks and Stones is a powerful reclamation of the slurs and insults thrown at womxn for centuries. It's a righting of wrongs - a rewriting of sexist, belittling and shaming language. It's a tool for breaking free from the stereotypes and impossible standards used to confine womxn, transforming them into messages of resilience and resolve. And, most importantly, it's a rallying call for change, healing and empowerment.
No matter your race, age, sexual orientation or gender identity, this book is for all womxn everywhere. It takes the words, slurs, insults and labels that are used to diminish womxn every day and breaks them down and tears them apart. It transmutes and rewrites these words - sometimes with all of the pain they trigger, sometimes in the form of positive affirmations, mantras and poems - all told in acrostics.
With their underlying meditative rhythms, these acrostics are also a remedy for healing wounds and empowering womxn to have the confidence to be their true selves. You can dip in and out, or read it cover to cover. You can come back to, and work through, any words that resonate with you.
Lexy also offers clearing meditations at the back of the book to help you tackle the words that hurt you most, helping to remove them from your past, present and future.
128 pages, Hardcover
Published September 7, 2021
4 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 3, 2021
I am still in awe of how much this book moved me, how much it bothered and made me feel things. I suppose, it is understandable because it speaks to the raw lived experiences of many women in the world who have been called many terrible words by men.
Lexy Wren-Sillevis writes, 'Words cast spells over us. Words are powerful. In safe hands, and from the sweet mouth, they can coax you into your best self, lift your day, ease your fears. Yet in wounded, suffering, punishing hands they can suffocate and hold us under.'
The above is true to many of these words, and even worse when reading the acrostics that the author has assigned as a way to reclaim them and give them new meaning. I found them triggering in a sense that they unmade me, they undressed me and left me all exposed; which is something that the author - even without meaning to - sought to do, to force an unravelling inside you that will leave you feeling different when you reach that last page, that last word. And the illustrations were just as impactful; through the use of colour, interpreting the poems and acrostics to paint a vivid and emotional, and sometimes literal, picture that the collections hopes to convey.
You cannot heal without going through a metamorphosis first, and that is what reading WOMXN: Sticks and Stones felt like. The book is a confrontational edict, a collection of bad words made right, 'a righting of wrongs, a rewriting of the words that diminish us'.
I was motivated to dig into my own past, my own darkness and reclaim a word that has already been reclaimed by my siblings but people still use to impose their hatred on us: "Faggot".
In closing, to reiterate my point on rebirth and healing, Wren-Sillevis states that 'sometimes we need to be woken up, and [...] being triggered can sometimes be the beginning of a deep clearing for people.' It forces you to question why a certain word or acrostic makes you feel like that, prompting you to do the necessary work that is needed towards dealing with your feelings and your trauma.
If you have a word you'd like to reclaim, to rewrite and work through using acrostics, I'd love to hear it. This is a safe space.
I am thankful to the folks at Jonathan Ball Publishers for sending me this book, and Lexy Wren-Sillevis for writing it.
—Nkeshyy 💋
Lexy Wren-Sillevis writes, 'Words cast spells over us. Words are powerful. In safe hands, and from the sweet mouth, they can coax you into your best self, lift your day, ease your fears. Yet in wounded, suffering, punishing hands they can suffocate and hold us under.'
The above is true to many of these words, and even worse when reading the acrostics that the author has assigned as a way to reclaim them and give them new meaning. I found them triggering in a sense that they unmade me, they undressed me and left me all exposed; which is something that the author - even without meaning to - sought to do, to force an unravelling inside you that will leave you feeling different when you reach that last page, that last word. And the illustrations were just as impactful; through the use of colour, interpreting the poems and acrostics to paint a vivid and emotional, and sometimes literal, picture that the collections hopes to convey.
You cannot heal without going through a metamorphosis first, and that is what reading WOMXN: Sticks and Stones felt like. The book is a confrontational edict, a collection of bad words made right, 'a righting of wrongs, a rewriting of the words that diminish us'.
I was motivated to dig into my own past, my own darkness and reclaim a word that has already been reclaimed by my siblings but people still use to impose their hatred on us: "Faggot".
In closing, to reiterate my point on rebirth and healing, Wren-Sillevis states that 'sometimes we need to be woken up, and [...] being triggered can sometimes be the beginning of a deep clearing for people.' It forces you to question why a certain word or acrostic makes you feel like that, prompting you to do the necessary work that is needed towards dealing with your feelings and your trauma.
If you have a word you'd like to reclaim, to rewrite and work through using acrostics, I'd love to hear it. This is a safe space.
I am thankful to the folks at Jonathan Ball Publishers for sending me this book, and Lexy Wren-Sillevis for writing it.
—Nkeshyy 💋
September 16, 2022
Very simple yet impactful. I enjoyed the preamble and the meditation at the end. This was a great example of the importance of words and the importance of reclaiming words that may be hurtful or leave their scars. My favourite takeaway was the ease with which the author invites and guides readers to reclaim their own words. This is a book that, although borrowed from the library, I will happily revisit as needed.
March 20, 2022
I really liked this- it was given to me as a gift and it was given at a time I really needed it. The idea of taking words that are hurled at you with the intention to hurt and taking them back and turning them into something to empower is revelatory!
August 30, 2025
This book takes words historically used to insult, stereotype, or confine women and reclaims them through acrostic poems. The result is simple but powerful—turning labels into affirmations and giving new meaning to language often meant to wound. It’s a great source of inspiration for anyone wanting to experiment with poetry, especially beginners who want to see how wordplay can reshape perception.
The illustrations by Margaux Carpentier are absolutely gorgeous—bold, vibrant, and strong enough to stand alone as poster art. To be honest, the artwork is what drew me to the book initially, but the combination of text and image makes the whole work both striking and empowering
The illustrations by Margaux Carpentier are absolutely gorgeous—bold, vibrant, and strong enough to stand alone as poster art. To be honest, the artwork is what drew me to the book initially, but the combination of text and image makes the whole work both striking and empowering
December 27, 2023
A great idea and I think very helpful to do yourself as well. At first I thought the idea was going to be much better than the actual results (in such a way that publishing the results would have been unnecessary), but after reading a couple of the poems back to back you kind of get in their flow and you start liking the poems, their feel and rhythm more.
March 22, 2024
intially drawn to the colour palette and illustrations
very powerful concept
i think it’d make a great gift for a teenager who is finding their place in the world
yet the meditation at the end spoiled (?) this collection for me
maybe the disconnect i felt came from seeing the words written down instead of spoken out loud? i’m sure it could be more impactful as an audiobook
very powerful concept
i think it’d make a great gift for a teenager who is finding their place in the world
yet the meditation at the end spoiled (?) this collection for me
maybe the disconnect i felt came from seeing the words written down instead of spoken out loud? i’m sure it could be more impactful as an audiobook
June 17, 2024
I loved this book it was given to me as a gift for my birthday! The way this book made me feel less lonely, and that people do hurt others intentionally and unintentionally, for a girl in a vulnerable place this book brought tears to me, and to know there’s others who felt the same saddens me.
September 1, 2021
Really neat concept and well executed! Sadly many of them were all too relatable.
December 24, 2022
Art work is phenomenal, and the originality of this book is so refreshing and well needed! Fits a gap I didn’t know needed filling
January 6, 2024
The illustrations were great but the content wasn’t good
Content 2/5
Illustrations 5/5
Content 2/5
Illustrations 5/5
August 2, 2024
I like the energy and the explanation of the creator of the book! I enjoyed reading it
June 30, 2025
The author was a little too mystical for me in the guided meditation, but the poetry itself were interesting.
December 5, 2022
The most powerful and first-of-its-kind book that I have read. Each poem helps to heal the soul and provides a safe space for thinking and healing.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews