This Is Not a Love Story: This Is the Sound of a Woman Not Dying
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This Is Not a Love Story
This is the sound of a woman not dying.
Crystal Taché’s latest collection is a visceral, unflinching journey through survival, rage, and reclamation. Written from the ashes of domestic abuse, This Is Not a Love Story is not a healing narrative wrapped in softness—it is a reckoning. A resurrection. A fire that remembers who lit it.
Through five brutal and beautiful poems, Taché chronicles the horror of intimate partner violence, the silence that followed, and the voice she clawed back from the wreckage. Each poem stands as both wound and weapon, stitched with raw honesty and blood-sharp imagery. From the whisper of survival in “I Named the Bruises After Stars” to the blistering power of “I Am the Fire Now,” this collection leaves nothing untouched—and no reader unchanged.
But this isn’t just her story. It’s a lifeline.
A mirror for survivors.
A scream for those still trapped behind locked doors.
A refusal to go quietly.
Inside you’ll find:
• A series of emotionally charged poems on surviving domestic violence
• Poetic reflections on motherhood, trauma, identity, and rage
• Full-page artwork that symbolizes each stage of the speaker’s transformation
• An epilogue titled “What the Fire Didn’t Take”—a final breath that speaks directly to the reader
• A resources page with helplines for readers in the U.S. and Canada
This book is not polite.
It doesn’t flinch.
It burns.
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Trigger Warning: This collection contains graphic emotional language and themes of abuse, survival, and trauma. It is written with care, but may be difficult for some readers.