Claire Holland

From Claire C. Holland, a timely collection of poetry that follows the final girl of slasher cinema - the girl who survives until the end - on a journey of retribution and reclamation. From the white picket fences of 1970s Haddonfield to the apocalyptic end of the world, Holland confronts the role of women in relation to subjects including feminism, violence, motherhood, sexuality, and assault in the world of Trump and the MeToo movement. Each poem centers on a fictional character from horror cinema, and explores the many ways in which women find empowerment through their own perceived monstrousness.

Poems

I Am Not Your Final Girl

from "Sally, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)"

Sasha

yet, but your world is shattered, the remnants

made useless for anything but goring palms

and forging false prophets. I do not mourn it.

Where you saw only cracks, I felt the break,

in this expectant state, a butterfly in a jar

to make you smile when you look. A creature

I can't exist in a way that comforts you.

I Am Not Your Final Girl quotes

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