Bathtub in Flames
By Bailee Noella
New Degree Press
2020
134 pages
$16.99 Paperback
ISBN 13: 978-1636765112
Book reviewed by Kavita Khajuria
Bathtub in Flames is a poetic journal of recovery from repressed childhood memories, including sexual abuse. Themes also include familial mental illness, alcohol abuse, worth, anxiety and depression – with hints of OCD and existentialism. Impacts of traumas convey loss and emptiness. The reader hears the grips of anxiety spells and recurrent flashbacks – but also a questioning of love and a craving for safety. Significant time is spent in reflections on relationships, some lacking with emotional walls and guarded distance, others infused with affection, love and hope. All of this is entwined with navigation and integration of the inner child and self-acceptance.
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