The Tinder Sonnets

I appreciated the sonnet form in Jennifer LoveGrove’s book of poetry, “The Tinder Sonnets.” But, what pulled me into this collection was the blend of something more ancient that has survived within an ever-changing trajectory of how humans, specifically, men and women, interact with each other. Weaving in knowledge of herbology, the etymology and feminist meaning of plants within women's lives evoked something more earthen of womanhood amongst our digital landscape. 

Reimagining the sonnet in this digital age, flushing through what it means to resist, or to try to connect in this culture, surfaced a bedrock of ruthless existence that persists, sadly. Ingrained ideological mannerisms and the skeleton of misogyny continues to penetrate a woman’s space as she fights to survive, no, to simply just be. 

Inspired by LoveGrove’s experience when accessing dating apps for the first time in middle-age, she traverses a world inundated with social media. LoveGrove’s voice, taking up space and speaking with transparency, refuses silencing and shrinking. LoveGrove’s terse, often sarcastic confrontation of episodes and memories from dating rebukes the traditionally expected performance of invisibility and non-sexuality imposed on women. 

The work refuses passive acceptance of boundary violations, harassment, and sexual violence as historical inevitabilities or ordinary realities of living as a woman. Instead, it reveals how women have both evolved and remained steadfast in resisting their positioning and subordination within misogynistic and patriarchal systems of power.

“The Tinder Sonnets” was originally published as a chapbook by knife| fork| in 2021. Nine poems eventually grew into a full collection. “The Tinder Sonnets” is ideal for readers of poetry, middle-aged women, feminists and Canlit readers, especially readers supporting Canadian Independent Presses. There will be those readers who look to poetry to help heal the pain of relationships and those interested in attachment theory. We all can use a dose of the reality of what it’s like dating in the 21st century, to see something of ourselves within each other. 

Published by the Canadian independent house Book*hug Press, “The Tinder Sonnets” finds a natural home among the press’s catalogue of daring, genre-defying literature. Known for championing bold literary fiction, poetry, translated literature, and experimental nonfiction, Book*hug Press has established itself as one of Canada’s leading independent publishers, consistently supporting works that blur formal boundaries while remaining emotionally and politically resonant. LoveGrove’s lyrical and unsettling prose aligns closely with the press’s commitment to innovative contemporary Canadian writing.

I have engaged critically with several titles connected to Book*hug Press including reviews of “antibody” by Rebecca Salazar and “Blood Belies” by Ellen Chang-Richardson. I am interested in works that explore hybridity, ecological unease, and the tension between vulnerability and transformation. These qualities also resonate throughout LoveGrove’s collection of poetry. Situating “The Tinder Sonnets” within this broader literary landscape that Book*hug Press emphasizes not only gives home to the collections’s atmospheric intensity, but also its place within a vibrant Canadian independent publishing tradition devoted to emotionally incisive writing.

Jennifer LoveGrove brings lyrical precision and emotional intensity that has distinguished her poetry collections, including “Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes,” “I Should Never Have Fired the Sentinel,” and “The Dagger Between Her Teeth.” She has been longlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize for “Watch How We Walk” (2013). Her prose moves with a poet’s cadence, balancing sharp inner insight with moments of unsettling humanity.

LoveGrove’s background as both a novelist and poet is evident throughout her work, where language exudes distinct mood and narrative. Her writing explores fractured relationships, the body, femininity, and the edges of ordinary life. Currently at work on a new novel and a collection of creative nonfiction, she continues to build a body of work recognized for its intelligence, vulnerability, and striking imagination. She divides her time between downtown Toronto and Squirrel Creek Retreat in rural Ontario, landscapes that seem to echo the tension in her writing between urban unease and the haunting pull of the natural world.

Divided into five untitled sections, the first poem, “The Root of the Holy Ghost,” fixates the reader in an almost ancient timeline for women that stood out to me. “Centuries of women warning women:..,” LoveGrove states. Thus, she begins braiding in the archaic and the contemporary that will permeate throughout the collection. She shows just how much things haven’t changed for the quality of life or the safety of women. 

I was pulled to the layering of herbal knowledge too, how it melds smoothly even with the artificial and the digital. For instance,  LoveGrove mentions Angelica Archangelica, “used as protection, women grew it to/ prove they were not witches and to ward off/ unwanted male attention. Tolerates/ freezing, thrives in cold. Smells like licorice.” Essentially, these poems also offer teachings of the earthen ways while tracing the evolution of behaviour to what women and allies need to do to stay safe in public spaces. Hand signals and  code words, the reality, without being stated explicitly or recognized consistently without our society is that there is a war waging and women have been the target of attack. 

Another moment that hit hard and was articulated well was the experience for victims in speaking out against sexual violence within current legislative processes. LoveGrove makes explicit how victims bear the brunt of the reality that perhaps the war cannot be won, or even fought back against within current dominant systems. For victims during legal proceedings, when filing charges of sexual assault, LoveGrove exposes the process: “You have to prove that/ there were no witnesses. And then you must/ audition to play yourself over and/ over and over ‘til you’re finally/ believable.” The process retriggers and is much like that Marla cut, tongued over and left raw without being given the chance to heal. 

“The Tinder Sonnets” is raw, it is also autobiographical. The collection does not just give voice to the pain, but LoveGrove steers desire and play in relationships. There is humour also. Other reviewers have described the collection as “spicy,” and “each poem being an essay on a problem occurring with each passing year of dating life.” There is longing to be left alone while there is also a need to connect. The writer succeeds in melding rage with joy. Further, she creates art that can fight back. Perhaps the only way we can win this war. 

Thank you to Jennifer LoveGrove, Book*hug Press and River Street Writing for a complimentary copy in request for an honest review.