Tender Teeth

By Valeria Eden

Tender Teeth is a book full of ghosts, both real and imagined, interwoven with gripping poems about death, grief, identity, love and survival. The language is uncomplicated yet striking, the poetic voice unflinching yet gentle. Eden strips herself bare and invites us into the ache and ardor within her heart. Relentless and honest, Tender Teeth will haunt you - in the best way - well past the final page.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DTNF917Z
• ISBN13: 9798307657416
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 66 Pages
• Weight: 0.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Amazing

I feel truly lucky to be living at the same time as Valeria Eden’s collection of poems Tender Teeth. I had the pleasure of seeing a few of these poems in their infancy but seeing the finished product is something like no other. Eden gives the reader a glimpse into trauma and healing, metaphorically bleeding all over the readers. Ultimately, this helps all of us; the more we allow ourselves to be vulnerable around others, the easier it becomes to everyone. While I, too, have a dead father, there are many happenings in this collection that I have not experienced for myself but Eden writes them in a way that makes my heart clench anyway. Not only does Eden play with sound, both on a word-by-word and long form basis, Eden masterfully explores space/empty space on the page and pushes at the envelope of grammar while she tries to find language for the unspeakable. Even each line break feels successfully purposeful. A few of my favorite lines are as follows: “what does it say about us that we wouldn’t recognize / our own faces while passing by? / what does it say about me / that I can’t even look mine in the mirror” (“everything looks identical” 41), “this is it. the ouroboros of losing and losing” (“echo” 16), “your heart yawns open” (“on fear of abandonment” 13), and “the kitchen knives are tucked away but they are / begging for something to butcher” (“boston” 11), amongst many more. This collection feels like girlhood—the good, the bad, and the ugly. When we see Valeria Eden’s name on the shelf again, I hope it still continues to make me feel like we’re gossiping at a sleepover. Everyone should read Tender Teeth.