Editorial review
The Ocean Saves Her
By Emilia Geneva Carquez
What does it mean to truly love oneself?
Reviewed by CANREADS
What does it mean to truly love oneself?
In her debut poetry collection, The Ocean Saves Her, Emilia Geneva Carquez explores the hardships of love, in all its many variants, and the importance of perseverance. With the ocean serving as a powerful recurring motif, she examines how societal pressures can evolve into self-hatred, while also celebrating the beauty that comes from found family and healing. Like the tides, Carquez reminds readers that we, too, are capable of change.
Raw and deeply personal, Carquez reveals her heart with a remarkable vulnerability. She understands that grief, loss, and healing is not a linear process, and she beautifully captures this ebb and flow with the rhythmic push and pull of her poems. Carquez intertwines doubt with love and loss with understanding in a way that exemplifies the realities of change. This collection does not dwell on what weighs down her life, but neither does it bask in the golden light of all that is well. Throughout The Ocean Saves Her, the ocean is brilliantly explored as a vehicle for Carquez’s life and poetry, providing an absorbing theme to the carefully curated collection. Each poem is like the rise and fall of the ocean: with each crash of a wave comes a hush of momentary relief. As Carquez repeatedly returns to the ocean as the one constant that understands her, the sea becomes both sanctuary and guide.
What makes this collection particularly compelling is the open, honest exploration of Carquez’s life: from the development of body image issues spanning from childhood to adulthood, to found family, a disoriented sense of home, and rediscovering her passion, Carquez depicts the high and low tides of life. The Ocean Saves Her reminds readers to hold their dreams close and embrace love wherever they find it. Carquez finds beauty not by avoiding pain, but by learning to live alongside it.
While the poems are emotionally resonant, the collection’s visual presentation and structure could have been more versatile. Intentional variation in line breaks, spacing, and form would have reinforced the rhythmic movement of the ocean while adding another layer of meaning to the poems. Further, at times, the direct language leaves little room for interpretation. Still, Carquez’s vivid imagery and authentic voice ensure the collection remains engaging throughout. This is the start of a promising writing career.
Incredibly moving, The Ocean Saves Her is a poetry collection that makes women feel seen. Carquez eloquently portrays heartbreak, body image, and self-worth as experiences that can touch any woman, while acknowledging the complexity of these emotions with compassion and honesty. Just as every part of her is worthy of love, admiration, and acceptance, Carquez helps the reader see the inherent worth within themselves too.
—CANREADS BOOK REVIEW