Carline Bird at first appears to be a traditional story-teller. But the stories she tells (or conceals) are suspended in a language charged with metaphor, and most of them are built upon foundations which are strangely familiar: fairy tale, fantasy and the bitter-sweet world of romance.

Written at the tender age of 14, this collection of poems uses the form of haunted fairy tales and fantasies to rearrange and reanimate expectations and prejudices. Bird's work transcends her generation, hovering between ages. Manipulating clichés and aphorisms, her verse restructures expectations of innocence and adulthood. These poems both starkly redefine gender roles and twist the languages with which generations communicate.