In If the Darkness is Lacking, Royer provides a powerful commentary on gender-based violence. Weaving anecdotes with timeless imagery, Royer highlights the feral nature of abuse and the vivid terror of womanhood. The ramifications of violence manifest in remnants of a life forever changed: from cell phone data to the haunting echo of a final scream. For the women in these poems, intimacy provides no guarantee of safety. In this moving collection, Royer skillfully crafts a world as dark and unsafe as the one we live in.

—Mirabel, author of The Vanishing Act (& The Miracle After)

Intimate and volatile, Royer’s words engulf you without you realizing. You sit up, rapt with attention, and find that for a while you’ve been holding your breath. The entire thing reads like one long whispered secret, either as an escape plan, or a battle strategy on reclaiming a piece of the world for yourself as someone in need of a community flush with swords and shields and empathetic understanding.

—Elijah Noble El, author of The Age of Recovery

If the Darkness is Lacking maps the pained histories and terror in Royer’s studies of social work and her lived experience. Here, we delve into the ghosts, reflections, and shifting perspectives of a collective wound. By uncovering stories of sexual trauma and domestic violence, there is a horrific realization that these victims (and their perpetrators) could be anyone—and still might be. Royer counts the ways this grief can ripple through coping skills: hibernation, a search of faith, a fear or curiosity of death, then cuts right to the source, writing, “Most hauntings don’t begin at home; they start in the ground before it was built.” If the Darkness is Lacking bravely holds a speakerphone to each scar. As Royer pens “what it is like to be a woman, howling without any sound,” this work thoughtfully acts as a refuge, a cautionary warning, and most powerfully, a story spoken with thunder.

—Schuyler Peck, author of You Look Like Hell

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