A careful study on estrangement and loss, The Price of a Small Hot Fire excavates the archetypal horrors of monstrous motherhood, from abandonment and unsteady reconciliation to the grave. Experimental and intimate, E.F. Schraeder’s collection gives voice to a semi-autobiographical examination of a griefscape from a queer lens. This collection of poems is an emotional journey that will find readers clutching their hearts at both the subtle moments and those that cut like a knife. The raw feelings seep onto the pages, encompassing the vulnerability of open wounds, while at the same time cutting through a stone-like exterior to see the blood still inside. It’s not only a reading of poetry but an internal vibrating contemplation of the maternal relationship and how it molds us.