Matryoshka represents the feminist notion that females are human beings with agency; it presents the good, the bad and the incomprehensible. A mixture of confessional and imagined writing, it explores motherhood, love, death and violence. There are saints and sinners, witches, celebrities and mischievous cats against a backdrop of Russian folklore and magical realism. It is haunting and melancholic, unsettling and dark, but there are also little pockets of comedy and relief. The poems take the reader on an unpredictable trail through the enchanting forest of the female.