Retrospective in tone, Wills offers a learned, macroscopic view of womanhood. Unlike Carol Ann Duffy's women in The World's Wife, Wills's are not epic in proportion. They are not wives of Greek Gods, scientists or literary geniuses. More simply, they are referred to as 'Feather-Wife' or 'Ale-Wife'. They are also craftspeople, everyday people: blacksmiths, corset makers, midwives. [...] Wills signals a history of appendages that have sought to harm women and keep them quiet. Her challenging tone, however, dares women to have a choice.

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While Wills's body poems evoke claustrophobic intimacy, her other poetry takes vast imaginative leaps in both content and form. [...] Always a friend to women, playfully, Wills makes her point.