A relic is an "object surviving from an earlier time, especially one of historical or sentimental interest." Relic is also defined as "a part of a deceased holy person's body or belongings kept as an object of reverence." Anna Joy Springer's experimental text not only explores the relics of a romantic relationship, but acts as a relic itself. Filled with mythologies, letters, narrative scenes, and class notes related to a "dead" or former relationship, The Vicious Red Relic: Love houses a planet of emotion. The book, a tomb.This book is an experimental text--one that does not follow traditional narrative or poetic structure. I can see the author standing in a pile of debris, culling and curating a collage of disintegration and salvageable portions of the heart.This is a text of decomposition. What in this tomb will disintegrate? What debris will be left behind?Toward the beginning of the book, Springer introduces the character "Blinky" (also called "Winky"), that her narrator (Nina) made from aluminum foil. Blinky seems to be a part of Nina, and a part of her lover Gil. Blinky is a third being, acting as mediator and confessor. Though this character "dies" at the end of the book, Nina tells Blinky to "become alive again and grow." We, as readers, are left wondering what exactly died, and how it might be resurrected. Aluminum foil, as Nina points out, takes a thousand years to decompose. Will the debris of our past relationships exists in us for the duration of our lives? Does the energy created by that union live on even after our own bodies decompose? Is it possible to create something new out of the debris? Through tender vignettes and "workbook" style questions, the author invites us to explore these questions for ourselves--to form our own meanings, our own version of the story.