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Blood Roses
Blood Roses by Block, Francesca Lia [HarperTeen, 2009] Paperback [Paperback] ...
Paperback
First published May 20, 2008
About the author
Francesca Lia Block
101 books3,348 followersFrancesca Lia Block is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly. She was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College in 2014. Her work has been translated into Italian, French, German Japanese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Portuguese. Francesca has also published stories, poems, essays and interviews in The Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Review of Books, Spin, Nylon, Black Clock and Rattle among others. In addition to writing, she teaches creative writing at University of Redlands, UCLA Extension, Antioch University, and privately in Los Angeles where she was born, raised and currently still lives.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
November 6, 2012
Reviewed by coollibrarianchick for TeensReadToo.com
On Francesca Lia Block's website, there are a bunch of words lumped together, reminding me of magnetic poetry that has been used to describe her work. I couldn't agree more with the words reviewers have used. The one word that kept jumping out at me while reading this was lyrical. I was looking for a word to describe what I thought about her newest literary novella, BLOOD ROSES, and that describes it perfectly. Surreal and dreamy would be good adjectives to use, as well.
The book is broken up into nine short stories. All of the stories deal with a transformation of some sort, whether it is physical or emotional. Not once in any of her stories is the magical element questioned - it is just accepted. My favorite story out of all of them is called Skin Art. Basically, it is about the all-consuming power of first love and how, after time has passed, it is not as great as once thought.
Easy to read, this little book sucks you in, especially if you are a fan of thought-provoking fantasy, as Ms. Block straddles the line between the worlds of magic and reality. The stories seem very personal, emotional; even, at times, irrational. You definitely can't argue with the quality of writing - Francesca Lia Block is a very good writer, but with that said she is not for everyone.
People that are into the art scene will enjoy her work, as well as those who like to analyze dreams, as the stories are rich in sensory detail. Hail to the queen of magical realism.
On Francesca Lia Block's website, there are a bunch of words lumped together, reminding me of magnetic poetry that has been used to describe her work. I couldn't agree more with the words reviewers have used. The one word that kept jumping out at me while reading this was lyrical. I was looking for a word to describe what I thought about her newest literary novella, BLOOD ROSES, and that describes it perfectly. Surreal and dreamy would be good adjectives to use, as well.
The book is broken up into nine short stories. All of the stories deal with a transformation of some sort, whether it is physical or emotional. Not once in any of her stories is the magical element questioned - it is just accepted. My favorite story out of all of them is called Skin Art. Basically, it is about the all-consuming power of first love and how, after time has passed, it is not as great as once thought.
Easy to read, this little book sucks you in, especially if you are a fan of thought-provoking fantasy, as Ms. Block straddles the line between the worlds of magic and reality. The stories seem very personal, emotional; even, at times, irrational. You definitely can't argue with the quality of writing - Francesca Lia Block is a very good writer, but with that said she is not for everyone.
People that are into the art scene will enjoy her work, as well as those who like to analyze dreams, as the stories are rich in sensory detail. Hail to the queen of magical realism.
April 13, 2008
Francesca Lia Block may well be my favorite author: I certainly own more of her books (15 and counting) than anyone else's. She's more magical, winged, and punk-rock than Alice Hoffman, with a similar belief in the all-consuming, all-transforming power of romantic longing, and a penchant for lush, detailed descriptions of vintage outfits and ethnic foods and the streets and canyons of L.A. But she's spent her career in the young adult ghetto, because her main concern, I think, is reaching out to the awkward, fledgling souls of teenage girls, taking them by the hand, and leading them out of the twisted expectations of our culture into a joyful and color-saturated space where who they are is enough. That's what she did for me when, at 14, I picked up her debut novel Weetzie Bat. I suppose there are some well-adjusted adolescents that don't need her books: but for the sake of all the weird, smart girls at the back of the room, I'm glad she's still writing.
"Blood Roses" is a series of tiny, perfect short stories. A girl kissed by a David-Bowie-listening painter grows gigantic in her joy; Elodie, in love with a tattoo artist, finds her skin spontaneously generating art; an equestrienne meets the perfect boy in the shape of a West L.A. gang-member centaur. I read this at a gallop--half an hour for a hundred pages. These tales are like sips of ambrosia.
"Blood Roses" is a series of tiny, perfect short stories. A girl kissed by a David-Bowie-listening painter grows gigantic in her joy; Elodie, in love with a tattoo artist, finds her skin spontaneously generating art; an equestrienne meets the perfect boy in the shape of a West L.A. gang-member centaur. I read this at a gallop--half an hour for a hundred pages. These tales are like sips of ambrosia.
March 2, 2009
I love Francesca. There's probably no one else that could get me to think about visiting Los Angeles. When I think of L.A. I think of asphalt, and traffic, and The Miracle Mile and being... transient. Not like in homeless or anything like that, but just not being settled. That might be why I stick to the East Coast. There's a definite sense of history. Of being grounded, solid. I cling to that.
But, when I read Francesca, I feel that I could lose myself in those hills, hide in the canyon, that I want to explore the Pacific Coast Highway and find Houdini's Mansion and believe in fairies and centaurs and vampiric moms who feed off their daughters' youth.
Yeah, I know, right? This is a major coup for FLB. I'm not that easy to turn.
Blood Roses is a collection of short short stories centering around what the book jacket describes as 'transformation.' I see it as more of young girls getting by. Whatever their situation, whether it be unrequited love, losing a parent, not understanding your place in the universe...the death of that childlike innocence. It's about surviving.
I enjoyed the stories, but, I didn't love them. I think that these are good exercises, but not fully fleshed out. It made me a little sad to feel that way about FLB. But, no matter what, she still has that way with words that sends me spinning into this fairy tale land and wishing that I could take some of the strength that these girls have and store it away when I'm feeling less than...
Some examples of what is FLB:
"What shall we do, all of us? All of us passionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?"
"'Talk to me,' he said.
(Every girl loves to hear those words from the right man. It is possible those words are the greatest seduction line ever. Especially if they are said without any ulterior motive, as Darby said them then." (yes, I am hopeless.)
"She missed Lincoln so much during the times she was away that her saliva dried up and her stomach clenched emptily. It was always a relief when she came home to him. Like water or food. Like music or that moment when you cut yourself with a knife and squeeze the skin and no blood oozes out." (see above)
But, when I read Francesca, I feel that I could lose myself in those hills, hide in the canyon, that I want to explore the Pacific Coast Highway and find Houdini's Mansion and believe in fairies and centaurs and vampiric moms who feed off their daughters' youth.
Yeah, I know, right? This is a major coup for FLB. I'm not that easy to turn.
Blood Roses is a collection of short short stories centering around what the book jacket describes as 'transformation.' I see it as more of young girls getting by. Whatever their situation, whether it be unrequited love, losing a parent, not understanding your place in the universe...the death of that childlike innocence. It's about surviving.
I enjoyed the stories, but, I didn't love them. I think that these are good exercises, but not fully fleshed out. It made me a little sad to feel that way about FLB. But, no matter what, she still has that way with words that sends me spinning into this fairy tale land and wishing that I could take some of the strength that these girls have and store it away when I'm feeling less than...
Some examples of what is FLB:
"What shall we do, all of us? All of us passionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?"
"'Talk to me,' he said.
(Every girl loves to hear those words from the right man. It is possible those words are the greatest seduction line ever. Especially if they are said without any ulterior motive, as Darby said them then." (yes, I am hopeless.)
"She missed Lincoln so much during the times she was away that her saliva dried up and her stomach clenched emptily. It was always a relief when she came home to him. Like water or food. Like music or that moment when you cut yourself with a knife and squeeze the skin and no blood oozes out." (see above)
January 3, 2010
I wonder sometimes if I've outgrown Francesca Lia Block. This collection of short stories has nothing on "Girl Goddess #9". Long gone are the riot grrls, DIY culture, and punk love. Instead these fragmented, dream-like stories are centered by a collection of (mostly) girls who hide a few quirks behind a facade of normality. Maybe it's because it's a different audience than it was ten years ago, but these girls are just too insipid for me to care about (let alone be inspired by).
A few of the stories - "My Boyfriend Is An Alien" and "My Mother the Vampire" are devastating, scary, and beautiful all at the same time. The rest are fodder. FLB has made her prose so simple to the point that it's boring. While her words are pretty enough, the lack of substance in most of the stories left me confused as to why I bothered reading them in the first place.
A few of the stories - "My Boyfriend Is An Alien" and "My Mother the Vampire" are devastating, scary, and beautiful all at the same time. The rest are fodder. FLB has made her prose so simple to the point that it's boring. While her words are pretty enough, the lack of substance in most of the stories left me confused as to why I bothered reading them in the first place.
February 2, 2019
DNF. After reading the first 5 stories I feel like I’m losing my mind.
December 31, 2021
Review in Wrap Up Vlog
https://youtu.be/GxEyavbkCXE
https://youtu.be/GxEyavbkCXE
August 23, 2012
Blood Roses left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, the nine (very, very) short stories are almost invariably beautifully written. But they're barely more than sketches, most of them. Giant is little more than a scene, while Horses Are a Girl's Best Friend is like a summary of a story. Block chooses her words carefully, and she has a gift for creating an arresting image, but her prose is so stripped down that it can lack substance. The characters themselves lack substance, for the most part. And then something truly beautiful pops up (What shall we do, all of us? All of us passionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?) and I forgive her, almost entirely. At roughly 130 pages, it's a very small investment of reading time, and there is enough here to make it worthwhile.
January 25, 2009
Ah the darker FLB stuff. I like you so much. I loved the story about the girl who kissed a boy which turned her into a giant and how the story didn't tell if she changed back to normal size. I love the neediness. I love the death and the aliens and the little bits of crazy and the blossoming and then fading again tattoo girl. I loved the girl in love with the centaur. I like how these are just very good outlines of stories that somehow are still so full of life and myth. I love that it took me about an hour to read.
November 27, 2013
It's refreshing to see a YA book actually deals with sex, violence and sexuality etc in a down to earth manner. But I don't like Blood Roses as much as I like Francesca Lia Block's other novels. Among the short stories, I think I like Skin Art and My Mother the Vampire best.
February 17, 2018
Block, Francesca Lia Blood Roses, pgs.129 Joanna Cotler Books. Language-R; Sexual Content-PG 13; Violence-G;
This is a collection of stories by Francesca Block. They range from stories about centaurs to fallen angels. I wouldn't' read it willingly though if I knew what was in it before hand. I couldn't follow the plots in any of the stories. they were confusing and you didn't know what the author was talking about. The thing I did pick up implied lots of sexual things. and in this tiny book it had 11 swear words 10 of which were the F- word. Never, ever, ever read this book.
HS - NO. Student Reviewer:RH
This is a collection of stories by Francesca Block. They range from stories about centaurs to fallen angels. I wouldn't' read it willingly though if I knew what was in it before hand. I couldn't follow the plots in any of the stories. they were confusing and you didn't know what the author was talking about. The thing I did pick up implied lots of sexual things. and in this tiny book it had 11 swear words 10 of which were the F- word. Never, ever, ever read this book.
HS - NO. Student Reviewer:RH
April 12, 2019
Very short stories. Very fable-like. I did read a few reviews before I started (which I never do) and agree that the characters were similar but I wouldn't say all the same. There is a type of person, goth and/or punk and/or alternative, that can be categorized as "the same" but a person's style doesn't describe everything about them.
I'm really happy I came across this author. Had I found her as a teen I'm sure I'd have consumed all her books. :) Her love for fairy tales definitely comes through and these short stories are fun with their modern day, Los Angeles setting. I loved wondering if I was reading about an actual fairy, giant, vampire, centaur, etc. or if I was supposed to be learning a life lesson. ;-)
I'm really happy I came across this author. Had I found her as a teen I'm sure I'd have consumed all her books. :) Her love for fairy tales definitely comes through and these short stories are fun with their modern day, Los Angeles setting. I loved wondering if I was reading about an actual fairy, giant, vampire, centaur, etc. or if I was supposed to be learning a life lesson. ;-)
April 21, 2020
I remember loving Ms. Block so much in college that I could say without a doubt that she was one of my favorites which usually means that I believe she could do no wrong. But reading this book now, it’s hard to reconcile her with the author I had fallen in love with all those years ago. Except for the first story “Blood Roses” where two sisters become victims of a killer with their deaths signified by seeing blood roses; and “Skin Art” where a girl’s body starts to “grow” tattoos all over after she falls in love with a tattoo artist she cannot have (and after finally having sex with him, the tattoos start disappearing because of her disillusionment haha), all the other stories have no meaning. I feel like they’re psychedelic, metaphorical, and magical just for the sake of. They were too much of a hard sell. I don’t know if it’s because I have outgrown Block’s style or this short story collection is just bad. I suspect the latter because I still enjoy children’s books and YA lit to this day. A few years ago, I read Ms. Block’s take on the vampire phenomena in YA lit. It was good but it was not GOOD.
July 8, 2009
Even read as prose poems, this collection of short stories is pretty insubstantial. Several felt like recycled drafts of her other work: beautiful butterfly pinned to the corkboard of life; Mom is sad because Dad's not in the picture; damaged young people face Serious Life Issues; the Faeries are real and were banished underground; rinse, wring, repeat. Plot/conflict/tension are largely absent. Characterization is nonexistent. This book was published in 2008 and veers dangerously toward Weetzie Bat territory in terms of annoying superficiality, especially the last one, "Changelings," in which Daisy peppers her speech with Weetzie-caliber irritating turns of phrase.
All is not in vain, though. The first story, "Blood Roses," is interesting in a surreal, ambiguous way. And Block uses her gift for imagery to great (deeply sad and, yes, haunting) effect in "My Haunted House."
And it definitely doesn't demand too much of your time. You could probably finish it in about half an hour, even if you're as slow a reader as I am.
All is not in vain, though. The first story, "Blood Roses," is interesting in a surreal, ambiguous way. And Block uses her gift for imagery to great (deeply sad and, yes, haunting) effect in "My Haunted House."
And it definitely doesn't demand too much of your time. You could probably finish it in about half an hour, even if you're as slow a reader as I am.
April 21, 2011
Not quite magic realism, not quite fantasy, Blood Roses is a series of short stories that have the quality of a beautiful hallucination.
Francesca Lia Block takes the hellish insecurity of being a teenager and gives those anxieties physical form: this is a world where fairies, vampires and aliens lurk at the edges of the Southern California setting. Unlike some of her contemporaries, however, Block doesn’t use her fantasy to sugarcoat reality: these are gritty stories and better for it.
I first fell in love with Block’s novels for their sparing, poetic use of language. And, the more ‘safe’, neutered teen books I read, the more I appreciate the way that sexuality and danger form fundamental parts of all of her teenage characters’ lives.
I went into this very slight volume thinking I’d find it too short to be satisfying, but actually, no, I loved it and it was exactly the right length.
Favourite stories: ‘My Boyfriend Is An Alien’; ‘Skin Art’.
Francesca Lia Block takes the hellish insecurity of being a teenager and gives those anxieties physical form: this is a world where fairies, vampires and aliens lurk at the edges of the Southern California setting. Unlike some of her contemporaries, however, Block doesn’t use her fantasy to sugarcoat reality: these are gritty stories and better for it.
I first fell in love with Block’s novels for their sparing, poetic use of language. And, the more ‘safe’, neutered teen books I read, the more I appreciate the way that sexuality and danger form fundamental parts of all of her teenage characters’ lives.
I went into this very slight volume thinking I’d find it too short to be satisfying, but actually, no, I loved it and it was exactly the right length.
Favourite stories: ‘My Boyfriend Is An Alien’; ‘Skin Art’.
September 1, 2008
Francesca Lia Block is one of those writers that makes me fall in love with writing. It isn't even so much about the story, as it is about the actual words she strings together. This is a collection of strange and beautiful stories with lines like "a palm tree was wearing a dress of ivy"; it has a character named "Fleurette", who I instead of the diner waitress I imagined her to be, lives in a home with a haunted doll house. Then there is the story of the girl who falls in love with a tattoo artist, and suddenly begins to develop intricate tattoos all over her body. Just dreamy, lyrical, amazing writing.
January 15, 2008
T. brought this back to me in an ARC from ALA Midwinter, and I burned through it pedaling to Belgium on the exercise bike this afternoon. I've always loved the way that FLB's writing was a little dark, a little sad, a little magical, but she's just outdone herself with these stories; they're exquisitely composed, dark and sexy and scary and sad and dreamy and lovely. Awfully adult, too, even with the teenaged protagonists, but in a fascinating way. May just have knocked Witch Baby off the top of my best beloved FLB books list.
July 3, 2008
I generally prefer Block's novels to the short stories, but I still devoured this collection in one sitting. All of the stories have a touch of Block's usual lyrical fantasy and tie together both in theme and even in overlapping characters in a contemplation of the adolescent condition. I wallow in Block's language if nothing else: her gift for metaphor and imagery is unrivaled among writers in her genre.
October 13, 2008
Nice collection of short stories tying together. Loved the Tori Amos reference:)
May 29, 2008
Probably my least favorite of her books. I just felt that the stories all began to go somewhere and then left the reader hanging.
May 13, 2018
Blood Roses
-I think those girls are dead...they just don’t realize that the are. either way...it was mad trippy.
Giant
Rachel sorrow fell in love with the mysterious John Mandolin and is extremely insecure and intimidated by the popular girls. John Mandolin really likes her and even wants to paint her...When he kissed her, she went into panic went home got sick in the bathroom. While she was in there she continued to panic and all her anxieties played out in her mind in a dark magical realism fashion.
My haunted house
Fleurette is a little girl who is experiencing PTSD from sexual abuse from her father. She is too young for her to understand and her mother is not explaining anything to her. Her beautiful mind is creating destruction inside the doll house that her father built for her. Her nightmare lives in her doll house.
My boyfriend is an alien
Nameless boy and made up alien boy by said nameless girl with schizophrenia. She enjoys her escape with him. He only come when she calls him. At the end she goes to his planet to be rid of all the world’s madness, destruction, pills, and most of all schizophrenia. I recon she succeeded the second attempt at committing suicide To escape it all.
Horses are a girl’s best friend
I don’t fucking know. I think she might have fallen and hit her head or something. But why kill the centaur though!?? I know, I know, this a dark short stories book!
Skin Art
Elodie Sweet fell in love with an older man and the tattoos that kept appearing on her body was her mind creating beautiful thoughts and dreams that stemmed from her infatuation with him. Soon as he fucked her, it was not what she had built up in her head, she got over him. Her feelings for him went away and so did the tattoos.
“Moral of the story when you fall in love with someone you can’t have you paint them as beautiful and magnificent human beings. If you ever get with them, they not measure up to your version of them.”
My mother the vampire
Whet??
Wounds and Wings
Audrey made up Lincoln because of the acne medication she was on previously. She had an imaginary friend as her place if solace...all in the comfort of her room.
Changelings
He lost his dad then his girlfriend back to back. He imagined daisy through his grief and she she is helping him through it.
**💕I TOOK THE STORIES AS POETRY OR RIDDLES AND LOOKED FOR THE HIDDEN MESSAGE. I COULD BE DEAD WRONG ABOUT ALL IF IT. IT PROBABLY WAS NOT THAT DEEP, OR HAD METAPHORIC MEANINGS, BUT I HAD FUN GUESSING💕**
-I think those girls are dead...they just don’t realize that the are. either way...it was mad trippy.
Giant
Rachel sorrow fell in love with the mysterious John Mandolin and is extremely insecure and intimidated by the popular girls. John Mandolin really likes her and even wants to paint her...When he kissed her, she went into panic went home got sick in the bathroom. While she was in there she continued to panic and all her anxieties played out in her mind in a dark magical realism fashion.
My haunted house
Fleurette is a little girl who is experiencing PTSD from sexual abuse from her father. She is too young for her to understand and her mother is not explaining anything to her. Her beautiful mind is creating destruction inside the doll house that her father built for her. Her nightmare lives in her doll house.
My boyfriend is an alien
Nameless boy and made up alien boy by said nameless girl with schizophrenia. She enjoys her escape with him. He only come when she calls him. At the end she goes to his planet to be rid of all the world’s madness, destruction, pills, and most of all schizophrenia. I recon she succeeded the second attempt at committing suicide To escape it all.
Horses are a girl’s best friend
I don’t fucking know. I think she might have fallen and hit her head or something. But why kill the centaur though!?? I know, I know, this a dark short stories book!
Skin Art
Elodie Sweet fell in love with an older man and the tattoos that kept appearing on her body was her mind creating beautiful thoughts and dreams that stemmed from her infatuation with him. Soon as he fucked her, it was not what she had built up in her head, she got over him. Her feelings for him went away and so did the tattoos.
“Moral of the story when you fall in love with someone you can’t have you paint them as beautiful and magnificent human beings. If you ever get with them, they not measure up to your version of them.”
My mother the vampire
Whet??
Wounds and Wings
Audrey made up Lincoln because of the acne medication she was on previously. She had an imaginary friend as her place if solace...all in the comfort of her room.
Changelings
He lost his dad then his girlfriend back to back. He imagined daisy through his grief and she she is helping him through it.
**💕I TOOK THE STORIES AS POETRY OR RIDDLES AND LOOKED FOR THE HIDDEN MESSAGE. I COULD BE DEAD WRONG ABOUT ALL IF IT. IT PROBABLY WAS NOT THAT DEEP, OR HAD METAPHORIC MEANINGS, BUT I HAD FUN GUESSING💕**
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2023
Uneven but still pretty good
The short stories in this book are mostly fantastic. My favorite was the one about Berry Rodriguez , and her centaur lover. It was all of the things I love about Francesca Lia Block's writing- the lush imagery, unusual characters, etc. But a few stories were underdeveloped, like the one about Rachel the giantess. It didn't seem to take me on a journey- it just kind of meandered along, and seemed a bit silly. Maybe Ms. Block has spoiled her readers and we have impossible standards... this book really is worth a read. It's just not an instant classic, like Weetzie Bat.
The short stories in this book are mostly fantastic. My favorite was the one about Berry Rodriguez , and her centaur lover. It was all of the things I love about Francesca Lia Block's writing- the lush imagery, unusual characters, etc. But a few stories were underdeveloped, like the one about Rachel the giantess. It didn't seem to take me on a journey- it just kind of meandered along, and seemed a bit silly. Maybe Ms. Block has spoiled her readers and we have impossible standards... this book really is worth a read. It's just not an instant classic, like Weetzie Bat.
December 1, 2019
Francesca Lia Block is one of my favorite authors and a prolific teen novel writer. This book has a lot of angsty teen drama. It is a series of short stories that distantly overlap because the characters from one story will be mentioned in another, so you know everyone is operating in the same universe and time. But, some of the stories are sad. Actually, a lot of the stories are sad. I really like Lia Block as an author, but reading her books now can be tough because they have and underlying sadness that is hard to miss in each story.
May 2, 2019
I... hmmm... okay. I got through it. My reaction after every short story was pretty much this: "What. What the crap." I know nothing about Francesca Lia Block, but after reading the reviews of this collection of stories, it seems like the kind of thing you would either completely love or completely hate.
I can understand why people would like her work, and I kind of understand the general idea of what the stories are trying to do each time. But it's definitely not my cup of tea.
1/10
I can understand why people would like her work, and I kind of understand the general idea of what the stories are trying to do each time. But it's definitely not my cup of tea.
1/10
February 8, 2018
Very obviously not my style of book. I'm sure that the choppiness and weird darkness of the stories appeals to some people as artistic or deep, but it just bugged me and seems like poor writing. None of the short stories caught my interest, and they wandered in a vague way, then ended. I'm inclined to label this book as pretentious bullshit.
April 23, 2022
What shall we do, all of us?
All of us passionate girls
who fear crushing the boys we love
with our mouths like caverns of teeth,
our mushroom brains,
our watermelon hearts?
I picked this up at a local bookstore the other day. I was completely taken away by cover. It was pretty bizzare. I haven't read anything like it.
⭐⭐⭐ stars
All of us passionate girls
who fear crushing the boys we love
with our mouths like caverns of teeth,
our mushroom brains,
our watermelon hearts?
I picked this up at a local bookstore the other day. I was completely taken away by cover. It was pretty bizzare. I haven't read anything like it.
⭐⭐⭐ stars
January 9, 2023
Surreal vignettes that read like a fever dream and keep you wondering what else happens in this new dimension that you’ve been exposed to.
My favorite quote is from the second story, Giant: “What shall we do, all of us? All of us passionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?”
My favorite quote is from the second story, Giant: “What shall we do, all of us? All of us passionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?”
November 16, 2024
I love FLB, but the last three books I’ve read have missed the mark. This was closer to the books I gobbled up when I was younger, but the original magic was missing. Some of the short stories were great, and they ended too soon. Others were only okay and went on too long.
March 28, 2018
Very quick read full of beautuful prose.
September 4, 2018
This may well be my favorite FLB book. Short. Poignant. Metaphorical Magic.... and as always her message shines through: Love Heals. Art Heals. I recommend for all fans of Block. 💕💕
May 1, 2019
Lyrical and surreal. These short stories make a great quick read. I love the settings and descriptions.
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