Review: Blood Roses by Francesca Lia Block

Title: Blood Roses

Author: Francesca Lia Block
Publisher: HarperTeen
Date Published: 2008
Genre: Young Adult (Poetry/Short Story)
Main Themes: Love, Change, Supernatural
Pages: 129
Plot (From inside cover):
"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?


What's real is what's imagined in nine tales of transformation by Francesia Lia Block."

Isn't that the coolest cover jacket quote ever?? I think so! I love, love, love Francesa Lia Block. There is something about her writing that makes me feel weightless and whimsical - it's just so beautifully written and imagined.

Blood Roses is a collection of short stories that was previously written for an anthology, but were republished together. The quote from the jacket is from the one titled Giant. Some of them were funny, some sad, but all of them were lyrical and dark in their own way.

I found that some of the writing was awkward, but in a good, appropriate way. These stories are about teenage girls - I'd be hard pressed to find a teenage girl who isn't awkward at some point or another.

This book deals with some really heavy issues, but it is so amazing. I can't say much more than that. For anyone who has read Francesca Lia Block's books and loved them - read this one too. If you didn't like her other ones, you won't like this one either. If you haven't read her before, give her books a try! I'd probably read I Was a Teenage Fairy or Violet and Clare first because there are actual full stories and her writing is easier to get used to like that first. If you like one of her books, you'll like - and love - them all!

Here is another excerpt that I loved:
"Death lives in my dollhouse, thought Fleurette...

Death could take many forms but in this case Death was a woman, very small, invisible, who lived in Fleurette's dollhouse.

Fleurette begged her mother to throw the dollhouse away but her mother refused. So the dollhouse was moved to the garage where Death continued to live because death must live somewhere, mustn't she?"

Block is seriously amazing!