Dead Girls
2019
First Published
3.91
Average Rating
70
Number of Pages
The newest collection of haunting, magical poems by Francesca Lia Block, author of Fairy Tales in Electri-City, draws on myth and fable to explore the roles women play in many archetypal stories– and gives voice to these female characters, to let them tell their tales in their own words. "Wasn’t it pervert Edgar Allen Poe who said, 'The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world?' Francesca Lia Block’s book Dead Girls begs to differ. Here we see the exploitation of girls—spun into the very DNA of our Western culture of myth and fairy tales—for what it is. Block gives voice to these women and girls, including the 'wicked' queens and stepmothers, revealing a complexity and despair as only a truly great poet can. I’ll tell you what is the most poetical topic in the world—beautiful girls who are very much alive in these exquisite poems."—Denise Duhamel "In the gorgeous realms of these poems we might hear beguiling 'Heed my advice / Take your heart from your chest / Let it bleed in your hands / Talk to it softly / as if to a lover,' and then wander into their alluring spaces of darkness. Bristling with violence and eroticism, the wilderness here resonates with current and crucial concerns. Listen close and follow Francesca Lia Block’s seductive voice as it speaks through these fabular 'I want to tell my history / Can you hear my stories?'"—Molly Bendall
Avg Rating
3.91
Number of Ratings
35
5 STARS
26%
4 STARS
46%
3 STARS
23%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
Francesca Lia Block
Author · 49 books
Francesca 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.
