Blood Roses, by Francesca Lia Block
Block, Francesca Lia (2008). Blood Roses. NY: HarperTeen. 129 pages.
Francesca Lia Block’s newest book is a collection of very short stories that engage broadly with the theme of transformation. As per Block’s usual style, the “transformations” affected in each magically real narrative range from the typical (for a transformation story, anyway) to the unusual to the outrageous. The first story, the titular “Blood Roses,” reminds me the most strongly of one of Block’s earlier collections, The Rose and the Beast, and of “Bones,” the Bluebeard story therein. In “Blood Roses,” sisters invited to view a collection of photos taken the week before the death of a favorite singer arrive at the photographer’s house and find themselves in a strange, frightening, but compelling place. “My Mother the Vampire,” the story of a beautiful girl with a deceptively young looking mother, is reminiscent of The Rose as well. “It is hard to be a pretty girl in this world. It is hard to be a woman growing old,” are the last lines of “My Mother” and, to me, really capture the magical, semi-autobiographical, and enchanted feminism of Block’s work in general.
A short, short story collection doesn’t get as many lines as a novel. I don’t want to give any more away, so I’m stopping here.