Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories by Francesca Lia Block
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I loved Wasteland when I read it several years ago, and I always meant to pick up another of Block's books when I had the chance. When one of the short stories in this collection came up recently in a Dear Prudie column at Slate.com, I decided to return to see if the rest of her fiction had the same raw, poetic beauty that took my breath away in Wasteland.
And I'm sorry to say the answer is "Not so much."
There are good short stories here: "Blue" and "Dragons of Manhattan" (the short story mentioned in the Dear Prudie column) were both memorable and good, but in many cases the other pieces felt more like mediocre writing exercises more than conventionally structured stories with something to say.
I might have loved them to pieces when I was younger, but most of the collection left me pretty cold.
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