Author - Block, Francesca Lia
ISBN - 9780060763848
Publication Date - 2008
Plot - To try to attempt to write the plot of Blood Roses would be impossible unless you were going to write out everything for each of the short stories in the set. The beginning story, Blood Roses, consists of Two sisters who enter into a house where a person they seem to know keeps discussing with them about serial killers and how people survived the serial killers. There is an air of brooding that exists where the two have to make a mad dash to escape and get out through some barbed wire, but they are missing something, a screwdriver. Another story called Grant deals with Rachel Sorrow, who is trying to adjust to all of these intense new feelings she is having. This is causing her some problems as she now fears relationships with boys and what may happen if she attempts to connect to the boys she likes. She instead fades away into a bunch of questions about the outcome of the story. Block leaves it open ended leaving us to understand that when we are in the middle of a story, its hard to see what the end is going to be like; its hard to move forward. Each of the stories consists of vivid imagery and a great deal of confusion about what is real.
Critical Review - A series of stories generally has some dramatic theme to them, developed to have a consistent message. I would argue that the author put this together as a collection of stories to question the reality versus perception of the characters of the individuals, and sometimes things that are perceived to be big are not quite as big as they would seem. The visual imagery used to convey the theme is amazing. I think that the stories often remind me of Flannery O'Connor with her extensive use of metaphor and allegory to tell a story.
Reader's Annotation - Come to the world of Francesca Lia Block, a world of darkness, mystery and wonder, where love is the real magic.
About the Author-- Francesca Lia Block focuses much of her tales in the Los Angeles scene, being this is where she is from. She believes that she tries to tell stories that blend magic and realism to try to tell a story. It is through this she tries to convey the message that love is the one thing that can bring us through,. It is this love that has a sort of magic quality that can take anyone through anything.
Primarily her way of telling stories is through fairy tales, created to further her messages to her audience. These can take the form of allegory or some sort of mystic realism. She desires to tell stories with a harsh realism, yet at the same time with room for grace and escape.
Genre- Fantasy/Realism
Curriculum Ties - Allegorical Studies - Literature; Short Stories - Literature
Booktalking Ideas - Encourage each person in the group to read the book and write a short story of their own.
Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+
Challenge Issues - No obvious issues
Why Included - I write short stories for fun and enjoy the art form of the short story. It is fascinating where an author has to convey a large theme in a limited amount of space.
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