Dead Girls

by Francesca Lia Block

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

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2019

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Glenda Woodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern and magical.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems that focus on fairy tales. I wanted more from this collection, I wanted the poems to push deeper and tell us something new or different about these fairy tales. Instead it felt like the poems stayed on the surface and didn't surprise me or pull me in deeper.

from The Witch: "There will always be Snow / There will always be mothers / pleading with mirrors"

from The Woodsman: "fight monsters / who covet your eyes / and your soul-- / that it's worth it to have him come when he can / saving her life with each thrust / while she saves his // Look at her callouses, her sinew and scars / She's Woodsman, too"

from Thumbelina: "no days without exercise / no feeling too pretty / so as not to outgrow him / so as not to lose him"

[Eve Lumerto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. My favourite thing is using fairytales and myths in ways that reinterpret them for modern characters and problems, or timeless ones, too. Here so much of it matched with what I've been thinking about modern and classic female characters a lot lately, and it was a joy to read about it in Block's beautiful style.

[Deandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A part of my virtual awp book fair buying binge, from the new-to-me A Midsummer Night's Press — this was an easy sell based on Francesca Lia Block's name alone. (I still have very fond feelings for the Weetzie Bat books, but I haven't read anything by Block in a very long time.)

I was perhaps overhyped for this book, because I found it a little underwhelming. I mean, there were definitely moments, poems, turns of phrase that I really liked. But perhaps I have just read too many reworked fairy tales and myths, there just wan't enough here that felt genuinely new or uniquely Block to get really excited about. Had I read this before Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung, would I have felt differently? Maybe.

But just because I wanted more doesn't mean I didn't like it. Two of my favorites, "Rose White, Rose Red" and "Bluebeard" gave me very good Weetzie feels. My other favorites "Eurydice" and "Circe & Ulysses" stood out for their yearning. I love the way the latter closes:

Just remember this
with you here inside me
I no longer yearn
to turn men into swine.

It's a nice little collection. I'm sure I'll look for more from this press.