English
A celebration of girls and women in a three part poetry collection that is powerful, hopeful, authentic, and universal. Block once again mixes characters from fairy tale and myth—vampires, mermaids, fairies—in this collection of urban poems that contrast menace and beauty; innocence and heartbroken experience; despair and bold confidence. As in her recent story collection, Blood Roses (2008), the works frankly discuss body image, sex, and love, and subjects that stretch into adult life, with poems about marriage, divorce, and motherhood. Luxuriant imagery of roses, feathers, and glitter contrast with dark, menacing scenarios of girls and women threatened by men and by their own brutal judgment, with vibrant, sometimes cruel Los Angeles as a constant backdrop. Eating disorders figure into many poems, as does advice on finding joy. There is hope in the beautiful title poem, which speaks about the limitless freedom that can come with self-acceptance, and young women will easily relate to the many selections about teen naïveté and restlessness: “just us girls all in shiny pink / waiting for something to happen.” A stirring exploration of female suffering and empowerment, this will attract Block’s adult readers, too.