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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty pallid, October 20, 2009
This review is from: Pretty Dead (Hardcover)
It feels like someone went up to Francesca Lia Block and told her, "Vampires are hot right now. You should write a book about vampires!"
And there doesn't seem to be much inspiration beyond that for Block's latest novella, a tale of vampiric angst and luxurious misery called "Pretty Dead." While her prose is as luscious and vivid as ever, the story itself is a paper-thin hodgepodge of vampire cliches -- you've got the wangsty wealthy vampire, the sinister and hedonistic ex-lover, and some rather boring humans who dream of being immortal.
Charlotte is a vampire, living a life of glamour and beauty in modern L.A., and locked in the flawless body of an eternal teenager. But when her friend Emily dies (apparently of suicide), Charlotte finds herself changing -- she breaks a nail, develops a zit, and finds herself perspiring. At the same time, she finds herself drawn to Emily's grief-stricken boyfriend Jared, who has figured out what Emily really is (she uses lots of sunscreen! She must be a vampire!) and wants her to turn him.
And at the school she currently attends, she encounters a face from her past: William, her former lover and maker, who seems to be followed by widespread disaster wherever he goes. Charlotte looks back on her long life with William -- how he seduced her away during her mourning for her twin brother, and how they traveled through countless decades of change, fashion, and immortal numbness that has slowly left her hollow. But William has one last shock for his former lover and protege...
Francesca Lia Block has a way with words, and "Pretty Dead" is no exception. She washes the entire book in jewel-toned words ("a rim of darkness like the blood-red trimming a pale rose") and an atmosphere of sorrowful hollowness, and darts like a bird between mossy forest glades, ballrooms, luxury-encrusted mansions, the fiery streets of war-torn Paris, and the glitzy nightlife of Los Angeles. She also seems to have acquired a dress fetish -- there's loving descriptions of all Charlotte's designer clothes throughout the last century.
Unfortunately, the plot is as flimsy and pale as a spiderweb. It's basically a standard "wangsty vampire mopes about being immortal while falling in love with a human" story with some rather predictable plot twists; moreover, the entire melodramatic ending feels cheap and contrived. Block inserts some interesting ideas into the story (such as immortality destroying one's ability to feel), but those ideas just sit there -- they never seem to be expanded into something deeper.
Perhaps the biggest problem is Charlotte's transformation from a vampire back to a human... we never really find out how or why. It's a nice aversion of the usual vampire/human romance trope, but it needs to make some sense.
And Charlotte is pretty much your standard "good" vampire -- she spends the entire book wangsting about how horrible it is to be an immortal "pretty monster," but she doesn't really do anything to improve her life. She's also the most passive vampire I've ever read about. And though we see how William became a vampire, it's never explained how he turned into a raving hedonistic sociopath. And Jared is basically a pretty body with no personality -- we never hear why he wants to be a vampire, or why he's so enamored of Charlotte.
"Pretty Dead" is a web of pretty words stretched over a fleshless skeleton -- Francesca Lia Block had some promising ideas, but the underbaked characters and limp plot just end up being another "woe! I'm such a sad vampire!" clichefest.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For All Eternity, Charlotte Will Be Beautiful And Alone, February 5, 2010
This review is from: Pretty Dead (Hardcover)
Charlotte Emerson is a vampire that is trapped for eternity in the body of a beautiful teenager. Everyone she loved when she was human died a long time ago. Charlotte will forever mourn them. Now, after the suicide of her only friend Emily, she feels more alone then ever. Her Porsche, Holly Wood mansion and designer clothes provide her little comfort. Soon Charlotte finds herself falling in love with Emily's boyfriend, Jared, who reminds her of her dead twin brother, Charles. As her love grows, Charlotte discovers she is reverting back to a human. For the first time in over one-hundred years, she is able to cry. Unfortunately, Jared is not content with being a human; he begs Charlotte to make him a vampire.
"Pretty Dead" is the latest in a long line of bizarre, provocative novels written by Francesca Lia Block. Once again, the theme is loneliness. Loneliness that is endured by teenagers who yearn for a love that will last forever. The teenager in "Pretty Dead" is Charlotte Emerson who happens to be a one-hundred-year-old vampire. For her, vampirism is a living hell on earth. The wealthy, exotic lifestyle she has shared with her creator, William Stone Eliot, has provided little compensation. A life without true love is meaningless.
Think "An Interview With The Vampire" for teenage girls. Anne Rice would be pleased by the similarities. Charlotte resembles Louis de Pointe du Lac who forever mourns the deaths of his wife and child. Like Charlotte, he detests killing humans for food and finds comfort by pretending that one of the undead (in this case, Claudia, a vampire child) represents the human child he lost. William resembles Lestat de Lioncourt who enjoyed killing. However, in "Pretty Dead," the reader learns that William, who is obsessed with mass destruction, is much more diabolical and evil than Lestat.
Charlotte is a teenage girl's fantasy. She has everything the world can offer, supplied by an older, handsome William who is the ultimate Sugar Daddy. However, she is not happy and probably never will be as long as her happiness is based on material possessions and relationships that can end at any moment. While walking through Sears, I once saw a young girl's T-shirt that read: "Only A Vampire Can Love You Forever." Not true. Even vampires can be destroyed. What is Francesca Lia Block trying to tell us in "Pretty Dead?" Love is a precious commodity that should be treasured in the here and now because it can be so easily taken away?
Once again, Francesca Lia Block has provided not only an entertaining novel of fantasy and horror on the surface but also a deeper social commentary about the struggles of today`s youth. Beautifully written, "Pretty Dead" reads like poetry as does her other novels which deal with teenagers searching for friendship, love and acceptance. In her previous novel, "The Waters & The Wild," a young girl, Bee, suspects herself of being a changeling - a faerie who was exchanged with a human baby; Bee and her friends are all social outcasts who fantasize that they are actually supernatural creatures. Together, they find strength and acceptance.
Joseph B. Hoyos
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite the Francesca we know and love..., October 26, 2009
This review is from: Pretty Dead (Hardcover)
Charlotte has lost many people over the years and, oh how many years it has been. When she is finally on her own she has to find someone to fill up her emptiness, but who is there? She has everything anyone could want, except a lover, except mortality.
This book was short and sweet, maybe a little too short. Unlike Block's earlier works this book seem to be lacking that poetic edge, that twists your stomach in knots and makes you cry out as if you were one of her tragic characters. This book was simply a small glimpse into the life of Charlotte Emerson. It was a good story for what it was. You got to see how she dealt with a very small section of her very long life. A sneak peak into what could have been a much longer novel. The characters were mostly undeveloped, though it seemed to be on purpose. You didn't really feel for any of them because you never got a chance to connect to them. I was quite excited when I found out that the lovely Francesca was doing a vampire novel but after reading it, I was left feeling disappointed. This is not a novel, it is a snippet; An epic poem without the hero. If you want to tick this one off your list then go ahead and read it but don't add it to your pile.
First Line:
"Teenage girls are powerful creatures."
Favorite Line:
"my darling in the red dress"
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