Ruby: A Novel [Hardcover]

Francesca Lia Block (Author), Carmen Staton (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2006

Once again Francesca Lia Block, this time with co-writer Carmen Staton, introduces readers to the fantastic and magical mind of a true heroine. Ruby, named for the jewel that is believed to ward off evil spirits, is a midwestern girl with a special gift -- a sixth sense that makes her at one with nature and gives her the ability to to know her own destiny. After growing up in an abusive family in midwest, Ruby eventually escapes to Los Angeles where she learns of the man who will eventually fulfill her every dream and, more importantly, make her feel safe, something she never felt as a child. Her soulmate is Orion, an actor who also had an unhappy childhood and has fallen out of the public eye to live a solitary life in England. When Ruby sees him for the first time on screen, her sixth sense tells her he is the man that will complete her life. She eventually jumps on a plane to England, begins working at a potions and herbs shop, and, through a series of coincidental circumstances, ends up nursing him back to health and confessing that she was looking for him all along. They help to solve the great tragedies of each other’s lives and live -- of course -- happily ever after.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. YA author Block (the Weetzie Bat books) collaborates on a novel yet maintains her trademarks: fairy tale simplicity combined with wrenching emotional realism, served with a hefty side of over-the-top romance. It's told mostly from the perspective of premonition-prone Ruby, who, along with her sister, Opal, grows up terrorized by a chillingly abusive father while their loving but eerily passive mother looks on. Interspersed throughout are vignettes from the life of a British boy named Orion Woolf, who grows up with a kind but deceitful sorceress mother, Isabelle, and blooms into dangerous beauty. Ruby, seeking solace from a bad relationship, moves to Los Angeles and works as a nanny for a movie producer whose film stars Orion, who has become an Orlando Bloomesque star. Instantly smitten, Ruby buys a plane ticket to England, where she traipses through a psychedelic London, lands in Orion's ultra-bucolic hometown, finds a job in Isabelle's magic shop and hones her innate powers. When a badly ailing Orion comes home to hide from the world, Ruby uses her gifts to nurse him back to health—though, as her intensifying flashbacks to the horrors of her childhood gradually reveal, she may be even more in need of healing. (July 3)
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This is a lovely, lyrical story of a young woman who does her best to overcome an abusive past and live the happily-ever-after fairy tale. Ruby leaves the Midwest for L.A. and is employed as a nanny when she finds that life, while good, could be so much more if only she could be with the love of her life, an actor named Orion. She goes to England to find his family and to see if she can meet him. Patience and planning put Ruby at the right place at the right time. Alternating voices and a realistic but experimental style, sparked with magic ritual and spells, elevate the story from ordinary to extraordinary. Ruby's point of view shifts from first to second to third person, mirroring flashbacks that reveal the essence of who she is and emphasizing her mystical connection to her soul mate. In contrast, Orion's point of view stays grounded firmly in third person. Ruby discovers that while you can leave the past behind, it will never leave you alone unless you confront it. Teens who like Block's work may miss the urban punk edginess of her Shangri-LA books, but this collaboration will definitely draw new readers with its tempered, yet recognizable, style.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper (July 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060840579
• ISBN-13: 978-0060840570
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,319,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Francesca Lia Block, recipient of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award. has been publishing novels, short stories, essays, memoirs and poetry since 1989. Her work has been translated into many languages. Ms. Block lives in Los Angeles where she teaches writing workshops that are also available online.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars definately a jewel, August 3, 2006

By 

Samantha J. Smith "Sam" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ruby: A Novel (Hardcover)

I love Francesca Lia Block. To date I own almost everything shes written.

She has such a colorful language, and imagination. She truely brings you into the book as it youre really just a fly on the wall, but seeing it all happen for yourself instead of reading a story.

This book, unlike so many of her others dosent take place in Los Angeles, but she apparently still has the power to make any city magic.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another beautifully-written and magical book from Block, July 3, 2006

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Gen of North Coast Gardening (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ruby: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a magical, mystical read! Like all of Block's other books, this modern fairy tale combines harsh reality with transcendent beauty to create an uplifting and inspiring read.

The descriptions and places in the book helped transport me fully into Ruby's world, and the magical people and happenings kept me thinking about the book weeks after I closed it.

If you have liked Block's other work, you will love this. This book has the magic and untraditional romance of her Weetzie Bat books, and was wonderful to fall into at the end of the day.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved ambiguity -- even about what is real and what is imagined, September 7, 2006

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C. ward "mbmama" (los angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby: A Novel (Hardcover)

I love this book. The ambiguity -- even about what is real and what is imagined -- is very engrossing and satisfying (not like a game that's designed by someone who knows more than you about the story like with some books). Empowering is so overused, but this book is truely empowering. It's like the main character, Ruby, is nurturing you, the reader. Some paragraphs are so simple and profound I had to read them again. And, I continued thinking about the narrators' wisdom the next day. I make it sound so serious, but actually this book is very entertaining and even sexy in places.

Maybe I'm not the target audience for this book (I'm 40), but the journey it took me on allowed me to be in my own teen/ young adult mind/ emotions -- in a good way, since I also have my 40-year old self to look on. So fun!!