Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories (Girl Goddess No. 9) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Steve Scott (Illustrator) "In the morning, her mother helped her put on the bathing suit with the cartoon bird baby on it..." (more)
Key Phrases: alabaster duchess, lady ivory, girl goddess, Peachy Pie, Uncle Hansel, Mellow Moon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Movie stars, rock stars, pond nymphs, intergalactic superheroes . . . who are the real goddesses in Francesca Lia Block's world? Real young women--the kind who ache, bleed, dance, and talk to blue ghosts in closets. Famous for her lyric Weetzie Bat books, Block blossoms in this collection of short stories about love: straight, gay, familial, and otherworldly. Very few young adult authors talk as frankly as Block about sex and some of the other yearnings we feel in this world, yet she guides her readers toward the self-respect and courage necessary to make smart choices about those yearnings.

From Publishers Weekly

Writing with the same sense of wonder that gives such magic to Weetzie Bat and her other novels, Block turns out nine short stories that share a similar theme. Here, as in her previous work, the author sets about deflating the oppositions that most people either reinforce or invent in order to distance themselves from others: carefree child/knowing adult; straight/gay; black/white; male/female. In one of the most ambitious entries, "Dragons in Manhattan," a girl with two mothers decides to find her father and, after traveling from New York to California, learns that one of the "mothers" is in fact her father, a transsexual. Throughout, eros and love receive modulated but frank tribute. The roses, camellias and jacarandas of Block's lush prose style scent these works with a heady perfume; the disadvantage here has to do with her manipulation of the short story genre. Atmosphere is built at the expense of momentum, and the collection as a whole, while still superior to most YA writing, doesn't achieve the heights of the author's best fiction. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; 1st edition (August 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060272112
• ISBN-13: 978-0060272111
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #418,128 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Girl's Diary, January 13, 2003

By	Kristin Tomic (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories (Paperback)

I look back now, and I realize that Girl Goddess #9 was a big part of my formative years. It was the first FLB book, and it still one of my favorites.

When I read the title story, I remember thinking, "Well,I like Sarah McLachlan, maybe I should give Tori Amos a try." (If you don't know how that story ended, well, know that I think nothing of driving ten hours to go to a Tori concert.) And, a year or so later, I re-read the story and thought, "Hey, I like Sarah and Tori, maybe I should try the Cocteau Twins." Thus began another addiction which annually saps me about fifty bucks.

I was going through major issues with a very dear friend as I read "Pixie and Pony," and for years now, those words have stayed with me: "Best friends? We are sisters." After my mother's injury, I struggled to reconcile the reality of her new self with the way she had once been. The story "La" was of enormous help.

GG#9 is every girl's diary. It is all of our fears and hopes and drems. It is everything we've questioned about life, our futures, our parents, our sexuality, and love. Each girl is perfectly unique, very mysterious, and yet completely familiar. Each of these girls is like a little facet of each other, and of ourselves.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastical, January 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories (Paperback)

Out of all of Francesca Lia Block's books, I think this is one of the best. Although I don't particularly like short stories in general, this book left me captivated. My favorite is Blue because it was so touching, and Ms.Block's writing style is so lyrical that it really brings out the sadness even more than imaginable.(it made me cry!) Anyway, the whole collection of short stories was great, and this is one book I'll be reading again and again.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars so touching, so real, so magical., October 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories (Paperback)

the best book you can ever possibly read. its not trashy, not sappy, not phoney. and its not boring. the most realistic stories, yet told in a magical pixie-punk way. and they're not superficial. they are the whole raw truth of the world and feelings of the humans living in it. i could not put it down. my personal favorite story is blue. it purly touched my soul in a way no other story ever could or will. basically,to sum up my feelings about this book, the most wonderful book of stories in the world, as best i can, is to say that you feel for the characters. you move with the characters you become the characters. This book is pure magic.