Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Review: Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block

Title: Pretty Dead
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 224 (Paperback)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Bought







Goodreads Summary:
People pity me, but mostly they feel envy. I have all the luxury and freedom a girl my age could want.

Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of Los Angeles, it consumes her from the inside out. But whether it is her eternal loneliness, the memory of her brother, the return of her first love, or the brooding, magnetic Jared—she cannot say. What if it's something more . . .
Something to do with the sudden tear in her perfect nails. The heat she feels when she's with Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins.

For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her.

My Thoughts:
As all of you should know (I'm sure you don't, but I'll probably say it over and over in the future as well) Francesca Lia Block is my favorite author.  She has been since I picked up by first book written by her (Violet & Claire) back in middle school.  I haven't seen much of her work mentioned around the book blogging community, but when I do, it always puts a smile on my face.

Her writing has always been magical and this doesn't change one bit in Pretty Dead.  The story starts off by telling the reader about this girl, Charlotte, who isn't really a girl after all.  Not a living one, at least.  She speaks about the people that surround her and how she can sense their jealousy.  They've always thought she was perfect on the outside and they admired all of the treasures she had, when the truth was that she would trade it all just to be mortal again.

When she loses the closest friend she's had in about a century, a part of her seems a little off.  Over time, she notices that she broke a nail, she's perspiring, and she has a menstrual cycle for the first time since she was changed.  Charlotte grows closer to a boy named Jared, who is actually the first person to realize who- or what- she is.

The story keeps your interest and pulls you along for the ride through a look at Charlotte's life, before, during, and after her years as a vampire.  You begin to realize how easy it was for her to fall for this charming devil named William Stone Eliot, especially after she felt that she had nothing more to live for.

Definitely recommended if you're interested in vampire romance or the beautiful and graceful writing styles of FLB.  

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