Young Adult Literature without Apology

Amy's assessment of contemporary young adult literature, organized by author and title, censored by noone.

Realistic | Romance | Science Fiction | Historical Fiction | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Block, Francesca Lia (2006). Psyche in a Dress. NY: Joanna Cotler. ISBN: 0060763728.

Block's new young adult novel has more in common with her more magically unreal narratives like I Was a Teenage Fairy than the more tangibly grounded "Weetzie Bat" books. Told almost entirely in free-verse, this poem-novel draws on Greek mythology and imagines the gods, goddesses and heroes as contemporary characters. No mere mythic re-positioning here; Block's lush poetry underscores the sometimes dangerous dramas and passions of the figures of myth. Psyche is the primary focalizer and, when we are introduced to her, she is the seventeen-year old daughter of a film director who has determined that his teenage girl is his muse. Uncomfortable with her father's scrutiny, Psyche leaves for college and suffers through a relationship with Hades until she is reunited with her true love, the monsterously beautiful Eros. In truly mythological fashion, the romances of the gods are seldom ideally realized and the novel's conclusion is one that myth-buffs will expect but romance fans might find bittersweet. Not a scholar of the myths, myself, I initially wracked my brain to try to locate myself within the mythological sphere evoked by Block. Absent a mental library of the classic myths, I found it better to enjoy the story as a rich fairy tale than to try to use my tenuous grasp of the ancient stories to predict the course of the narrative. I have to say: this novel made me want to pick up a compendium of myths and brush up on my cultural literacy.