Blood Roses is a collection of very short stories by the renowned author Francesca Lia Block. Block is best known for her Weetzie Bat books, and has received all kinds of awards, including the Margret A. Edwards lifetime achievement award. The Weetzie books were published in the 90's and are full of real-life fairy tale, post-punk rock L.A., loving life goodness.
Blood Roses, however, just doesn't move you the way the Weetzie books could. Possibly Block's sensual, honest, impressionistic fairy tale writing style just isn't as original as it once was? Maybe YA literature has matured over the years and her work just isn't as stand-out unique? For me, I think, Blood Roses was a little underdeveloped. It was like Block had all these ideas for books that she just couldn't work out, so she turned them into short stories. It's not that they were poorly written or no good... it's just that I expect more from Block after all these years of incredible books. Teens who enjoy Weetzie Bat and nontraditional, creative writing styles might still go for this book, but otherwise, I think it might be a hard sell.
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