What We’re Reading

The Hanged Man | Francesca Lia Block

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I’ve been an avid Block fan since a friend had me read Violet & Claire in 2001, after which I went out and bought all the books on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. Hanged Man has always been one of my favorites. It’s always struck me as odd, as it’s one of the touchier subjects, centering around molestation and repressed memories, but I suppose I felt I could identify, and her writing is just incredible.

As per usual with FLB books, her style is unique. Reality meats fantasy, poetry meets prose.

Laurel’s father has died, and she and her mother spend their days floating around one another, like ships anchored just out of reach, or at sea always passing but never meeting. The AIDS scare has begun, and Laurel worries for her friends and their wild lifestyles. Though constantly urged otherwise, she doesn’t eat. A man has been going around the valley breaking into women’s rooms, and Laurel can’t sleep, though her room is in a tower.

Phantasmic Jack haunts her dreams, appears at random at parties, on the streets. It’s he who eventually helps her to break free of her internal bars, to let go of everything held inside. Only after this point can she and her mother then confront what’s been between them for so long.

Laurel’s emotional journey will likely resonate with many, even if they can’t relate to her specific circumstances. The language alone makes it worth the read. I have a handful of favorite authors, but I’ve still yet to find anyone who can out-style Francesca Lia Block.

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The Night my Sister went Missing | Carol Plum-Ucci

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It was just another dune party on a slow night in Mystic…until Casey Carmody went missing off the side of the pier and no one was sure whether she’d been shot or not. Suddenly everything was a question and all the gossip was hot.

Stuck at the Police Station waiting for his parents’ flight to get in, Kurt Carmody was helpless. So he did the only thing he could: eavesdropped with his best friend on the statements given by their friends. An experience that turned out to be more eye-opening than he’d expected…and not in the ways he’d expected.

By the end of the night, his sister’s story had become hopelessly entangled with that of Stacy Kearney, another Island girl, and Kurt didn’t know if he’d be able to save either of them. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try.

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Wasteland | Francesca Lia Block

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Marina’s relationship with her brother Lex has always been different than that of normal siblings. Therefore, it’s not a shock to anyone when she takes his apparent suicide so hard. But there’s more to the story than anyone knows. At least, so she thinks.

As Marina delves deeper into the mystery, struggling to understand what happened to her brother, hidden truths come to light. But none so large as those learned when she takes off to visit her father.

This is a story of love: how it can raise you up and pull you down, heal you and break you.

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