The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
Francesca Lia Block, whoseWeetzie Batnovels have often been  called pop fairy tales, here turns to the real thing for some very different  imaginings of Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Rose Red and Rose White, and  other tales. Block's stories are more resonance than retelling, fevered dreams  behind which the outlines of the traditional tales move fitfully like figures  glimpsed now and then through a summer fog. Veiled references to Block's own Los  Angeles appear in the twisty house of the seven dwarfs built into a canyon like  Laurel or Topanga, the redwood forest on a seaside cliff through which Beauty  travels to her Beast, the tree-darkened canyon houses with French doors that  open onto exuberant neglected gardens lush with irises and roses. In these  evocations Bluebeard becomes an aging blue-haired producer, Sleeping Beauty  pricks her arm with a heroin needle, Red Riding Hood's wolf is a lecherous  stepfather, and the Snow Queen is a sex goddess who lives in a marble mansion  with her boy toy, possibly in Beverly Hills. Sensuous images enrich these  languid and darkly ironic visions: jasmine-scented night gardens, leopard  couches with velvet pillows, luscious food flavored with mint, coconut milk, or  pomegranate sauce, cool candlelit baths. As always, Block's poetic allegories of  adolescence are strikingly original and a bit dangerous, a feast for  connoisseurs of YA fiction and savvy older teens. (Ages 14 and older)--Patty  Campbell--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.