Francesca Lia Block

The Thorn Necklace

May 10, 2018

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Thorn Necklace: Healing Through Writing and the Creative Process by Francesca Lia Block, Grant Faulkner
Published by Seal Press on May 1st 2018
Pages: 304
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For devotees of Bird by Bird and The Artist's Way, a memoir-driven guide to healing through the craft of writing

Francesca Lia Block is the bestselling author of more than twenty-five books, including the award-winning Weetzie Bat series. Her writing has been called "transcendent" by The New York Times, and her books have been included in "best of" lists compiled by Time magazine and NPR.

In this long-anticipated guide to the craft of writing, Block offers an intimate glimpse of an artist at work and a detailed guide to help readers channel their own experiences and creative energy. Sharing visceral insights and powerful exercises, she gently guides us down the write-to-heal path, revealing at each turn the intrinsic value of channeling our experiences onto the page.

Named for the painting by Frida Kahlo, who famously transformed her own personal suffering into art, The Thorn Necklace offers lessons on life, love, and the creative process.

Catfairy’s Bookmix

Slinkster cool playlist!

Catfairy’s Thoughts

When this came to me in the mail, I was so deliriously happy because this book could not have come at a better time! I fell completely in love with this book in every way because this is the exact time in my life where I am in need of this book. I just turned 34 this year and this is the year that I feel like I need to act now on my writing or I never will. Now I know that being 34-years-old is not a death sentence and I could act on my writing whenever I want to act on it but I have been putting so many excuses and limitations to my writing. This book helps me realize that the time is NOW. And I cannot honestly ask for a better person to inspire me to continue my writing and be consistent with it than none other than my favorite author ever!

Since I was sixteen-years-old FLB has been like a muse, an inspiration, and her books have been like the security blanket that has gotten me through difficult times in high school, college, and the dreaded early 20’s where I was trying to figure out who I was. After reading The Thorn Necklace not only did I recognize how much I needed to make my writing a priority but how I missed FLB so FREAKING much! I have to admit, that I haven’t been reading much of FLB in my 30’s and I realized how much I need her words for the comfort and magic that it used to always bring to my life.

Catnopsis

“I AM A WRITER. They’re just four simple words. Yet many of us have difficulty saying them, no matter where we are in our creative journeys.”

-Grant Faulkner

FLB’s book is based on 12 questions to help you figure out the trajectory of your story. The questions are centered on all aspects of the character, the setting, the style, the protagonists, the antagonists, and the theme. These exercises make an amazing outline to get a story going and it really encompasses every detail to bring your story to life.

Not only is this book a writing guide, it’s also a memoir. She intertwines her life story with writing exercises. The author writes about her life in such a deeply personal and heartbreakingly honest way that all I wanted to do the entire time was give her a hug! Also, I was so pleasantly surprised to see that so many aspects of her most iconic books such as Weetzie Bat are inspired by her real life and knowing this made me so giddy!

via GIPHY

The Thorn Necklace actually feels like you are taking a writing class with FLB and I have taken a few online writing classes with FLB and even got the opportunity to meet her for a writing workshop back in February of 2009! I have been so ridiculously lucky to meet my ultimate muse and I am so happy that I have this book in my life because now I feel like I am taking FLB with me wherever I go.

Which Dawson Character Would Read This Book…

via GIPHY

Jen Lindley would totally read this book! She totally has that Weetzie Spirit inside her that is full of spunkiness, sweet sadness, and spontaneity! I feel like Ms. Lindley’s tortured soul would also completely relate to the pain that FLB went through with all the men in her life since Jen has quite a past.

Catfairy’s Pop Cultural References

via GIPHY

DUDE! I can’t believe that she got to hang out with Joseph Gordon Levitt and that she borrowed his actual jacket! Swooooon! Besides my husband, this guy is my ultimate Secret Agent Lover Man!

FLB’s Writing

“With no formal training, I’d pieced my debut book together from snippets of fairy tales, Greek myths, rock and punk lyrics, modernist poetry and the Latin American magical realism I’d read as if I were eating guava pastries from the Tropicana Bakery in Sunset Boulevard in LA.”

-FLB

FLB’s writing style is the reason why she is my favorite author! One of the things that I absolutely adore about FLB is her use of setting and how the setting is like another character in the book. When she writes about the magical like Shangri La based off of LA, it’s like you just want to be a part of that world because everything around Weetzie just seems to pop out like a Romero Britto painting! FLB’s writing is poetic and lush. Her writing has the ability to believe in yourself again and to accept your eccentricities. After I read a book by FLB I always appreciate the beauty around me and notice it’s magical qualities. FLB’s writing is like an Amelie movie only instead of Paris it’s set in a surreal Los Angeles filled with starlets, glittering palm trees, pink Cadillacs, pink Harlequin sunglasses, and kisses that taste like apple pie a la mode…

(BTW…when is the Weetzie Bat movie coming out?! Fox Searchlight you need to get with it! We need a Weetzie Bat revolution now more than ever!)

Catfairy’s Final Thoughts

I find it insane that this is a writer that I have idolized and looked up to for eighteen years! I always idolized her life and felt that she was leading the perfect life. It brings me so much comfort to know that the pain that she wrote about through her writing was what got me through high school, college, and adulthood.

Now come to think of it this book has taught me that everyone is struggling with some kind of pain and that it is our responsibility to take that pain and try to make it into something beautiful. We need to find ways of expressing that pain to get ourselves out of auto-pilot mode! The Thorn Necklace has taught me that the pain that we go through can be turned into something magical and can possibly save someone’s life…like mine. <3

Teen Spirit

August 23, 2017

Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block
on February 4, 2014
Genres: fantasy, Magical Realism
Pages: 240
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Goodreads

Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, brings this eerie and redemptive ghost story to life with her signature, poetic prose. It's perfect for fans of supernatural stories with a touch of romance like the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

After Julie's grandmother passes away, she is forced to move across town to the not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills and start over at a new school. The only silver lining to the perpetual dark cloud that seems to be following her? Clark—a die-hard fan of Buffy and all things Joss Whedon, who is just as awkward and damaged as she is. Her kindred spirit.

When the two try to contact Julie's grandmother with a Ouija board, they make contact with a different spirit altogether. The real kind. And this ghost will do whatever it takes to come back to the world of the living.

Francesca Lia Block's latest young adult novel is a haunting work about family, loss, love, and redemption.

Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I first picked up a Francesca Lia Block at 16 years old it was at a time that I felt lost and felt those typical teenage feelings like no one understood me. (This book brought me back to my teenage self so much that I was even inspired to catch a few Buffy the Vampire episodes for old times on Netflix…will explain as to why later on:) ) Block has the remarkable ability to make me see the beauty in my life and to see the beauty in myself even through all my quirks and eccentricities! Reading the book “Teen Spirit” resurfaced those feelings for me again. Francesca Lia Block’s writing style has always been prevalent in all her books but this book, in particular, reminded me of her Dangerous Angels series in so many parts of the book. After reading this book I think that Francesca Lia Block should continue a series and show Julie in college and so on. The story was so entertaining and the characters were so complex and intriguing that I could not get enough!

The story begins with Julie…

Julie is an awkward teenager with a pension for vintage clothes who is absolutely content with her life living in her 1940’s Spanish style house with her mom and grandma. Her mom is a writer for a television show and her grandmother is Julie’s rock and she is always the person that Julie can confide in when it comes to her high school woes, boys and their common love for vintage clothing. Julie takes comfort with her simple life until things don’t become as simple as they used to be. It all started when her grandmother is just having a conversation with Julie and she is about to reveal something important and then without warning Julie’s grandmother passes away in front of her. Julie and her mother are completely shocked and lost without her and things take a turn for the worse after the grandmother’s passing. Julie’s mother loses her writing job and they are forced to foreclose on their house and move to an apartment and Julie had to change schools.

Julie slowly gets deeper into her depression and realizes that she can’t function in her life without her grandma. Julie doesn’t even have the support from her own mother who is going into online dating and begins to date a loser middle aged guy in a band with a pension for “fishnet stockings.” Julie is desperate to see her grandma and find a way to communicate with her. Then once she starts her new school she meets a goofy guy named Clark whose trademark staple is wearing zany hats such as moose hats, monkey hats, porkpie hats, obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he enjoys eating “kicharee.”

As Julie gets to know Clark she discovers there is more to Clark than his wacky hats and his culinary talents. She shares with him her loss of her grandmother and expresses a desire to contact her grandmother. As soon as Julie mentions the ouijia board to Clark he is reluctant to do it with her and tries to keep her away from it. Soon enough Julie finds out his real reasons for staying away from the ouija board…

Julie evokes an unexpected spirit and therefore begins a twisted love triangle that involves Clark and a boy named Grant who claims to be Clark’s twin brother. Grant is the bad boy version of Clark and is more of the sexy 4.0 version of Clark minus the nerdy hats…

One of the main aspects of the book that really intrigued me were the supernatural scenes such as the auras that Julie had the ability to see with each person she met, the rituals, the glass bottles of flower-and-gem essences, and not to mention the aura ring that Julie was instructed to wear that resembled a mood ring which is something that I have always looooved to wear as a kid.

This book brought back memories for me of when I first began to read her books and her writing of this book made me realize why I love Francesca Lia Block so much! Teen Spirit was everything that I hoped for in a supernatural read and more! I felt like I was on a journey right there with Clark and Julie and I was loving every minute of it! I loved how Francesca Lia Block wrote the characters of Julie and Clark because they were easy to love but they were real teenagers with their flaws, insecurities, and angst to go along with it. She delved into the characters stories so fluidly and I was rooting for Clark and Julie to finally have their own happy ending every step of the way! The most important lesson that I learned from this book is that death is something we shouldn’t dwell over and obsess about because our beautiful and complicated lives are right in our very own fingertips…

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Love in the Time of Global Warming

August 16, 2017

Love in the Time of Global Warming #1 by Francesca Lia Block
Published by Henry Holt and Co. on August 27, 2013
Genres: fantasy, Magical Realism
Pages: 240
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Goodreads

Her life by the sea in ruins, Pen has lost everything in the Earth Shaker that all but destroyed the city of Los Angeles. She sets out into the wasteland to search for her family, her journey guided by a tattered copy of Homer’s Odyssey. Soon she begins to realize her own abilities and strength as she faces false promises of safety, the cloned giants who feast on humans, and a madman who wishes her dead. On her voyage, Pen learns to tell stories that reflect her strange visions, while she and her fellow survivors navigate the dangers that lie in wait. In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.

Catfairy Booktape

“My pink house-no longer mine-stands on the edge of nowhere like a rose in a Salvador Dali surrealist desert landscape….”

Catfairy Thoughts

In high school I was forced to read and analyze “The Odyssey” and let me tell you, it was the most boring and drawn out piece of literature that I have read in my entire life. There are many pieces of literature I appreciated and fell in love with as my required reading in high school such as “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, The House on Mango Street and of course one of my favorites of all time “The Great Gatsby” but “The Odyssey” was definitely not one of them! (I got to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore and read the cliff notes version known as Sparks Notes!) But knowing that my beloved author Francesca Lia Block was coming out with a modern twist of “The Odyssey” influenced me to give it a read and let’s just say it definitely didn’t leave me with the glazed over feeling that I got when reading it in high school. And thankfully I didn’t need Sparks Notes this time… 🙂

“Then I see a butterfly dart in front of my face; it’s like the one that came to my window. It circles back and around my head, then flies forth to where a lime green VW bus is parked in the wasteland. I run toward it, open the door, and jump inside. Men are running out of the house, chasing me, howling. I jam the key into the ignition and turn it. The bus jolts forward, careening over rubble and debris. Taking me away into this severed world.”

Catnopsis

The whole time as I was reading this book I felt like I was transported into a swirly and epic fairy tale. The story begins with the main character of Pen who sees life through art paintings, a storyteller who has visions of her life and other people, an avid book reader and an awkward teenager trying to make sense of her sexuality. Pen has lost her entire family due to the Earth Shaker that has left the city of Los Angeles into an utter wasteland.The only thing that is left for her is her lovely but dilapidated pink house that was up for foreclosure but now that doesn’t mean much anymore because of the Earth Shaker. Penelope sees a single Monarch butterfly which is the only sign that there is still life and most importantly still a small shred of hope.

In the story, a mysterious man whose identity is finally revealed at the end of the story comes into Pen’s pink house and gives her a chance of escape to look for her family. He leaves her a VW bus and a chocolate bar which she gladly receives (I don’t blame her.) and that’s how Pen’s fantastical and perilous journey finally begins. Later on her drive, she discovers a grocery store that she used to go to that is still filled with supplies and she encounters one of the giants. She has a pair of scissors and stabs one of Kronen’s giants in the eye.

The character of Kronen is what you would call a “mad scientist” who Pen’s father worked for. Kronen created these giants that were unusually large that it caused sheer devastation to Los Angeles which is how the Earth Shaker started in the first place.

“The world might be gone but somehow, here with Hex, it feels like when we open our eyes it will all come back, so much better than before.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be an epic fairy tale without meeting some life-changing friends along the way. Pen meets a boy named Hex with an inked tattoo that says “Heartless” and Pen slowly falls for him on her journey. He is a dark character who is a sword-wielding fighter who feels as if he is devoid of love but realizes in the end that love is all there is left especially when the world is gone. Pen also meets Ash who has “lighter than-a-paper-bag skin and almond green eyes” and who has a life-changing gift of bringing music to escape the havoc of his surroundings. And finally, she meets Ez who is named after Ezra Pound. Ez has a love for art and has an obsession with anything related to sugar. Ez has always felt like an outsider especially because he struggles with his sexuality and has an attraction to sketching male nudes. This leads Ez to form a special bond and connection with Ash that he has never had before.

Pen gets to know many people who try to halt her journey like the giants lurking around Los Angeles, a soap star named Circe who is described as looking like a “pre-Raphaelite Waterhouse painting” who makes them stay with her forever and eat cake or is the cake really an illusion? And of course, the story wouldn’t be The Odyssey without the infamous “sirens” who are described looking like one of those surgically enhanced Beverly Hills housewives on Bravo.

…”Wasn’t that what art was, after all? Desperate artists telling stories, drawing images, in order to keep some part of the goddess alive and close?”

Since I am an aspiring art history buff myself there were so many descriptions of whimsical paintings interlaced within the story like Salvador Dali, Monet and new artists that I am now newly introduced to from reading this book. (Thank you FLB<3.) Some amazing artists that were described in the book are Elihi Vedder, Odilon Redon, Francis Bacon and Edwin Romanzo Elmer.

Final Catfairy Thoughts

The style and design of the book are one of the most beautiful designs of FLB books that I have read. The decorations of the Monarch butterflies in every chapter made me think of them as “fairy butterflies” which is what they probably are<3 Every word I read in this book was read carefully and I fell in love again with FLB’s usual descriptive and captivating poetic writing style. All the characters were described with such magical minute detail that I am able to see them in my mind and that’s one of the biggest reasons why I love FLB’s writing. Towards the end of the story, I didn’t want to stop reading about Pen’s journey and wanted the book to be longer. (Luckily there is a sequel!)

“Were on the road to nowhere…

I found it funny that throughout the story I had the Talking Heads song “Road to Nowhere” stuck in my head. I was enamored with every turn of the page in this story and even though the characters felt like they were on a “Road to Nowhere” in the end they all found their destiny and most importantly they found themselves in each other which is more meaningful than the world crumbling around them.

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