Francesca Lia Block

ECSTASIA Ecstasia: Now, finally, it's available in the re-issued paperback! In a carnival-town called Elysia, the band Ecstasia lives its enchanted life. Calliope, Rafe, Paul, and Dionisio are the members, each with his or her own story. Though they were born in the desert, siblings Calliope and Rafe are products of the young, bedazzled culture of Elysia, and they have accepted that they will live the good life until signs of aging drive them--willingly--to the Under, where the old ones live. Their own mother fled there at her first signs of aging, and Calliope, who sees true visions in her mind, hears her mother dying below the city. She goes to her, and her brother follows to bring her back, helped in his quest by following Lily, a tightrope-walker with whom he has become obsessed. She has her own nightmare, and takes drugs to bring the dead back to her mourning mind. The drugs destroy her and almost destroy Rafe too, but the love of his band members bring him back from the brink. He mourns losing his love, but quickly finds his place in Paul's arms; Paul has loved him since day one. Dionisio and Calliope discover that she is carrying a child, and when she decides to try to change the world so that her daughter will have a different place to grow up in, she becomes trapped below the earth with the demonic Doctor, who makes drugs and made a doll resembling her to take her place. Eventually she is recovered, and the band flees to the desert where they came from, off to turn it into a garden with their music. Back to Francesca Lia Block Page