Francesca Lia Block

PRIMAVERA Also re-issued with its prequel; we no longer have to comb shelves for rare books or pay hundreds of dollars to read it! Primavera is one of my favorites of her work. Told mostly in first person from Primavera's point of view, this is a magical novel! Primavera is the daughter of Calliope and Dionisio, and they live in a desert paradise. Feeling alienated by unrequited love and smothered by the flowers that spring up when she sings, and by her mother's constant knowledge of her thoughts, Primavera goes off to find her fortune in the city her parents fled, Elysia. On her journey she encounters a strange boy with bird ancestry, and when she gets to Elysia she meets a relative, with whom she descends to the Under to pursue eternal beauty. Death finds them instead, and her friend is robbed of her life while she is robbed of her magical voice. She is later imprisoned by a demonic man who collects half-beast women for his own sick pleasure, and she is made his unwilling slave. Also imprisoned there is a horse-man named Pyre, with whom Primavera finds her true meaning. She and the family she left find out what she means to them and to the desert, and through her journey they discover what being whole is all about. Back to Francesca Lia Block Page