Francesca Lia Block

WASTELAND Wasteland's namesake is the T.S. Eliot poem, but it's a story of a strange sort of sibling love and also deals with the difficult theme of losing someone to suicide. The perspective flips back and forth between tenses and characters, making it slightly confusing to read, but it all comes together. Marina and her brother Lex have always loved each other, and even though she tries to like other boys and he tries to feel something for other girls, they cannot forget one another even though they know their love is supposed to be forbidden. Marina investigates her brother's death, which is thought to be suicide, but she feels it couldn't possibly be. She gets to the root of the problem with the patient and caring assistance of her friend West, finally leading to some revelations about her relationship with her brother and her developing friendship with West. Back to Francesca Lia Block Page