Pretty Dead

October 5, 2009
Known for lyrical, intoxicating prose and magical realism, Block delves into the vampire mythos with a racy story that sizzles and satisfies. While the story she spins (century-old vampire lives as Charlotte, a 17-year-old girl who has everything except true love, real friends and mortality) offers nothing new to the overstuffed niche, its simple beauty—and its slight heft—lies in its lustrous details (Paris of the 1920s comes alive in Charlotte’s “celery-green silk crepe sheath”). Many iconic moments from this past century—the bombing of Hiroshima, Woodstock, John Lennon’s murder, Kurt Cobain’s suicide—are given brief but vividly described due. Charlotte’s master-and-servant relationship over several decades with her “maker,” William Stone Eliot, is overtly erotic (“death in the guise of love, a dark-haired man... who bows his head to your breast, and bares, and punctures, and raptures and drains until you are empty and he is full”), as is her twisted and only slightly less sultry romance with the tragically handsome Jared Pierce, which acts as the perfect contemporary foil. Ages 14–up.

October 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-Charlotte Emerson is tall and beautiful, and lives by herself in a gorgeous mansion. She's also a vampire. Before she turned, she was a bright young woman with an idyllic life. Then her beloved twin died, and his death so devastated her that she had to find a way to dull the pain. Thus, she became a vampire, a decision that has haunted her for nearly 100 years. Now she is faced with another tragic loss: that of her best friend, Emily, to an apparent suicide. Lost and lonelier than before, she seeks comfort and solace in Emily's boyfriend, Jared. At first, he is bitter and angry with her, but she opens up to him, telling him about her past, and they eventually fall in love. But there is one secret that she keeps from him: she suspects that she may, somehow, be turning into a human again. When Charlotte's maker, William, returns to taunt her, Charlotte is forced to face a horrific mistake from her past that may cost her everything. In "Pretty Dead", Block takes what has up to now been the norm among vampire novels for teens and attempts to turn it on its head. This is a startlingly original work that drives a stake deep into the heart of typical vampire stories, revealing the deep loneliness and utter lack of romance in eternal life."Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
Sweet, vulnerable high schooler Emily wishes she was more like flawless beauty Charlotte. Meanwhile, after nearly a century as a wealthy, glamorous vampire, Charlotte wants only to be an imperfect teenage girl. The dramatic narrative blends elements of gothic romance with a Weetzie Bat-like setting. Offering sex, love, glamour, and danger, the book will be gobbled like candy by teen readers.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from May 15, 2009
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* The deluge of interchangeable vampire novels has grown to such proportions that its genuinely startling when a true original emerges. Seventeen-year-old (in appearance, anyway) Charlotte is what she calls a V word, yet lives a seemingly perfect life: gorgeous, brilliant, and wrapped in the finest of clothes and jewelry. What she lacks is a companion. But when her human friend Emily kills herself, she finds herself drawn to Emilys boyfriend, Jared, who reminds her of her beloved twin brother whodied nearly a century ago. In the books most powerful sequence, Charlotte describesto Jared hertransformation at the hands of the vampire William in 1925, and how the two murderous lovers were present for everything from the bombing of Hiroshima and the dawn of the AIDS crisis to Kurt Cobains suicide and the 9/11 attacksalmost as if their very proximity drew evil. Now, as Charlotte begins experiencing human-like symptoms (a broken nail, a zit, her period), William returns, and he brings with him an awful secret. Block is less concerned about mythology than she is with the malaise brought on by a vampires eternity of sorrow. With mournful prose, she has created something psychologically complex, erotically charged, and unusually poignant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)