This is written by my favorite author. She is one of the best storytellers of my generation. Her work should not be limited to just teen readers-adults should read them as well.

Beautiful, sometimes heartbreaking stories. “Block uses language like a jeweled sword, glittering as it cuts to the heart.”—Kirkus Reviews

I originally bought this book to go towards the Fairy Tales Retold Challenge I was participating in this year. I have read a few of Lia Block’s books, they are always intriguing. Lia Block has a very different writing style that is beautiful and a bit ambiguous. She’s an author I enjoy reading occasionally but not all the time.This was a dark, yet strangely beautiful, collection of fairy tales told in Block’s typical ambiguous writing style. Really they read more as poetry than story. My favorit...

I think what would really make this book complete would be two more chapters. Then it would be wide enough to correct the short leg on my dining-room table. As of now, the thing can have no possible purpose.

Although not written as free-verse poetry, The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block is also quite lyrical and some grammar rules are blatantly ignored as a way, I assume, to make the reading flow more like conscious thought rather than narration. With nine classic fairy tales revisited and retold in a more modern way and setting, Block takes what are usually considered romances and dirties them up. Stories don't always end happily, the beautiful girl doesn't always get h...

The back of this book does not misrepresent itself when it states that, "Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out." These retellings are recommended for those days when you are feeling particularly anti-Disney. In other words, do not pick this book up unless you are willing to have well-known and, possibly, well-loved stories told in a highly original and sometimes unrecognizable manner. Happily ever after is not on the menu, at least not in its traditionally accepted interpretation...

In The Rose and the Beast, Block writes fairytale-inspired short stories that take snapshots from various angles of the budding sexuality of teenage girls. Often, these stories depict sexual violence, like in "Wolf," where a teenage girl runs away from home after her mother confronts her stepfather about what he's been doing to her daughter at night. But sometimes the girls discover their sexuality in less violent ways, like in "Tiny," where a Thumbelina-type girl runs away from home to find the...

Nine tales are offered including Little Red Riding Hood ("Wolf"), Beauty and the Beast ("Beast"), Thumbelina ("Tiny"), Bluebeard ("Bones"), Sleeping Beauty ("Charm"), Snow White ("Snow"), Snow Queen ("Ice"), and Cinderella ("Glass"). These, for the most part, are not your typical Disney retelling, light and fluffy. They are dark and gritty, not unlike the originals.In these evocations Bluebeard becomes an aging blue-haired producer, Sleeping Beauty pricks her arm with a heroin needle, Red Riding...

I've always loved fairy tales, and I've always loved retold fairy tales. In fact, I've written a few myself in the past. There's something about reading version after version of these universal stories that people have heard since they were kids that appeals to me. There's also something about the duality of nature that most of the stories hold: a darkness within the light. I suppose Francesca Lia Block would be the exact kind of writer you would expect to put out a collection like this. Her sto...

As the title might suggest, Francesca Lia Block’s The Rose and the Beast takes some of the most popular of Grimm’s fairy tales and plops them down in modern-day Los Angeles. The tales are reworked to fit a modern day world, but the lessons, both new and old, behind each tale have not been lost in the least.Now, much like the original Grimm fairy tales, these tales have not been sugar-coated in the least. While the author refrained from outright telling the readers what some of the heroines were

It do not interest me, I thought I was going to like the poetry-like retellings of nine fairytales, but I just find myself lost as I read through it and not even enjoying it. Just not for me.

I think my favourite thing about this book are all the people clutching their pearls over how Block made the stories "dark" or "edgy," complaining about the "unnecessary" drugs, sex, violence, and (eyeroll) ~bad language~. It made me perversely like this book more. Don't like dark fairy tales? Tough, they've always been dark. It's only very recently that they've been sanitized by companies like Disney trying to take out all the sex and violence to make them more palatable to overprotective Conce...

This is a short story collection of nine fairy tales retold. These were certainly beautiful and gave a totally different perspective to some of the stories while keeping very close to the original with others. They read more like poetry than anything else.I loved him the way it feels when you get hot wax on the inside of your wrist and while it's burning, just as sudden, it's a cool thick skin. Like it tastes to eat sweet snow, above the daffodil bulbs - not that I've ever found it, but clean sn...

Read for my Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Fantasy class.This book, especially in the latter half, has a lot of drug abuse, sexual abuse, and other really darek content and was actually pretty triggering, so keep that in mind before picking up this collection of fairy tale retellings.

WOW!! I'm speachless. Not many books can do that to me. Normally I can take a really cool book and make fun of it but not this book. This one just blew me away.The Rose and the Beast is exactly what the title says. The author takes 9 fairy tales and retells them. SHe put her own twist on them. My three favorites were Charm, Bones, and Ice.WOW!!The reason I loved these stories so much is because there was a bit of rock-n- roll in them. They brought up past memories in this thrity-something that

With language and a writing style that is deliciously unorthodox, Francesca Lia Block weaves a series of retold fairy tales that can easily stand by themselves. Each story possesses an almost dreamlike quality that enchants the reader and tenderly pulls them along, making the pages fly by in the process (this is also partly due to the margins on each page forming the text into little blocks of story). Even though each tale is short and sweet, each one packs a mean punch that resonates with the r...

I like the dark tone of this short story collection, but none of the fairy tale retellings stuck with me in any significant way. The writing was good, but I just didn't feel any sense of suspense or anticipation.

To sum it all up in one word - odd. I wanted to try my hand at some young adult literature and this was probably the wrong one because I would never recommend it to my young daughter to read. It had a very dark and vulgar feel to it. It wasn't terrible but not really to my taste.

SNOWAn adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.I enjoyed the retelling of this. The start was a lot more believable- a desperate mother giving up her child because she realises she's unable to take care of it. I also liked the twist at the end, with Snow staying with her makeshift brothers/fathers. I didn't quite understand why the mother decided to poison her child, but that's partially because sometimes I find Block's style hard to read and understand.3/5TINYA retelling of Thumberlina.Th...

I don't know what to say i feel lot of emotion about this book... But mostly i can say i feel unsatisfied... I didn't get enough like i want more... Some story's were too dark for me... To be honest this book is amazing but it's not for me... I feel sad that i wasn't able to enjoy this book as everyone else... But the fact is fact.... Uffff I loved ice story and i almost hated the rose story i don't know why... Rose case two sisters bond were so strong and how they ended was quite heart breaking...