This was a much more successful fairy tale than Ecstasia, though you do need to read that one first for this one to work (I think).Usual problems with thinness and whiteness, so if you're not thinthinthin and white (and feminine, delicate...), you may find this book dehumanizing. There are some people who aren't entirely human, bird-women and centaurs and things, and then there are a bunch of fauns described with black features - wide noses, full lips, etc - and they get breast descriptions inst...

This seems to be the sequel book to Ecstasia, although I struggled to find any info on that anywhere. I haven’t read that book, but this story stood on its own fine. It’s written in Block’s very beautiful, yet somewhat ambiguous style. Reading Block’s books always feels a bit like floating through a dream: beautiful, magical, a bit blurry, and sometimes hard to focus on.This is the story of Primavera who leaves paradise to visit the city her parents used to live in, Elysia. Along the way she stu...

Beautiful and Disturbing.As always, Lia Block's writing is as lyrical as it is raw. This novel seamlessly blends Greek myth with a coming of age tale set in Los Angeles, complete with themes on homosexuality, drug addiction, sex trafficking, ageism, child abuse, unrequited love, suicide...did I leave anything out? Oh yea, and rock & roll. It's "hard times in the city", yo, and while I was riveted the entire time, I was equally taken aback by the blunt, deviant sexuality that is explored in the b...

This book is 18 years old, but the story is eternal. A Persephone story update, mixed with a bit of dystopia, and a ton of Block at her best. Makes her dangerous angels seem warmly, cozily safe.

As soon as I realized this was a sequel to Ecstasia, I knew I was in trouble. Normally, I love Francesca Lia Block's writing, but the plot for her earlier works is really lacking. This book was just as much of a slog to attempt to read as Ecstasia was and I didn't care about Primavera just like I didn't care about any of the characters of Ecstasia.

I fell in love with Ecstasia, the predecessor of Primavera, and I just had to read the next installment to find out what happens next. This book doesn't disappoint. As usual, Block's writing is full of beautiful, whimsical imagery, things that are so delicate and charming one minute and dangerous the next, and yet they still keep that terrifying beauty within them. It is an aspect to her writing that never disappears.I understood Primavera's choices and as a character could really connect to her...

"Now it is as if she is imprisoned in a garden of her own making, lost in a tangle of redolent blossoms, and only when she has seen the city without gardens will she know this place for what it is."When Primavera sings flowers grow, bringing to life the desert that she, her mother, her father, her uncle and her uncle's beautiful boyfriend Paul (who Primavera may be in love with) live. Primavera by Francesca Lia Block brings with the title character craving experience and adventure, outside of t

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, Primave...

"Primavera" is an absolutely beautiful book that takes many elements of Greek mythology and modernity and interweaves them into the Persephone myth. Primavera wants to escape her parents and the utopia she has created, but to do so, she must face the horrors of civilization in Elysia. Mixed in with the story are songs, mini poems that describe what is going on in the plot and inside Primavera. The writing is brilliant, like a kaleidoscope of images and sensory detail: "There were bright things i...

Francesca Lia Block's writing is luminous, but never more so than in this reimagining of the Persephone myth. From a desert paradise where Primavera grows up with the gift of singing flowers to life, to the dark and glowing streets of Elysia, to Under and beyond every detail is a feast. But it isn't just sparkle and flash. It is a deep allegory that speaks to the problems of our world today, and gives us a glimpse of how we can join all its broken pieces together again.

Poetic and captivating. Loved this book along with the others.

I think this is my favourite F.L.B. story, it is so magical and terrible and lovely...

This is the continuation of “Ecstasia.” Primavera is a restless young lady who lives in paradise. Like all people she needs to find her own path to paradise. She journeys all across the country to find what she thinks she needs. Her voice brings flowers, but is that what she wants. Block seamlessly integrates poetry into the magical realism of her writing.

Beautifully poetic and dreamlike. The settings are super surreal but the story feels a bit disjointed.

I think this is the first book that I have not been able to finish. So bad.

Apparently, my teenage self preferred this to Ecstasia because I had that one rated four stars and this one five originally. Now, it's definitely the other way around. Don't get me wrong, this book is still beautiful! One thing I think it does better than Ecstasia is flesh out the world surrounding the city of Elysia. In the first book, it almost seems like there is Elysia, Underground, or the desert and no other options exist. Here, we're introduced to some of the places in between, as well as

So I feel the need to kinda praise this book for a moment, because it is nothing like I have ever read before… Not even for a FLB book. I am used to her imagery and poetic prose within her dark fairytale novels, but this is something more. This book is like a dream that I have forgotten long after waking up only to remember months later. Primavera , our protagonist, sets out on a surreal journey of self discovery. She was raised in a desert unlike any other, lush with greens, animals, vegetation...

Primavera, the girl with the magical voice that can make flowers appear, is the daughter of Dionisio and Calliope. They live in the desert, where her parents and their friends Paul and Rafe practice with their band, but she is feeling penned in by having a mother who always knows her thoughts, and she wants to know more about the land of her ancestry--her family is of Elysia, where supposedly, no one grows old. (Really, everyone goes voluntarily or is pushed to the Under at the first signs of ag...

Young Primavera lives in a paradise, soft, lush, suffocating. She longs for hard, brittle adventure. So, into the desert and the cities she rides.The story of Persephone in a post apocalyptic world where radiation has created mutant centaurs and mermaids and Primavera, who when she sings, makes the world bloom flowers. A classic journey from innocence into adulthood with all the attendant descents into the abyss and climb into the sun. What’s interesting about this version is that we not only re...

A beautifully written coming-of-age story that is a perfect example of contemporary magical realism. This book hides inside it a universe of centaurs, mermaids, bird-women, and wonderfully crafted characters. I would recommend this to mature individuals, as dark themes exist such as drug use and rape.

I really like the writing style in this book. The characters are very interesting. The details of the story are great, but the overall image was not the kind of thing I enjoy. I like a book with lots of suspense and surprises. This story has sort of a boring frame in my opinion, But if you like fantasy, then you should read this.

[Attempted re-read in March 2016]Aaaaaaand that's the last of my FLB books gone! I can't believe they've sat on my bookshelf gathering dust for over TEN YEARS. (Did I ever read them more than once?) Goodbye, pretentious and repetitive YA. Hello, four inches of shelf space!

I started reading this book back in high school, many years ago, fell in love with it and promptly lost it. I found it again, actually I stole it from a library (at the time it was out of print) and have been waiting to resume reading ever since.

It seems to me that it is very obviously one of her first books. I didn't regret reading it, I liked it, but at times it was just a little...too much? It seems that these days she realizes that a healthy dose of realism spliced in can much better achieve her purposes.

A sequel to 'Ecstasia' (though I read them in the wrong order anyway). Not just a sequel for the most part this is a retelling of the same events through the eyes of another character. Rather pointless, then.

I think this is one of my favorite Block books. I often have some trouble with keeping up with the story, understanding what is really happening all the time. Even though I still like them, it was nice to always get what was happening, for a change.

I really identified with the lead character's struggles in this book which is probably why I liked it so much.

Amazing book. Just as good, if not better than the first of the series.

Even though i didn't think that it was as good as it's prequel (Ecstasia), i really enjoyed the storyline and the way that it was written.

Read this after Ecastasia, it adds to the book.