The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
“With her characteristic flair and seductive prose, Block makes this tangled story of betrayal and love a standout. Sensuous and heartbreaking, sure to both satisfy and challenge fans of the supernatural romance.”
Publishers Weekly
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. (Oct.)
Children's Literature
- Michele C. Hughes
Charlotte Emerson has the perfect life, yet she is miserable and lonely. Living in an immaculately decorated seaside mansion in Southern California, her designer clothes, bottomless bank account, and gorgeous figure are the envy of all. Yet beneath her facade is a sad, isolated 100 year-old vampire teen who resents the transformation she chose so long ago. Charlotte is attracted to Emily, a girl at school, and gets to know her boyfriend, Jared, as well. When Emily is found dead in the bathtub with her veins sliced open, authorities rule it suicide. Jared and Charlotte are overwrought with grief, which bonds them as friends and later as lovers. Jared suspects Charlotte's secret and asks to be transformed, too, but she declines. Charlotte notices some changes in her body after Emily's death—her nails break, she begins menstruating again, and she is able to cry. Could it be that she has regained her mortality, as she had wished for decades? The plot grows darker when William, the calamitous vampire who created Charlotte, reappears in her life. She is horrified at his role in—and her own suppressed memory of—Emily's death. Charlotte must come to terms with the envious monster she has become and the wicked bargain she has made to get her life back. A tense battle for Jared's soul ensues. Sensual prose and lambent sexuality infuse every scene, from recollections of Charlotte's relationship with her late brother to her affection for Emily to her romantic relationship with Jared. Details of Charlotte's lavish life paint a picture of a life lived so artificially as to hinder sympathy for the narrator. Her longing to be human is palpable, but the way she squanders her wealth andtime on personal consumption erects a wall between the mortal reader and the character. Then to see Charlotte prevail in the wake of her wickedness is unsatisfying and formulaic. Reviewer: Michele C. Hughes
VOYA
- Jennifer Hubert
Block's latest novel chronicles the chain of events that cause reluctant teen vampire Charlotte Emerson to regain her mortal status. Charlotte was a beautiful 1920s debutante who succumbed to the charms of vampire William Eliot while mourning the death of her beloved twin, Charles. But Charlotte soon tires of the incessant globetrotting, the luring of victims, and the natural disasters that seems to dog William's undead steps, so she leaves him. Now Charlotte lives alone in an oceanside California mansion filled with priceless antiques and vintage clothes. She lies about her nonexistent parents and attends high school to cover her true identity. When Charlotte's best mortal friend, Emily, dies in an apparent suicide, Charlotte is drawn into a guilty romantic relationship with Emily's grief-stricken boyfriend Jared. As she falls deeper in love, her undead body begins to ripen into mortal flesh. Meanwhile William manages to find her, his dark purposes unknown. She wonders what is happening to her and whether her true love for Jared will save her from William's sinister advances? Told in flashbacks and Block's trademark poetical prose, this novel is a lyrically wrought treatise on art, death, life, and love. Here the vampire is a metaphor for the death of art, and as Charlotte recovers her humanity, she also regains her creativity. Blockheads will be giddy over this latest dark-tinged fantasy romance, and teens who are not up to wading through the lengthy pages of that other vampire tome will find just as much angst here at half the page count. Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert
School Library Journal
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
Kirkus Reviews
Charlotte has been a vampire for 80 years, and for the first time she wants something she thinks she can have: beautiful Emily Rosedale. But Emily kills herself, leaving Charlotte alone but for a growing friendship with Emily's boyfriend and the terrifying return of the vampire who created Charlotte in 1925. That's pretty much it for plot, but this being Block, every element of the narrative is really about sex: food, clothes, death, disaster, siblings and, of course, sex itself. Luckily, sex is enough to provoke character growth. Charlotte's coming-of-age-more apropos for a young woman than for a teenager-may have taken 80 years, but it's no less satisfying for all that. The people who surround Charlotte are caricatures of need whose actions follow no logic, but Charlotte's internal journey is what is important, so the senseless plot doesn't detract significantly. Wine-drinking, brand-name-adorned and gothically tormented, Charlotte provides a nice interlude for those readers who'd rather be a vampire than marry one. (Fantasy. YA)
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“With her characteristic flair and seductive prose, Block makes this tangled story of betrayal and love a standout. Sensuous and heartbreaking, sure to both satisfy and challenge fans of the supernatural romance.”
Booklist (starred review)
“A true original…[Block] has created something psychologically complex, erotically charged, and unusually poignant.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"With her characteristic flair and seductive prose, Block makes this tangled story of betrayal and love a standout. Sensuous and heartbreaking, sure to both satisfy and challenge fans of the supernatural romance."
The Horn Book
"Will be gobbled like candy by teen readers."
Claudia Gray
"I love the lush, melancholy world of this novel, and its heroine, with her century of secrets."
Booklist
"A true original…[Block] has created something psychologically complex, erotically charged, and unusually poignant."
VOYA
- Kim Carter
Emily Rosedale and Charlotte Emerson are close friends—very close. Charlotte has beauty, money, clothes, and "all the luxury and freedom a girl could want." Emily has "sad brown eyes . . . ballet lessons . . . a mother who loves her . . . and a boyfriend named Jared Dorian Pierce." What Emily wants most is "to live forever with the one I love." Charlotte has lived a century and walked away from the one she loved, a vampire named William who turned her when she was sixteen. Now Emily is dead, found in her bathtub with slit wrists, and strange things have started happening to Charlotte. She has a broken nail, and a zit. And she has feelings for Jared, feelings that go beyond worry about his grief for Emily. As Charlotte and Jared's relationship deepens, neither of them suspects what really happened to Emily or what is about to happen to them, as William returns to reclaim Charlotte. With her classic flair, Block presents an original intersection of love triangles, mortality and immortality, and human and vampire desire, while blending classical culture and style with modern zeitgeist. The result is somewhat uneven, especially for those enamored with Block's Weetzie Bat (HarperCollins, 1989/VOYA October 1989). A retrospective of Charlotte's century of life comprised of historical vignettes of the twentieth century feels like an interjection, needing to be either longer or shorter, and Block's poetic phrasing is less evident than usual. Still, Pretty Dead will appeal to Block fans as well as lovers of vampire fiction. Reviewer: Kim Carter
