Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block

Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of Los Angeles, it consumes her from the inside out. But whether it is her eternal loneliness, the memory of her brother, the return of her first love, or the brooding, magnetic Jared-she cannot say. What if it's something more...

Something to do with the sudden tear in her perfect nails. The heat she feels when she's with Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins.

For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her.

First, can we admire the cover? This is the sexiest cover I think I've ever seen. I couldn't stop staring at it. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it just for the sheer fact of it's aesthetics. I love how the candy is bleeding. And her lips are perfect! So gorgeous.

Now onto the novel itself. This was a beautiful book to read. It was as if I was reading poetry, her writing was so flowing and smooth. I wish I could see the world the way Francesca Lia Block sees it. She has this way of making ordinary things sound extravagant and extravagant things sound so tempting and other worldly, irresistible.

Charlotte, our narrator, is perfect, which actually, is really annoying but because Block's writing is so flawless and inviting I enjoyed Charlotte's story. I also love how this is a vampire story that doesn't revolve around biting and blood. It's about humanness and what it's like when it seems lost and how to find it.

All her characters seem pretty simple but alight with the glow of her words and descriptions (I really can't say enough how beautifully she writes, I'm completely envious). However, there were some small things that didn't sit right with me. Actions and emotions that seemed a little too intense for the situation which threw off the experience for me sometimes-pulled me out of the world. But other than that I loved it! Block combines reality and vampires to make a world that's both hard to escape and hard to tell when through reading whether it was real or fiction.

Rating: 4.0