The Elementals (edition 2012)

Faeries ... potions ... mysterious rituals ... forbidden sex ... need I say more? 'The Elementals' by Francesca Lia Block is a novel with some mature adult themes but enough juvenile allusions to anchor it strongly in the YA category. The author has a beautiful, lyric quality to her writing that draws the reader into the strange world of her creation; I found myself sucked in and unable to put down the book, even as the antics of the main characters frustrated and annoyed me. I wanted this book to be great, because the quality of writing is top notch, but the plot itself was mediocre and predictable.

Ariel (cue the first Shakespeare reference) has just arrived at college but is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend and by her mother's illness. She is socially awkward, deeply introverted, and a lover of poetry (yes, she quite neatly fits a certain stereotype). As she half-heartedly searches for her friend and at the same time begins her own downward spiral into depression and confusion, Ariel meets a strange trio of older students, who live off campus in a huge and mysterious house where alluring parties and bizarre practices abound.

I found the twists and turns of the plot to be predictable and a bit boring, and I kept waiting for Ariel to mature into some sort of better character, a person with whom I could relate, or at least sympathize. But those hopes never materialized. I give this book two stars - the writing is wonderful, but the story is unworthy of its beauty. ( )

Ariel Silverman always expected that she and her best friend, Jeni, would be together. But on a class trip to visit UC Berkeley, Jeni disappeared, and a year later her absence haunts Ariel. However, she decides to continue upon the path they'd planned and enrolls at UC Berkeley. Her parents are initially reluctant to send her away, but after her mother is diagnosed with cancer they decide that a new start for Ariel might be the best thing. Once she's at university, Ariel drifts. Her classes are fine but she can't seem to make any friends, and she can't let go of Jeni. Finally, one Halloween she attends a party unlike any she's ever seen, and finds a mysterious new group of friends. They're beautiful and sultry, hypnotic and enchanting. Ariel finds them intoxicating, especially the handsome John Graves. She's being sucked into their exotic, gothic world, but she can never quite shake the feeling of danger that lingers behind every encounter.

Francesca Lia Block is one of those authors that has been on the edge of my radar for years, but I never quite got around reading her books. I finally decided to bite the bullet when The Elementals was released, since it was her first adult novel and I could be reasonably sure that I wouldn't inadvertently pick up a book that was part of a series. (I'm told by other fans of her work that some of her other characters make cameo appearances in The Elementals.)

Ariel is quite young and naïve at the beginning of the book. Seventeen and never been kissed, cautious and sheltered by loving parents, traumatized by the loss of her closest and only friend. She's lonely and isolated, especially since her parents are so wrapped up in her mom's medical problems that they aren't really there, emotionally. I really felt sorry for her. She's a kid having a miserable time, but she doesn't give up. Ariel goes to school – UC Berkeley is not an easy college, by any stretch of the imagination – and tries to carry on with her life when others would be broken by the burden of her problems. Throughout the book, the reader is left wondering if Ariel is a reliable narrator. Are the events she reports actually happening in the manner she describes them, or is her longing for community distorting and warping her perceptions? By the end of the story, I had decided for myself that we could trust her version of events, but I'd love to hear if other people who read the book interpreted it the same way.

There's a magic realism in the story; it may be all in Ariel's head, or it may really be happening. It's hard to be sure. With this supernatural undercurrent, the tale reminded me of the old ballad of Tam Lin. (The fairy tale may have been mentioned in the book; I don't remember a direct reference but 'Tam Lin' was written in my notes multiple times.) Just who fills the role of Tam Lin seems to fluctuate throughout; at one point, it's Ariel, while at other times her lover John Graves is the man trapped by the faeries.

All in all, a lovely book written in with a haunting, melodic prose. Fans of modern fairy tales and Francesca Lia Block will be pleased. ( )

Block, F.L. (2012). The elementals. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 263 pp. ISBN: 978-1-250-00549-6. (Hardcover); $24.99.

This is not Weetzie Bat. It is Francesca Lia Block and this book is an adult title that both teens and adults will appreciate. This dark, paranormal thriller still echoes Block’s beautiful way with words: “It was easy. Girls like that, I knew what they liked. Pretty things. Maybe with a little oddness, a little edge. Dolls with too-big heads and eyes that changed colors. Dolls with little sharp teeth and flowered dresses. Porcelain dolls with pointed elf ears that could be exchanged for normal human ones. Not just dolls but vintage gowns and shoes and jewels. And food. And music. Halloween Hotel was always a good one. Oh, and the wine of course. Made in the basement with such slight traces of cannabis, opium and ephedra that you almost couldn’t detect them, unless you were a really bright chemistry student.” (p. 255). Ariel is trying to move on with her life, go to college, find friends, but it is impossible to forget the disappearance of her best friend Jen. In fact, Ariel chooses to attend UC Berkeley to investigate Jen’s disappearance in the last place she was seen alive. The fact that Ariel’s mother has cancer complicates everything to the point of reducing Ariel to a brooding introverted mess. Ariel wanders the streets that Jen wandered hoping to feel the psychic footprints of her friend—with very little success. She suspects the creepy Fritz Kragen but cannot dig up enough compelling evidence to persuade Detective Rodriguez to investigate. She also wonders about the street man with the dreads who says to her, “’I was once like you, my friend,’ he said. ‘You could become me easy, walk out into the street covered in hair and filth and people would look at you with disgust, sister, and think you were born like that, that you never were a little child, clean as a small tree, quick as water, bright in the mind and breathing sweetly…’” (p. 233). Jen, however, is gone without a trace. College only serves to confuse and alienate Ariel. Her roommate torments her and constantly has sex in the room, which forces Ariel onto the streets. Her life improves when she meets John Graves and his group of very strange ranger roommates. Eventually John becomes her lover and the descriptions are steamy and definitely adult, even if they are not too far removed from the experiences of many teens. They are also necessary for the Ariel/Prospero mythology that fills the pages. Eventually, the crises that are Ariel’s life pull her back to Los Angeles. Ariel needs to be near her cancer-ridden mother. She needs to be there for her father—that is until the missing Jen exerts her pull once again and back to Berkeley she goes. This mystery is dark and magical, filled with musical sentences, creepy and gorgeous all the way to the startling conclusion. Fans of Weetzie Bat will love this new direction for Block and older high school teens who have never read Weetzie will clamor for more.

When Ariel's best friend, Jeni, doesn't return from a school trip to Berkeley , Ariel is doubly determined to persevere in her plan to attend the famous university--one, it's where she and Jeni were always going to go to college, and, two, she must learn what happened to her friend! She's sorry that her mom has just been diagnosed with cancer, but she has no intention of staying home in Hollywood to play nursemaid. Once arrived In Berkeley, Ariel questions everyone about Jeni, while living a lonely life in a freshman dorm without her. Then she meets John Graves, and Tania, and Perry, the strange threesome who live in the huge old house on the hill. Slowly she finds herself entangled in their lives, staying for their parties, wearing their clothes, eating their food, drinking whatever they give her--mmmm, what is that addicting flavor?

Block's novel is so atmospheric that sometimes the reader has a hard time laying aside the magic--whether imagined or not--to enter back into the reality of everyday life. Ariel's love for her friend Jeni, and the loss she feels in Jeni's absence are almost palpable--along with her mother's illness it feels as if Ariel is being torn apart. Some reviewers have called this title a mystery. I think it's more a word painting with a plot. As always, Block's writing is so lovely, so lyrical--and yet the story is more than enough to entice the reader into turning another page. It's also a story of connections--between BFFs, parent and child, girl and boy--the many ways we are connected to one another that keep our lives interesting, if not safe. ( )

My thanks to the author for lending me her copy to review. This is a very hard review to do unbiased, as Block is my mentor, but I will try nonetheless.

This is also generally a pretty difficult review to write, mostly because of how much the book moved me. I don’t say that often in my reviews, but I had to pause more than once when reading this because my eyes just kept filling up. While Ariel gets a happily ever after in this book and (presumably, since it’s not concretely sketched out for us at the end of the book) her cancer-stricken mother does too, unfortunately, Block’s mother did not. Gilda Block died almost two years ago, and this book is dedicated to her — and I think Gilda would be very, very proud of this book. Block wrote this from a place of grief, but all the same, that same grief moved her to a place that’s above some of her most wonderful works to date. “The Elementals” is definitely one of her most mature and tender books to date. It’s not a happy book, but is one that will ultimately make you grow and give you hope.

My best friend died at age 12 – three months away from her 13th birthday. Block, through Ariel and her search for her BFF Jeni, talks about how the vanishing or murder of someone so young stays with you. And it does. Never knowing what could have been stays with you, and while Ariel and Jeni are older than my friend who died (also from cancer) so young, the idea of youth vanishing at such an innocent age is a haunting one - I know it definitely haunted me because I identified with Ariel so strongly in that department. This book is structured as a murder mystery, but Block does it through her traditional style of magical realism. Are the new friends Ariel finds really magical? Or is she really losing her mind from the grief of losing her best friend and trying to battle it out along side her sick mother? It’s a question that gets asked repeatedly, reminding the reader that Ariel may or may not be a reliable narrator (spoiler alert: the question is never firmly answered, but it is implied that she is a reliable narrator in the end), and that reality is all about perception. Because Ariel is perceiving things in a magical way, they are magical when happening to her.

Ariel is one of the most sympathetic main characters, either in adult or in YA (and this is a book for adults), that I’ve ever ‘met’ (as much as a reader can meet a main character). She gets kicked around by life pretty hard her first year at Berkeley, and she’s trying so hard to keep functioning each day without losing her mind or her heart, or both. As I know how that feels on the grief end of losing someone so close to you, it pulled at a few very old triggers in me, so I did have to take breaks when reading it. Ariel does not hold back from the reader as she narrates us in her journey through her mother’s illness and her quest to find her best friend/who took her best friend. But Block once again manages to go through the “tough stuff” genre elegantly, knowing how to phrase things, and how to start knitting together a tale you can’t put down, even if it makes you feel things that you can’t quite immediately comprehend.

The plot is easy to follow, even with the question of magical reality versus insanity planted firmly within the audience’s mind. Block hasn’t written this murder-mystery plot before, but I couldn’t really find a place where she once stumbled or made me question the believability (even in the most fantastic parts of the book) of Ariel Silverman’s tale. Every character was filled out wonderfully, every arc and sub-arc executed with skill and grace. Her sensory language in this particular book is some of the most powerful I’ve read from her yet. I’ve never been to Berkeley or San Francisco (though I do know LA very well), and she yet made me experience both of those places through words. This is so very hard to do, and not everyone can excel in it, but I think that writing from this place of grief really ultimately helped enhance Block’s skills everywhere, and especially in the sensory language and imagery department.

Final verdict? A must-read, especially if you’ve read Block’s YA works – you’ll see how much she’s grown here. And if you haven’t, what better way to introduce yourself to her style than through this book? Either way, this is a mainstream adult debut you really can’t miss this year. “The Elementals” is out through St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan October 16th, 2012 in North America – other places, please consult your local bookseller. Seriously, guys. Not for the faint of heart, but the payoff is huge in the end. This one makes my best of 2o12 list so check it out when it gets published in October!

(posted to goodreads, shelfari, librarything, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com) ( )