Helpful Score: 5
This book is about a young girl named Barbie blessed (or cursed) with beauty and forced into modeling by her controlling mom (an ex-model herself, living vicariously through her child). When she's 11 she meets Mab, a sarcastic fairy, who almost reluctantly becomes Barbie's friend. During this same time she's molested by a lecherous photographer. Her mother tells her not to cry, that life is full of problems and she had just better learn to deal with them.
Fast forward 5 years and Barbie's a rail thin, jaded model. Mab is still part of her life, encouraging her to have sex which I found bizarre seeing as she's only 16 . . .
This book was just "eh, so what" for me. I didn't connect with the character and the sparse writing style left me cold. The issues of molestation, teen sex, drugs, homosexuality, etc. seemed to be very glossed over but I guess that couldn't be helped seeing as the book was so short. Maybe I'm just getting too old for this stuff? Nah, that can't be it.
Fast forward 5 years and Barbie's a rail thin, jaded model. Mab is still part of her life, encouraging her to have sex which I found bizarre seeing as she's only 16 . . .
This book was just "eh, so what" for me. I didn't connect with the character and the sparse writing style left me cold. The issues of molestation, teen sex, drugs, homosexuality, etc. seemed to be very glossed over but I guess that couldn't be helped seeing as the book was so short. Maybe I'm just getting too old for this stuff? Nah, that can't be it.
Helpful Score: 5
horrible-cannot believe this is recommended for children twelve and up-definately skip it, unless you're into child molestation, drugs, smoking, drinking, and underage sex.
Helpful Score: 3
I love Francesca Lia Block. She paints the most vivid pictures with her words. I highly recommend this.
Helpful Score: 2
Characteristically dark fairy story by Francesca Lia Block, incorporating magic and childhood abuse among other things.
Helpful Score: 2
This book provides a realistic view of modern Los Angeles. Mab is a fairy who may or may not be the figment of Barbie's imagination, Mab helps Barbie through a tough childhood of being put through the child modeling scene. Its pretty deep and definately not the book to be giving your teenager if your a protective parent without pre-reading it first, it deals with sexual themes and drugs.
Helpful Score: 1
Very weird book, but very good. Page turner to find out what happens to Mab
Helpful Score: 1
This book is about a girl named Barbie, whose mother threw her into a world of âglitter and glamâ; using Barbie to relive her life and make her a star. Barbie is thrown into a situation that claims her innocence, claims her childhood, and raps away any normal childhood that Barbie could ever dream of.
As Barbie tries to live her life, and battling the horrors that her life has brought using drugs, sex, and mutilation to forget the past; a fairy named Mab come into her life. With the help of Mab, Barbie is able to grow strong and overcome her fears, nightmares, and help others in her situation. Barbie meets another like her, a boy who has gone through the same situation as she did; Griffin has secrets as well, and his own personal hell.
This book contains drugs abuse, sexual content, sexual situations, sexual abuse, child abuse, mention of child molestation, and situations with âcuttingâ. Though this book is said to be recommended for ages 10 and up; I HIGHLY recommend that the parents read this book first, and understand that they need to communicate with their children if they choose to let them read this.
If you want a look into the dark, psychological aspects of children in and/or were in abusive situations, this is the book for you; but do not take this book lightly, understand that this stuff does go on even to this day, and try to learn from this book even though it very depressing. This book is well written, and the author grasps the horrors that children (even grown adults still shudder to this day with the trauma that happened to them as children) of what they went through. Though I wouldn't let my child read this book at age 10-14; I do recommend that people do read this book for knowledge.
With knowledge, there is power, and with the power of the knowledge; we can one day rid the world of this horror of child abuse/molestation, so that our children's children will not have to worry about ever being in these types of situation.
As Barbie tries to live her life, and battling the horrors that her life has brought using drugs, sex, and mutilation to forget the past; a fairy named Mab come into her life. With the help of Mab, Barbie is able to grow strong and overcome her fears, nightmares, and help others in her situation. Barbie meets another like her, a boy who has gone through the same situation as she did; Griffin has secrets as well, and his own personal hell.
This book contains drugs abuse, sexual content, sexual situations, sexual abuse, child abuse, mention of child molestation, and situations with âcuttingâ. Though this book is said to be recommended for ages 10 and up; I HIGHLY recommend that the parents read this book first, and understand that they need to communicate with their children if they choose to let them read this.
If you want a look into the dark, psychological aspects of children in and/or were in abusive situations, this is the book for you; but do not take this book lightly, understand that this stuff does go on even to this day, and try to learn from this book even though it very depressing. This book is well written, and the author grasps the horrors that children (even grown adults still shudder to this day with the trauma that happened to them as children) of what they went through. Though I wouldn't let my child read this book at age 10-14; I do recommend that people do read this book for knowledge.
With knowledge, there is power, and with the power of the knowledge; we can one day rid the world of this horror of child abuse/molestation, so that our children's children will not have to worry about ever being in these types of situation.
This is one of my fav books of all time, i have read it so many times!
Pretty good read.
Not my favorite Lia Block but still a nice read. :)
Once upon a time, in the bubble-gum-snapping, glitter polish-wearing, lip-gloss-applying San Fernando Valley, a gentle girl named Barbie met a feisty fairy named Mab: "Maybe Mab was real. Maybe there really are girls the size of pinkies with hair the color of the darkest red oleander blossoms and skin like the greenish-white underbellies of calla lilies.... But it doesn't matter if Mab is real or imagined, Barbie thought, as long as I can see her." Mab, with her crabby commentary and no-holds-barred opinions, gives Barbie the strength she needs to face the horrors casting a shadow over her life in sunny, shimmering California. How else could Barbie survive her over-perfumed, over-tanned, overbearing stage mother, dragging her daughter to modeling agencies in the gold-plated hope of reliving her younger days as a beauty queen? Or the "cadaver-pale skin" and "fleshy mouth" of Hamilton Waverly, the "crocodile pedophile" photographer who makes Barbie feel "like the doll she had been named for, without even a hole where her mouth was supposed to be"? Mab glimmers and gabs by Barbie's side throughout her teen years as she becomes a successful fashion model, falls in love, and endures all the troubles that come along for the ride--in addition to facing the black secret of her past.
Francesca Lia Block, author of the magical Weetzie Bat books that are collected in Dangerous Angels, and the empowering, punchy Girl Goddess #9, has once again crafted a mystical tale whose ethereal, original language will wrap readers in its gossamer grip. Block carries us to the weeping heart of despair, but would never be so cruel as to leave us there: Barbie gets a new, skyward-gazing name, Selena Moon, and readers get a glimmersome vision of living happily ever after. (Ages 13 and older)
AMAZON.COM REVIEW
Francesca Lia Block, author of the magical Weetzie Bat books that are collected in Dangerous Angels, and the empowering, punchy Girl Goddess #9, has once again crafted a mystical tale whose ethereal, original language will wrap readers in its gossamer grip. Block carries us to the weeping heart of despair, but would never be so cruel as to leave us there: Barbie gets a new, skyward-gazing name, Selena Moon, and readers get a glimmersome vision of living happily ever after. (Ages 13 and older)
AMAZON.COM REVIEW
Uncorrected proof (aka advance reader\'s copy).
From Kirkus Reviews
Unique language and characters turn a problem novel into romantic comedy in this tale of a molested Valley teenager and her sharp-tongued, pinky-sized companion. Groomed relentlessly for the role of beauty pageant queen, meek Barbie Marks makes a fierce wish, and meets a fairy named Mab; despite the gossamer wings and a \"glimmersome twinkle,\'\' Mab could eat Tinkerbelle for lunch. An irascible, challenging confidante, she is still around five years later when Barbie, a successful fashion model, meets Todd Range, a real \"biscuit\'\' in Mab\'s approving estimation, made even more appealing by his meltingly vulnerable roommate Griffin Tyler. Time-honored complications ensue, but Barbie\'s ultimate realization that Todd is The One gives her the courage to confront her domineering mother with the fact of her molestation by a photographer years before. Cut to Barbie (now Selena Moon, a new name to go with her newly independent spirit) and Todd in a cozy love nest, with Mab, having found a biscuit for Griffin, and even one for herself, bidding fond adieu. Block (Girl Goddess #9, 1996, etc.) conjures up some sympathy for Barbie\'s mother, and even for the photographer, but lines between heroes and villains are deliberately drawn, and the book, with its live-wire sprite, is as bright and focused as anything she has written. (Fiction. 13-15)
From Kirkus Reviews
Unique language and characters turn a problem novel into romantic comedy in this tale of a molested Valley teenager and her sharp-tongued, pinky-sized companion. Groomed relentlessly for the role of beauty pageant queen, meek Barbie Marks makes a fierce wish, and meets a fairy named Mab; despite the gossamer wings and a \"glimmersome twinkle,\'\' Mab could eat Tinkerbelle for lunch. An irascible, challenging confidante, she is still around five years later when Barbie, a successful fashion model, meets Todd Range, a real \"biscuit\'\' in Mab\'s approving estimation, made even more appealing by his meltingly vulnerable roommate Griffin Tyler. Time-honored complications ensue, but Barbie\'s ultimate realization that Todd is The One gives her the courage to confront her domineering mother with the fact of her molestation by a photographer years before. Cut to Barbie (now Selena Moon, a new name to go with her newly independent spirit) and Todd in a cozy love nest, with Mab, having found a biscuit for Griffin, and even one for herself, bidding fond adieu. Block (Girl Goddess #9, 1996, etc.) conjures up some sympathy for Barbie\'s mother, and even for the photographer, but lines between heroes and villains are deliberately drawn, and the book, with its live-wire sprite, is as bright and focused as anything she has written. (Fiction. 13-15)
