Melody Murray's Books

Block keeps knocking me out, showing rather than telling. She captures the adolescent voice, to my mind, perfectly. This small book is pure, inevitable tragedy, and I came out of it blinking at the light. Strong subtext of incest, so not for the squeamish. Block's writing is hypnotic, otherworldly, and translucent like an isinglass window in an old stove. There is so much going on offstage that she captures in a few seemingly throw-away lines that it's hardly noticeable until the end, when everything comes together and the fully fleshed out characters are in one's head, whole. Breathtaking.