Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Cat!

Psyche in a Dress is a very modern retelling of the Roman (or Greek) myth of Psyche and Eros. Very Modern, and is written in verse. Francesca Lia Block is very modern and unorthodox, and it shows in this book.

Psyche is a film maker’s daughter. Her mother left when she was little. She starts being visited every night by Eros, or Love. He has only one rule, she must never see him in the light. For a while all is well. Then Psyche heeds the advice of her sisters and looks at Eros. She sees he is beautiful, but he wakes up and finds her breaking his one rule so he flies out the window. Psyche is heartbroken. She travels around looking for Eros and trying to earn his love back.

I liked this book. It was unlike many books I had read. There is a deep mythological undertone, and Block seems to fit most of the gods, and some of the myths in the book without trouble. The poetry can make it difficult to follow. Some things didn’t click until later in the book, and I had to reread some passages to really understand what happened. I wished Block had spent more time on the Eros and Psyche part. It seemed to be over within a few pages.

I don’t think you need to be familiar with the myth to read this book. It will help though, since the author tends to leave out details about the myth itself. This is definitely a very mature book. I would not recommend this to a young audience, but to anyone else it is definitely worth a look, and it is a very quick read.

--Cat

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