i’d heard a lot of great things about this book before i read it, so when i started reading and didn’t immediately see the draw i was kind of disappointed. it wasn’t bad by any means, but it wasn’t fantastic. as i got closer to the end, however, and the different aspects of the story started coming together for the final conclusion i really thought to myself, this is a really good book.the writing style is some kind of poetic, stream of consciousness, almost dreamlike approach that allows the reader to take in the information a different way than if it were presented normally. you almost want to pause over the information to make sure you’re taking it in correctly. the author doesn’t knock her self out with punctuation for most of the book. if there’s supposed to be a period or a comma she just skips down to the next line and continues on, but it wasn’t hard to read because of this, it just adds to the mood she’s trying to create.the basic premise of the story is that there is this girl who lives out greek myths in the modern day. she is psyche predominately, but after she looses eros she goes through different phases and meets different people and becomes other mythological figures, which the author uses to describe different stages of life.from the book, kind of near the end, but don’t worry you won’t know how it’s relevant until you read itI have been young too I have been psyche, I have been Echo I have been eurydice i have been persephone, like you i thought i was not a goddess my mother was a goddess now i am demeter, like my mother because of youreading that kind of sums up the book, and when you tie in what the author creates around these myths, its kind of touching. a lot of time is spent on the details which makes the story more than just a plot, and in every part of the book we are told what dress psyche is wearing. i’m not much into fashion so i can’t tell you if the dresses she wore at certain times were significant to the plot, but in the beginning the dresses are her mother’s and by the end i think she gets one of her own.anyway, psyche learns to stand on her own, exist by herself, which is a nice ending. and if you know your myths there won’t be any real surprises in plot, maybe in execution, but that why it’s interesting right? great read.
When it comes to fiction I am a picky person on what I read. Especially in how the story is presented. For example I am not a fan of the way this book is written. In prose that well is brief and goes really fast. The story is of Psyche and Cupid ( one of my favorite myths) But is has Psyche going through all these different men and talking about sex and yeah its wierd. Its also really hard to follow. Ok if you haven't figured it out my biggest problem is the writing. Its in a prose. Kinda like a poem but alot like the book Crank. I have tried to read Crank but gave up because I prefer a flowing narrative not a prose. My reason is this; I have issues often with focus when reading books. So when a narrative jumps around or goes really fast I actually have a hard time keeping up and I get lost. The prose in this book was a little better that Crank ( which lost me on the first page) But in the end I only finished because it was really small and I was bored. My other problem is that the book promises to tell Psyche's story and well it does, sort of. Because the narrative goes at such a fast pace it was really confusing. She's with one guy then another. Yet another uses her. All the story has characters of Myth and yet I don't remember Psyche being a daughter of Zeus ( Nor Zeus getting with Aphrodite) Yeah it was really confusing. Also it gives a story to all of the men she is with which flowed far more like an actual story. The final problem I have was well all the adult stuff There is rape, insest, the f-bomb, sex ( alot of it) and just all around just adult stuff. Yet this was in the teen section of my local library. Just saying So yeah overall unless you like prose and are a huge fan of Greek Mythology pass on this book I wish I had
What do You think about Psyche In A Dress (2006)?
This book is somewhere between 3.5 stars to 4 stars.The writing is simple, poetic in some parts and I hope I can write like this and tells a story like this. The ending is quite sweet as well. Psyche in a Dress is unlike anything I have read in the field of Young Adult novels, the author handled the Greek Myth retelling theme nicely, breathing fresh air into the ancient myths and I like how sex is being mentioned in a honest tone in the story.Still there's a down side. At some point, the overly short and simple writing and storytelling makes it difficult to get a hold on the main character Psyche's personality when she is first introduced to us as an unhappy teenage starlet who has an uncaring director father, and I honestly don't enjoy her lack of motive outside of her first lover---OMG, this girl does EVERYTHING for that boy who never bothers to contact her once he's left. It's so not charming in my book, but thankfully Psyche did get better in the latter part of the book.
—Mizuki
This book was just colourful. Block's descriptions are definetely the thing I like most about her writing style, they capture her characters in shades and lights and it's so beautiful.This was kind of a poem and it had a good rhytm even. Block's retelling of ancient greek myths was wonderful, she did a really good job in adapting them and taking out what she thought would fit her characters and our contemporary society best.Her decaying cities and people are just perfect.This was not much about the plot, but about Psyche's character development. The story was really just about that. Psyche's myth tells that this one girl has to face a series of trials in order to re-conquer the privilege to be with Love, but the trials themselves were a lot more than that, because Psyche - as well as Block's Psyche - had to destroy and rebuild herself. It is not about love - again -, but about confidence and strenght and parenting, even.
—beesp
Her books are always interesting to read because of the way that they are written. She doesn’t give a lot of detail about the big things—about everything that is happening, but she gives extreme details about the little things. Like what the main characters mothers wardrobe is like, or how the scent of the flowers filled the air. I find it quite intriguing. tBlock is obviously very interested in Greek mythology. It would be of great benefit to the reader if they had some sort of background knowledge about the Greek myths—especially that of Eros and Psyche, Persephone and Demeter, Orpheus and Eurydice. tThis book is a wonderful coming of age story, one that provokes the mind to question how it perceives itself, and makes one wonder what their own self doubt has done to influence his/her own life. Psyche’s story of growth and self acceptance can be somewhat graphic at times, and it is for this reason that I would not recommend this book for a young audience—perhaps 15 and up.tMy one grievance about the book was the implication that we all had to go out and find our own Hades—our own form of self punishment to survive through so that we could learn more. I believe it is true that growth could occur from such a situation, but I do not believe that we need to go and search for our own “hell god.”Favorite quote: Is beauty monstrous?
—Asenath
