Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Ria

Wasteland is another magical story by Francesca Lia Block. The main character Marina, is telling the story of her relationship with her brother, Lex. Lex is dead and she is heartbroken. She talks about how, when they were young children, she'd follow him around instead of playing with other girls. She talks about how they would go to the beach, and how they met West, a surfer, like Lex. She talks about how other people felt about Lex, like his English teacher who said that he was a really good writer. The most important event she talks about was a time when she went to a club with Lex, even though he didn't want her to go. This guy, Rat, started to flirt with her, and Lex didn't like that, so he took her home. So when Lex died, Marina thought that Rat might have something to do with it, so she kept going to that club to find out more information. There were also a group of girls that went there, and they really liked Lex, especially one girl named Justine. But Lex didn't love her. He loved the one girl he couldn't be with, his sister.

I think that Lex might have killed himself because he couldn't be with Marina. This book was really sad, especially because they loved each other so much. There's one fact in the story that's really sad, but I won't say what it is. It shows how people shouldn't lie about important things, especially Mothers.

This is the first book I've read that talks about incest. It was written in the same way that all of Francesca Lia Block's books were written, that magical writing that takes you into the story. It was a bit confusing because it was written from 3 different point of views, mostly Marina's, but Lex also wrote a few things, and a narrorator also told what was going on in the present with Marina and how she was coping with her brother's death. There was a poem called Marina by T. S. Elliot in the story, but I didn't understand it's significance in being there. Other than that, this was a good, short read and I'd recomend other divas to read it.