Rough Magick

by Francesca Lia Block (Editor), Jessa Marie Mendez (Editor), Daniel Weizmann (Contributor)

In Rough Magick, we have gathered together a collection of haunting, sometimes chilling, short stories and poems about the darker side of love and sex. Some of the stories are magical; some are more realistic and the “magic” comes through in language and lyricism. Some protagonists are teens and some are adults. There is romanticism and eroticism and even horror. What unites the stories is that the writers have boldly faced love’s shadows in unique and gripping ways.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Romance, Horror, Anthologies

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2015

About the author

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly. She was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College in 2014. Her work has been translated into Italian, French, German Japanese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Portuguese. Francesca has also published stories, poems, essays and interviews in The Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Review of Books, Spin, Nylon, Black Clock and Rattle among others. In addition to writing, she teaches creative writing at University of Redlands, UCLA Extension, Antioch University, and privately in Los Angeles where she was born, raised and currently still lives.

Reviews

[Nicola ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this about 5 years ago & finally got around to finishing it! Loved some stories but hated others - FLB’s story was one of my favourites ofc

[Eleanore · Rating 4 out of 5]

"'Look at me.' I shake my head. Nope, not this time. The first time I looked at him, a beam of light restrained in the dark, I fell instantly, deeply, into an abyss that took me far too long to escape."

It may have taken me three years to get around to it (I know, I know), but this really is a unique and engaging collection of stories, with a few serious standouts. I'm glad I finally was able to squeeze it in.

[Letty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories aren't as good as the others. But the ones that are good are pretty phenomenal.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection delivers what it promises: stories and poems about the darker sides of love, magick, and sex. Standout pieces include the opener—a spell-as-story by Amanda Yates Garcia, the Oracle of Los Angeles—as well as "Quakies," an eerie story about isolation and self-destruction; "Help Me Find My Killer," an erotic examination of obsession and jealousy; "When the Carnival Came to Town," a mysterious look at performance and identity; and "The Spell," a kind of confession in three parts by Francesca Lia Block. These stories are made of beautiful language and hold together well. Others in the collection feel incomplete somehow—sometimes the bottom drops out at the end, with a burst of information or a twist not quite supported by the rest of the story (like at the very end of one story, when a young woman masturbates while fantasizing about her uncle once her phone call with him has ended...what did I miss?). Aside from some unevenness in storytelling, this collection is great for engaging the imagination and titillating...whatever else :)

[Andrea Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short stories and poems in Rough Magick, edited by Francesca Lia Block and Jessa Marie Mendez, explore the darker side of love and sex with a mixture of haunting, romantic, and horrifying tales. The anthology is split into two parts with the first half being lyrical stories based in realism, while the second half presents fantastical tales. This choice to split the collection was my biggest annoyance. I would have preferred to have read alternating tales of realism and fantasy, which would have provided an interesting juxtaposition. On the whole, though, Rough Magick is a strong collection with the majority of the stories being rather good and some being utterly fantastic.