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Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur: A Mythological Dating Guide
From bestselling author Francesca Lia Block, an imaginative new guide to dating based on the timeless wisdom of myth, folklore, and fairy tales.
Navigating the world of dating can be like wandering an enchanted forest, full of creatures with peculiar habits and baffling behavior. In Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur , Francesca Lia Block provides a guide to this often-treacherous terrain, classifying all those mystifying men and women into various types of mythical forest fauna―Fauns and Werewolves, Mermaids and Banshees.
After answering questions to determine your own type, you can learn to identify others―with the help of illustrations from artist Fumi Nakamura. By reading up on the various types' favorite activities, likely professions, sexual preferences, and parenting styles, you'll gain insight into compatible creatures. If you're a Wood Nymph (like Block), you could get your heart broken by a fickle Satyr, but if you can track down the strong, soulful Centaurs of the forest, you just might be on the path to true love. Clever and insightful, Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur is an invaluable guide for any dating creature.
Navigating the world of dating can be like wandering an enchanted forest, full of creatures with peculiar habits and baffling behavior. In Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur , Francesca Lia Block provides a guide to this often-treacherous terrain, classifying all those mystifying men and women into various types of mythical forest fauna―Fauns and Werewolves, Mermaids and Banshees.
After answering questions to determine your own type, you can learn to identify others―with the help of illustrations from artist Fumi Nakamura. By reading up on the various types' favorite activities, likely professions, sexual preferences, and parenting styles, you'll gain insight into compatible creatures. If you're a Wood Nymph (like Block), you could get your heart broken by a fickle Satyr, but if you can track down the strong, soulful Centaurs of the forest, you just might be on the path to true love. Clever and insightful, Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur is an invaluable guide for any dating creature.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2009
12 people are currently reading
641 people want to read
About the author
Francesca Lia Block
99 books3,377 followersFrancesca 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
August 31, 2016
I feel bad rating this two stars--I would have given it another half star if half stars were allowed--but I couldn't bring myself to give the three-star "I liked it" rating because I didn't honestly like it.
The most obvious thing about it that I didn't care for was the lack of relevance to actual people I know. The types seemed so odd to me--when you have twelve types for men and twelve types for women, and specify that some people's type won't match their gender, I expected to see a pretty good variety in the personality paint swatches. Instead, so many of them were modified versions of each other, with the criteria for their difference from each other being based on something somewhat insignificant like physical activity or even physical appearance. It would have been helpful for the exercise of finding one's "type" if a definitive characteristic or set of characteristics had been presented for each type. Instead, they seemed convoluted and so fixated on appearance that it was off-putting. The descriptions are inundated with specific references like what music the types like (she names bands/artists!), what clothing designers they like (nearly every one of my friends pretty much says "huh?"), and what books they read or movies/directors they like. I took the abbreviated descriptions and showed them to my friends on Facebook, and asked them to tell me what they thought they were. Not a single one was able to find a type that suited them, and most of them side-eyed the entire thing and said "Does anyone actually know people like this?" It's pretty clear that either Ms. Block was so severely caricaturing people into "types" that they were unrecognizable for the most part here, or else people in Los Angeles and/or the people she rubs elbows with are quite peculiar.
I read through the types at the beginning and figured I was the closest to the female Urban Elf, so the parts of the book I paid the most attention to were the descriptions of her and her interactions with other types. Over and over, I saw the glasses, Starbucks, and pastries, glasses, Starbucks, and pastries. Of course she wears glasses (a particular type, too); she's bookish and intellectual, and her image totally matches. Want to know how a more image-conscious type would relate to the Urban Elf? He'll help her pick out glasses that look good on her, of course! The only reason I really related to this type was because I'm a nerd and a writer, and the Urban Elves tend to be one of the more sexually reserved types, but it was pretty disappointing to see so many of the descriptions of my type reminding me of how important my nonexistent glasses and apparently dowdy attire are to communicating who I am to others. Nah.
Notice I said "he" above when I say the Urban Elf's mate will help her choose glasses. Let's get into another one of the major problems I had here: the gender thing. First, though the intro does say male people might relate to a female type and vice versa, it doesn't really acknowledge people who aren't male or female, and furthermore, there are really only twelve types, not twenty-four. The female types and male types are pretty much just alternate versions of each other, and that was deliberate; it makes it pretty clear that this was intended to stay gendered. Beyond that, the book was pretty unashamedly and continuously casually heterocentric. I've seen praise for its same-sex relationships section, and that is deserved, but it is honestly more of an afterthought. The introduction to it literally says she wishes she had space for a full examination of the same-sex matches that she gave to the heterosexual combinations, but "that would require a whole other book." She encourages same-sex couples to just substitute the male or female versions of their types as appropriate into the heterosexual section, but expects them to generalize despite the straightforwardly gendered language (it's way more than pronouns--specifying feminine nature, female stereotypes like makeup and shoes, etc.).
The personalized stories Ms. Block includes throughout are somewhat helpful in understanding the types . . . if you're a straight woman. Personal examples that define the male types give you ideas of what it's like to date them; personal examples that define the female types give you ideas of what it's like to be friends with them (with some dating stories that are about couples she knows). In one case she tells us sometimes she wishes she wasn't so heterosexual because one of her friends would be a good match for her, but she's way too straight for that so it's off the table. In the descriptions of the individual types, cross-sex matches are the only ones suggested, and all of the language is, again, heterocentric--as if we know we need to give lip service to same-sex relationships in the back but we can all just assume for purposes of dating that we're all heterosexual here. Phrases like "Not every male creature can handle a Nymph" make it very obvious who is expected to use these descriptions.
And also on the personal stories--I liked that they pulled me in and made it more relatable, but SO many of them were about vendettas, ex-boyfriends who wronged her, friends who said rude things, and how these things upset her. Granted, the author reminds you regularly that she is a Wood Nymph type and that this type is emotional, sensitive, and subject to low self-esteem, but it got overwhelming quickly. We hear exactly what comment her friend said to her that made her self-conscious about her weight. We learn about the night her boyfriend ignored her and what exactly he said to make her feel worthless and how much she cried with her friends. She gives us the exact words someone used to tell her that her body is better than her face. She includes a drawn-out story of the time a competitive friend came to her house and flirted with her boyfriend and then got offended when she was called out on it. They were meant to give us an understanding of how the types act, but they also felt like venting, and often seemed relatively petty.
The image-consciousness proliferated throughout the book, and that alienated me too. Are you a Mermaid type? At least half of your description is about how great your hair is. Want to know how Vamps dress? Don't worry, this personality type--while at its heart seems to be about dramatic feeling and pretense--will be described superficially as gravitating toward black clothing. And the types' physical activity was generally described in one of three ways: 1. How and why they go to the gym and/or restrict their calories; 2. How and why they invest themselves in sports and fitness; and 3. How if they don't do either of these things, their perfect match will be one that pushes them to do so. There was also a huge fixation on people doing yoga, people engaging in "alternative" spiritual and healing practices, and people being artists. Every type is pretty much some kind of artist except like two of them, but they materialistically collect and/or admire art.
There was some discussion of how people "mature into" other types, which suggests these are not central personality traits but more like phases of life or dependent on relationships with others. I noticed that the male types were described in terms of maturing into other types WAY more often than female types. It kind of made me think the book was female-biased (which I guess is not a terrible thing, since a) it's written by a woman and b) men are probably less likely to buy a mythological dating guidebook), but yeah it's pretty common to suggest that men being "tamed" by women is synonymous with maturing.
I found myself zoning out a lot reading about the types because some of them were so similar to one another and they just didn't really become distinct in my mind. There are three types of male Elves with fairly minor differences. I had trouble remembering why a Wood Nymph is different from a Dryad is different from a Pixie is different from a Fairy, though certain types were pretty memorable (Vampires, Werewolfs, Giants and their female counterparts Vamps, Weregirls, and Tesses). I think it would have been a lot more interesting if I had known anyone like these types, and would have been imagining them in these situations, dating each other, nodding along and saying "hey, I could see those two having those problems, yeah!" I mean, I had to laugh when, as an Urban Elf type (apparently), I am said to be vulnerable to Satyrs. Yeah, that happened.
Ultimately I probably shouldn't be so hard on this book; the types are just for fun and nobody can be expected to squeeze all types of people into twelve types. But it's awfully telling that I can't recognize most of my friends anywhere in these types and don't know anyone who approaches dating in these ways, and therefore felt the types were contrived constructions. This "Find Your Elemental Personality Type" quiz only has four types (Air, Fire, Water, Earth), and I think it does a better job than this describing types of people.
Oh and I almost forgot: The line-drawings of the types of creatures are cute, but I'm pretty sure every one of them depicted a white person. There are a couple cases where it could have been otherwise, but not a one was obviously a person of color. (I'm kind of a terrible artist but I draw people in black and white all the time and it's generally clear what their ethnicities are.) I finished the book feeling it was a book for image-conscious, fashion-focused, cisgender, heterosexual white people, even though it sort of tried not to be sometimes. And honestly if it's going to be this impractical, it should at least have been a little more fun than it was. Instead, the repetition, bursts of negativity, simplistic assessments, and weird irrelevance made it a definite disappointment for me, despite my being a person who loves personality tests and greatly enjoys mythology and FLB's other work.
Still makes me curious what others think their type is, though.
The most obvious thing about it that I didn't care for was the lack of relevance to actual people I know. The types seemed so odd to me--when you have twelve types for men and twelve types for women, and specify that some people's type won't match their gender, I expected to see a pretty good variety in the personality paint swatches. Instead, so many of them were modified versions of each other, with the criteria for their difference from each other being based on something somewhat insignificant like physical activity or even physical appearance. It would have been helpful for the exercise of finding one's "type" if a definitive characteristic or set of characteristics had been presented for each type. Instead, they seemed convoluted and so fixated on appearance that it was off-putting. The descriptions are inundated with specific references like what music the types like (she names bands/artists!), what clothing designers they like (nearly every one of my friends pretty much says "huh?"), and what books they read or movies/directors they like. I took the abbreviated descriptions and showed them to my friends on Facebook, and asked them to tell me what they thought they were. Not a single one was able to find a type that suited them, and most of them side-eyed the entire thing and said "Does anyone actually know people like this?" It's pretty clear that either Ms. Block was so severely caricaturing people into "types" that they were unrecognizable for the most part here, or else people in Los Angeles and/or the people she rubs elbows with are quite peculiar.
I read through the types at the beginning and figured I was the closest to the female Urban Elf, so the parts of the book I paid the most attention to were the descriptions of her and her interactions with other types. Over and over, I saw the glasses, Starbucks, and pastries, glasses, Starbucks, and pastries. Of course she wears glasses (a particular type, too); she's bookish and intellectual, and her image totally matches. Want to know how a more image-conscious type would relate to the Urban Elf? He'll help her pick out glasses that look good on her, of course! The only reason I really related to this type was because I'm a nerd and a writer, and the Urban Elves tend to be one of the more sexually reserved types, but it was pretty disappointing to see so many of the descriptions of my type reminding me of how important my nonexistent glasses and apparently dowdy attire are to communicating who I am to others. Nah.
Notice I said "he" above when I say the Urban Elf's mate will help her choose glasses. Let's get into another one of the major problems I had here: the gender thing. First, though the intro does say male people might relate to a female type and vice versa, it doesn't really acknowledge people who aren't male or female, and furthermore, there are really only twelve types, not twenty-four. The female types and male types are pretty much just alternate versions of each other, and that was deliberate; it makes it pretty clear that this was intended to stay gendered. Beyond that, the book was pretty unashamedly and continuously casually heterocentric. I've seen praise for its same-sex relationships section, and that is deserved, but it is honestly more of an afterthought. The introduction to it literally says she wishes she had space for a full examination of the same-sex matches that she gave to the heterosexual combinations, but "that would require a whole other book." She encourages same-sex couples to just substitute the male or female versions of their types as appropriate into the heterosexual section, but expects them to generalize despite the straightforwardly gendered language (it's way more than pronouns--specifying feminine nature, female stereotypes like makeup and shoes, etc.).
The personalized stories Ms. Block includes throughout are somewhat helpful in understanding the types . . . if you're a straight woman. Personal examples that define the male types give you ideas of what it's like to date them; personal examples that define the female types give you ideas of what it's like to be friends with them (with some dating stories that are about couples she knows). In one case she tells us sometimes she wishes she wasn't so heterosexual because one of her friends would be a good match for her, but she's way too straight for that so it's off the table. In the descriptions of the individual types, cross-sex matches are the only ones suggested, and all of the language is, again, heterocentric--as if we know we need to give lip service to same-sex relationships in the back but we can all just assume for purposes of dating that we're all heterosexual here. Phrases like "Not every male creature can handle a Nymph" make it very obvious who is expected to use these descriptions.
And also on the personal stories--I liked that they pulled me in and made it more relatable, but SO many of them were about vendettas, ex-boyfriends who wronged her, friends who said rude things, and how these things upset her. Granted, the author reminds you regularly that she is a Wood Nymph type and that this type is emotional, sensitive, and subject to low self-esteem, but it got overwhelming quickly. We hear exactly what comment her friend said to her that made her self-conscious about her weight. We learn about the night her boyfriend ignored her and what exactly he said to make her feel worthless and how much she cried with her friends. She gives us the exact words someone used to tell her that her body is better than her face. She includes a drawn-out story of the time a competitive friend came to her house and flirted with her boyfriend and then got offended when she was called out on it. They were meant to give us an understanding of how the types act, but they also felt like venting, and often seemed relatively petty.
The image-consciousness proliferated throughout the book, and that alienated me too. Are you a Mermaid type? At least half of your description is about how great your hair is. Want to know how Vamps dress? Don't worry, this personality type--while at its heart seems to be about dramatic feeling and pretense--will be described superficially as gravitating toward black clothing. And the types' physical activity was generally described in one of three ways: 1. How and why they go to the gym and/or restrict their calories; 2. How and why they invest themselves in sports and fitness; and 3. How if they don't do either of these things, their perfect match will be one that pushes them to do so. There was also a huge fixation on people doing yoga, people engaging in "alternative" spiritual and healing practices, and people being artists. Every type is pretty much some kind of artist except like two of them, but they materialistically collect and/or admire art.
There was some discussion of how people "mature into" other types, which suggests these are not central personality traits but more like phases of life or dependent on relationships with others. I noticed that the male types were described in terms of maturing into other types WAY more often than female types. It kind of made me think the book was female-biased (which I guess is not a terrible thing, since a) it's written by a woman and b) men are probably less likely to buy a mythological dating guidebook), but yeah it's pretty common to suggest that men being "tamed" by women is synonymous with maturing.
I found myself zoning out a lot reading about the types because some of them were so similar to one another and they just didn't really become distinct in my mind. There are three types of male Elves with fairly minor differences. I had trouble remembering why a Wood Nymph is different from a Dryad is different from a Pixie is different from a Fairy, though certain types were pretty memorable (Vampires, Werewolfs, Giants and their female counterparts Vamps, Weregirls, and Tesses). I think it would have been a lot more interesting if I had known anyone like these types, and would have been imagining them in these situations, dating each other, nodding along and saying "hey, I could see those two having those problems, yeah!" I mean, I had to laugh when, as an Urban Elf type (apparently), I am said to be vulnerable to Satyrs. Yeah, that happened.
Ultimately I probably shouldn't be so hard on this book; the types are just for fun and nobody can be expected to squeeze all types of people into twelve types. But it's awfully telling that I can't recognize most of my friends anywhere in these types and don't know anyone who approaches dating in these ways, and therefore felt the types were contrived constructions. This "Find Your Elemental Personality Type" quiz only has four types (Air, Fire, Water, Earth), and I think it does a better job than this describing types of people.
Oh and I almost forgot: The line-drawings of the types of creatures are cute, but I'm pretty sure every one of them depicted a white person. There are a couple cases where it could have been otherwise, but not a one was obviously a person of color. (I'm kind of a terrible artist but I draw people in black and white all the time and it's generally clear what their ethnicities are.) I finished the book feeling it was a book for image-conscious, fashion-focused, cisgender, heterosexual white people, even though it sort of tried not to be sometimes. And honestly if it's going to be this impractical, it should at least have been a little more fun than it was. Instead, the repetition, bursts of negativity, simplistic assessments, and weird irrelevance made it a definite disappointment for me, despite my being a person who loves personality tests and greatly enjoys mythology and FLB's other work.
Still makes me curious what others think their type is, though.
December 11, 2020
People are strange when you're a centaur
Faces look ugly when you're a hob
Women seem wicked when you're a weregirl
Streets are uneven when you're elves
You get the picture. This is the beauty of working in the public library. Francesca Lia Block comes out with a delightfully illustrated mythological dating guide in 2009, and you're none the wiser until one day you happen to stumble on it when you're shelving adult nonfiction.
Even though I'm not a dating creature (think lichen, but like, mythological lichen), I found this to be an entertaining, brave, effervescent (albeit patently ridiculous, like reading your horoscope, but you do it anyway because it's fun) gem!
Banshees of the world unite!
Re-read 05/08/19: This just never stops being fun!
Skimming back through it, December 2020: It really doesn't! For some reason, this one has real staying power for me as a heaping helping of mental mashed potatoes. Maybe it's the welcome escape of living vicariously through someone's sugar-spangled dating disasters from the safety of my house? The idea of a fun, glamorous life filled with many friends and intrigues? The idea that we are all just assorted mythological beasts running amok? Don't know, don't care! Sooo fun!!
P.S. I now suspect myself to be a banshee/urban elf/weregirl mashup. I guess this is why it's cats and solitude for me!
Faces look ugly when you're a hob
Women seem wicked when you're a weregirl
Streets are uneven when you're elves
You get the picture. This is the beauty of working in the public library. Francesca Lia Block comes out with a delightfully illustrated mythological dating guide in 2009, and you're none the wiser until one day you happen to stumble on it when you're shelving adult nonfiction.
Even though I'm not a dating creature (think lichen, but like, mythological lichen), I found this to be an entertaining, brave, effervescent (albeit patently ridiculous, like reading your horoscope, but you do it anyway because it's fun) gem!
Banshees of the world unite!
Re-read 05/08/19: This just never stops being fun!
Skimming back through it, December 2020: It really doesn't! For some reason, this one has real staying power for me as a heaping helping of mental mashed potatoes. Maybe it's the welcome escape of living vicariously through someone's sugar-spangled dating disasters from the safety of my house? The idea of a fun, glamorous life filled with many friends and intrigues? The idea that we are all just assorted mythological beasts running amok? Don't know, don't care! Sooo fun!!
P.S. I now suspect myself to be a banshee/urban elf/weregirl mashup. I guess this is why it's cats and solitude for me!
August 9, 2016
Judge me, go ahead. But I have had way too much fun with this book not to give it the full five stars. If you love personality quizzes, finding your 'type,' and mythical creatures, this book is for you. (Especially if you're on a Francesca Lia Block binge, as I seem to be.) The practical side of me wants to say don't take it seriously, but I've gotten some quality insights from this gem of a book, not to mention hours of fun and colorful discussion with friends!
--Sophia the Night Fairy(Vamp/Wood Nymph)
--Sophia the Night Fairy(Vamp/Wood Nymph)
August 21, 2025
Not a fan of the very stiff art. No, really, this art has grotesque large heads and fingers/thumbs missing and backwards knees. It's just not professional at all.
This is just the author’s opinionated world of fairytale creatures (about 10 of them then she gives them slight variations).
At the 100 page mark it goes into “mythological matches”, so for the next 100 pages, aka the entire other half of the book, is just page after page of quasi zodiac pairings, padded with variations in same sex relations or otherwise.
This book would be nice I guess for a DND campaign or for a manual on an already created TV show, but otherwise, it's just unnecessarily opinionated and boring.
This is just the author’s opinionated world of fairytale creatures (about 10 of them then she gives them slight variations).
At the 100 page mark it goes into “mythological matches”, so for the next 100 pages, aka the entire other half of the book, is just page after page of quasi zodiac pairings, padded with variations in same sex relations or otherwise.
This book would be nice I guess for a DND campaign or for a manual on an already created TV show, but otherwise, it's just unnecessarily opinionated and boring.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2024
this shit was funny asf
February 13, 2010
Blech, per usual. I got this for potential entertainment value and because I've always had this silly thing for personality quizes. It didn't meet the latter desire, because it just had descriptions and let you decide what you are. For the former, not that entertaining. FLB once supposedly said, according to an offensive quotation some people on Goodreads have favorited, that "the most beautiful people are the ones who aren't just one gender [or race:]" or something, yet this book ridiculously divides people into either male or female types. Ridiculously, because they are totally the same types with sometimes different names, but the male descriptions have more film references and the female, more fashion (so I had no idea what those were talking about). At least it had equal descriptions of how they work in male/male, female/male, and, shockingly for FLB, female/female relationships? Pretty much the sole reason this book exists is so that annoying FLB fans can talk about being things like mermaids and elves even more than they already do (I'm not hating on FLB fans, I totally would have done this myself at another point in my life).
August 22, 2011
This is an oddity. Ms. Block abides the subtitle to the letter: this isn't a guide to myths, it's a guide to the individuals and couples in your life, drawing commonalities to mythical creatures in hopes of illuminating attractions, difficulties and longings in various pairings. I found it slightly psychologically helpful, but mainly just delightful, to be diagnosed as a Giantess, and then to learn about the implications of my match to a Giant man; so too is it a pleasure to identify the mythical types and pairings in my circle of friends: a Dryad and a Vampire, a Mermaid and an Merman.
"Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur" would make a sweet gift to a friend on the dating market; its learned yet effervescent tone inspires reflection and action. For fans of the writer, it's also a touchingly frank glimpse into the personal fears and dreams of a writer who is uniquely attuned to those of her characters and to the mythical origins of many of her novels. Oui, this is a dating guide and personality quiz for grownups.
"Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur" would make a sweet gift to a friend on the dating market; its learned yet effervescent tone inspires reflection and action. For fans of the writer, it's also a touchingly frank glimpse into the personal fears and dreams of a writer who is uniquely attuned to those of her characters and to the mythical origins of many of her novels. Oui, this is a dating guide and personality quiz for grownups.
June 11, 2021
I did find it a little generic, though fun to read. I don’t even agree that Block’s ex is a satyr. The whole “Satyr” concept seemed really, highly generic. Is that a wood nymph thing to say? Any one of these men could be a satyr, a “half-satyr” and the relationship with her ex seemed too complicated to typecast him this way.
That was the most that really bothered me. Other than that, the idea that these relationships would be so conditional are the reasons I don’t usually read dating books, let alone “fun” ones. That “indifferent brownies” could hook a satyr, for example, when any guy could be a genuine asshole. Or that she simply wasn’t good enough as a brownie for this, seemed to be a very low-self esteemed thing to say. That being said, I’m way too sensitive for dating books in general.
All in all, it was a fun cutesy read with little meaning to anyone. I’m very happy to be half Penelope Cruz / Tina Fey.
That was the most that really bothered me. Other than that, the idea that these relationships would be so conditional are the reasons I don’t usually read dating books, let alone “fun” ones. That “indifferent brownies” could hook a satyr, for example, when any guy could be a genuine asshole. Or that she simply wasn’t good enough as a brownie for this, seemed to be a very low-self esteemed thing to say. That being said, I’m way too sensitive for dating books in general.
All in all, it was a fun cutesy read with little meaning to anyone. I’m very happy to be half Penelope Cruz / Tina Fey.
February 27, 2020
I read this book straight thru so you don't have to! Really probably was not intended to be read straight thru; better as a read-portions-that-pertain-to-you. I will probably reference portions of it in the future.
For a straight-thru read, the points of interest that break up the monotony are her personal anecdotes of relationships she has had, friends she has had, or citing celebrity examples for points of reference.
Certainly take with a grain of salt- I do value how she was able to make sense of her dating experiences by framing relationships/people as fairytale creatures. It's just a fun way to make sense of relationships. I am a little miffed that no matter how you slice it, I fit best in the "Tess (Giant-tess)" profile which gets the most vanilla and bare-bones descriptions. I'm a Tess who strives to be Wood Elf.
For a straight-thru read, the points of interest that break up the monotony are her personal anecdotes of relationships she has had, friends she has had, or citing celebrity examples for points of reference.
Certainly take with a grain of salt- I do value how she was able to make sense of her dating experiences by framing relationships/people as fairytale creatures. It's just a fun way to make sense of relationships. I am a little miffed that no matter how you slice it, I fit best in the "Tess (Giant-tess)" profile which gets the most vanilla and bare-bones descriptions. I'm a Tess who strives to be Wood Elf.
April 12, 2020
I guess I didn't read the summary on this closely enough when I picked it up at the thrift store, because I was somehow expecting the mythological side to be, y'know, fictional. It's a cute enough premise and I can think of a few people I know who would probably love Block's classification system. However, to me it came off as a little silly and rather arbitrary. It wasn't a bad book necessarily, but just not my thing.
January 20, 2023
I love FLB so I’m trying to read everything she’s published but wasn’t keen on this sadly.
February 26, 2023
One star for the idea, and that's where it ends. The strict gender-ing of types put me off straight away, but I carried on and only got more offended with every chapter I crossed.
Skip. Please.
Skip. Please.
July 17, 2023
Not for me. While some of these reflections on mythological dating, it wasn't enough to sustain my full interest the whole book.
January 29, 2023
An interesting idea for a book! It's not a story per-say, more like a book that helps you find what mythological creature that you're based on the answers you give, and which one is best for you to date. Think of it as a guide for dating based on your zodiac sign, but with mythological creatures. I loved the writing style, illustrations, and creativity of this book, it's just more reasons why Block is a favorite author of mine.
August 16, 2017
"From bestselling author Francesca Lia Block, an imaginative new guide to dating based on the timeless wisdom of myth, folklore, and fairy tales.
Navigating the world of dating can be like wandering an enchanted forest, full of creatures with peculiar habits and baffling behavior. In Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur, Francesca Lia Block provides a guide to this often-treacherous terrain, classifying all those mystifying men and women into various types of mythical forest fauna ”Fauns and Werewolves, Mermaids and Banshees."
So, you would think, with such a good author and such a glowing recommendation, that this would be a great book. I thought so, which is why I picked up this $25 CA book, as well as loving the fantasy genre. I didn't like it, I could not get in to it and I could not get through it. The last half of the book solely being about how two different species go together...(?) Other wise, the author has fair to pretty good books. But, if you pick up this particular tome, please, put it back down again.
Navigating the world of dating can be like wandering an enchanted forest, full of creatures with peculiar habits and baffling behavior. In Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur, Francesca Lia Block provides a guide to this often-treacherous terrain, classifying all those mystifying men and women into various types of mythical forest fauna ”Fauns and Werewolves, Mermaids and Banshees."
So, you would think, with such a good author and such a glowing recommendation, that this would be a great book. I thought so, which is why I picked up this $25 CA book, as well as loving the fantasy genre. I didn't like it, I could not get in to it and I could not get through it. The last half of the book solely being about how two different species go together...(?) Other wise, the author has fair to pretty good books. But, if you pick up this particular tome, please, put it back down again.
April 13, 2012
Two stars according to Goodreads.com means 'It was O.K.'
And it was.
It was given to me last week as an extremely belated Christmas gift (thanks, A.G!), as it's not really the sort of book I would buy myself. If any of you follow my blog at all, you'll know I'm not really into the dating scene, and this book is all about the dating scene.
I also abhor people trying to categorise people at all. There are too many types of people, all with varied upbringings and life events shaping them to ever definitively define any one person as a certain sign or, in this case, mythological creature.
I really don't like the idea of assigning psuedo-appropriate 'types' to each category of person. I think it is exceptionally limiting for people to decide their 'type' of partner, and then date that 'type' exclusively. This might be because I don't really have a 'type,' (other than 'men' purely by virtue of my sexual orientation). Many people I know claim to have a type, and that's cool. I don't understand it, but whatever. To each their own.
That said, Ms. Block did manage to capture a number of my characteristics in a type (Banshee, apparently, which Ms. Block lists as 'The Warrior' (though I also have a healthy smattering of Weregirl, if the descriptions are to be believed. Oh, and some Brownie aspects. And a bit of Pixie. See my issue with categories of this nature?)).
The novelty of this particular system of categorisation aside, the writing is exactly like most books of types of people and their best romantic matches. It is neither ingeniously insightful nor particularly poetic.
But then, these books aren't meant to be, are they?
What I really, really, REALLY liked and admired was the inclusion of the compatibility of types in same-sex relationships. While I don't hold to the categorisation and subsequent matching of types, I really respected and admired Ms. Block's inclusion of same-sex relationships.
It is the first book of this type I have read (admittedly, it's a very small sample) which did so and I think it reflects wonderfully on Ms. Block.
Read this book if you care about dating, believe in 'types,'and have no issue with the factuality of astrology. You might find it useful.
I did not, but it was still an entertaining enough read for me to finish. There have been books that certainly weren't.
And it was.
It was given to me last week as an extremely belated Christmas gift (thanks, A.G!), as it's not really the sort of book I would buy myself. If any of you follow my blog at all, you'll know I'm not really into the dating scene, and this book is all about the dating scene.
I also abhor people trying to categorise people at all. There are too many types of people, all with varied upbringings and life events shaping them to ever definitively define any one person as a certain sign or, in this case, mythological creature.
I really don't like the idea of assigning psuedo-appropriate 'types' to each category of person. I think it is exceptionally limiting for people to decide their 'type' of partner, and then date that 'type' exclusively. This might be because I don't really have a 'type,' (other than 'men' purely by virtue of my sexual orientation). Many people I know claim to have a type, and that's cool. I don't understand it, but whatever. To each their own.
That said, Ms. Block did manage to capture a number of my characteristics in a type (Banshee, apparently, which Ms. Block lists as 'The Warrior' (though I also have a healthy smattering of Weregirl, if the descriptions are to be believed. Oh, and some Brownie aspects. And a bit of Pixie. See my issue with categories of this nature?)).
The novelty of this particular system of categorisation aside, the writing is exactly like most books of types of people and their best romantic matches. It is neither ingeniously insightful nor particularly poetic.
But then, these books aren't meant to be, are they?
What I really, really, REALLY liked and admired was the inclusion of the compatibility of types in same-sex relationships. While I don't hold to the categorisation and subsequent matching of types, I really respected and admired Ms. Block's inclusion of same-sex relationships.
It is the first book of this type I have read (admittedly, it's a very small sample) which did so and I think it reflects wonderfully on Ms. Block.
Read this book if you care about dating, believe in 'types,'and have no issue with the factuality of astrology. You might find it useful.
I did not, but it was still an entertaining enough read for me to finish. There have been books that certainly weren't.
January 22, 2013
This was a fun read, but was far from being a great dating guide. The personality "types" were not comprehensive, by any means, and were (in a couple situations) rather confusing. I'm married, so I wasn't looking at this for REAL dating advice, but was curious to see how my husband & I might fit in, based on the author's summary of personality types. My husband, I found to fit very well the "Wood-Faun" combo type. However, my personality was split mostly evenly between Urban Elf and (Gian)Tess, with some Banshee thrown in for good measure. Nowhere, at any point, did Ms. Block "allow for" either the Urban Elf OR the Giantess to be combined with Banshee. And to find myself split between 3 types makes for some confusion. Furthermore, the author tends to get distracted easily in her writing. She might be writing about a Pixie, then get side-tracked in that segment and start talking about Mermaids. There were multiple points throughout the book where she did this. I think it's partly due to her lack of experience with some types, and copious experience with others. But ultimately it led to some types being hardly sketched out while others had pages dedicated solely to them. I might also add that the author seems to have plenty of experience with tortured artist types (and given her status as a fantasy author, that would make sense) but little with hard-working folks in such lines of work like store-clerks, emergency workers, and industrial/construction workers. It was a fun read, but I wouldn't recommend it for true guideline purposes.
October 31, 2010
The dating forest can seem at times a magical place filled with happiness and love, and at other times a place to be feared, where hearts are stolen or left broken. It is not always easy to find your way, especially when the scenery keeps changing. Just who are all these creatures roaming the forests of love and heartbreak? For that matter, what type of creature am I that I dare to enter such a perilous yet hopeful place?
In this forest the first thing you must do is not to discover what creatures are about you, but what creature are you. If you can first see who you are, then you can see who you want, and who you want to avoid. There are many dangers; some more easily avoided then others as attraction can easily lead you down a stray path. But if the right path can be found, one that leads to your own handsome prince, or beautiful princess, then there is no reason why one cannot live happily ever after.
Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur is an eerily accurate, at least in my case, guide to love, life and friendships. This is no ordinary story but a cautionary guide filled with all the wisdom and enchantment that comes with blending myths, fairy tales and astrology. If you ever find yourself lost in these woods, and you will if you haven't already, then this invaluable book will be able to assist you, if not entertain you, as you make your way blindly through this world.
In this forest the first thing you must do is not to discover what creatures are about you, but what creature are you. If you can first see who you are, then you can see who you want, and who you want to avoid. There are many dangers; some more easily avoided then others as attraction can easily lead you down a stray path. But if the right path can be found, one that leads to your own handsome prince, or beautiful princess, then there is no reason why one cannot live happily ever after.
Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur is an eerily accurate, at least in my case, guide to love, life and friendships. This is no ordinary story but a cautionary guide filled with all the wisdom and enchantment that comes with blending myths, fairy tales and astrology. If you ever find yourself lost in these woods, and you will if you haven't already, then this invaluable book will be able to assist you, if not entertain you, as you make your way blindly through this world.
December 25, 2015
My brother-in-law gave this book to me with a giggle as he knows my secret love of all things mythological. (I tartly informed him that I was already familiar with Francesca Lia Block from my teenage years who taught me about the coolness of the LA alternative scene a la Weetzie Bat).
As someone who has and will probably date again, I couldn't put it down. Half of me was thinking, ooooh, fairies and mermaids! What mythological dating creature am I? And the other half was laughing aloud while reading these descriptions to my family because it is very silly indeed to think of possible future boyfriends as mermen, werewolves, satyrs, and four variations of elves. I have to say though, she has my type pinpointed with those Urban Elves, but with a bit of a Centaur spin. See! The premise is so incredibly silly that it is actually delightful.
Of course this book is not meant to be any kind of scholarly psychological insight into 'types;' rather it is a little tome to be taken as seriously as any romantic comparison of astrological sign compatibility (which is to say for me, very seriously some days and other days with a wink and a laugh).
Enjoy!
As someone who has and will probably date again, I couldn't put it down. Half of me was thinking, ooooh, fairies and mermaids! What mythological dating creature am I? And the other half was laughing aloud while reading these descriptions to my family because it is very silly indeed to think of possible future boyfriends as mermen, werewolves, satyrs, and four variations of elves. I have to say though, she has my type pinpointed with those Urban Elves, but with a bit of a Centaur spin. See! The premise is so incredibly silly that it is actually delightful.
Of course this book is not meant to be any kind of scholarly psychological insight into 'types;' rather it is a little tome to be taken as seriously as any romantic comparison of astrological sign compatibility (which is to say for me, very seriously some days and other days with a wink and a laugh).
Enjoy!
July 4, 2010
So not at all what I expected...I guess that teaches me to read the book jacket. I am a complete "judge-a-book-by-its-cover" kind of person and when I saw this sitting all pretty and green with a catchy title on the shelf at the library (on display of course, or I would have noted its dewey decimal number...), I assumed for some reason that it would be an urban take on the dating and everyday lives of fantasy creatures. Kind of Seinfeld meets a Midsummer Night's Dream. But this is actually a dating handbook! And not a very good one at that! Gah! The only reason I gave it two stars was because it was mildly entertaining and gave me more "crazy" ammunition on the dating scene. "So, would you describe yourself as a Satyr? Or are you more like a Faun? Because I'm really into Satyrs, but Fauns are more my type." Oooo! I can see it now! This Tess (short for Giantess), won't be single for long!
January 4, 2010
Francesca Lia Block brings her sense of magical realism to the dating world in her latest book. The first section, “Defining Your Type”, consists of short paragraphs describing a personality (there are 12, each with a male and female version). Once deciding which one best describes you (or your partner), the second section, “The Types”, provides more detailed information about each type. Are you an athletic and friendly Brownie? Or a thoughtful caretaker Tree Nymph? Should you date that charming Werewolf or keep looking for a gentle, loving Giant? The final section, “Mythological Matches”, explores how each of these types interact with each other in a romantic relationship, weighing the pros and cons. Can a Pixie find love with a Merman? Is that Fairy/Centaur relationship doomed?
October 25, 2009
I don't feel too cool about having rushed out and bought this immediately, but what else can one do when one's favorite young adult author puts out a dating guide, of all things? (Especially when the library, devastatingly, won't let you reserve it yet?) This is just a fun little guide that matches the people in your life up with mythological types and then analyzes how well matches of the different types would do in dating situations. I appreciate her inclusion of hetero and same-sex pairings. The best parts for me were when she shared related personal stories, but those were a bit few & far between.
January 11, 2012
This was actually a pretty cute book but it's more like the kind of book you play around with than the kind you read. Like when you get an astrology book and you only read about your sign and your boyfriend's sign and whether or not you are compatible.
Block uses mythology to divide people into types. For instance, my boyfriend was nearly full on a merman. I fell somewhere between a banshee and an urban elf. We had a lot of fun reading about the types and figuring out what we were.
I don't know how useful it is but this book was pretty entertaining. Maybe someone single would find it helpful.
Block uses mythology to divide people into types. For instance, my boyfriend was nearly full on a merman. I fell somewhere between a banshee and an urban elf. We had a lot of fun reading about the types and figuring out what we were.
I don't know how useful it is but this book was pretty entertaining. Maybe someone single would find it helpful.
April 19, 2014
Extremely fun, if nothing else.
I think FLB had her kind of friends as a sample, so she used them as her types, when maybe there were other, more diverse, types she could have come up with. I can only think of two of my friends who are "true" types. All other people I know are mixtures (including myself; I'm two "contradictory" types).
I also think that it's weird how FLB ties some types to physical appearance (and not only those elements of appearance based on eating and exercise habits).
That being said, I had a lot of fun reading this. Don't take it too seriously, and it will be amusing.
I think FLB had her kind of friends as a sample, so she used them as her types, when maybe there were other, more diverse, types she could have come up with. I can only think of two of my friends who are "true" types. All other people I know are mixtures (including myself; I'm two "contradictory" types).
I also think that it's weird how FLB ties some types to physical appearance (and not only those elements of appearance based on eating and exercise habits).
That being said, I had a lot of fun reading this. Don't take it too seriously, and it will be amusing.
September 2, 2014
This is a dating guide with personality types based on mythical creatures. It gives you twelve male and twelve female personality types, explains how to figure out which one you are (or what combination), and gives pointers on what types work well with each other and how. It uses a lot of heterosexual-orientated language (despite the same-sex sections in the back that seem a bit tacked on as an afterthought), and lots of people I've talked to didn't relate to any of the types, but it's still an interesting exercise to see the patterns and observe the various traits, as well as hear the stories from the author's past dealing with various types.
January 1, 2010
I'm an experienced strictly-for-entertainment-purposes reader of astrology and other dubious dating guides from my college years [Thanks, M!:].
Block's "Weetzie Bat" is one of the best, most original YA novels ever written. When I saw that she had written this 'mythological' dating guide, I thought I was in for hours of trashy fun.
Honestly, I didn't recognize a single person I know in any of her types- they seemed more like sitcom personas. Maybe Block's friends really are just like her mythological profiles. Maybe California really is full of people like this. So disappointing.
Block's "Weetzie Bat" is one of the best, most original YA novels ever written. When I saw that she had written this 'mythological' dating guide, I thought I was in for hours of trashy fun.
Honestly, I didn't recognize a single person I know in any of her types- they seemed more like sitcom personas. Maybe Block's friends really are just like her mythological profiles. Maybe California really is full of people like this. So disappointing.
August 22, 2010
Not an actual book, it really is like a dating/sign guide.
It's cute, though (if you know my issues with the author, a lot of it is weight stuff) I laughed when I got a Giantess. But damn if it's not true. Actually, I am mostly Giantess with a hint of Urban Elf, weirdly enough so was my fiance.
Anyway, I may wind up buying this for a friend I KNOW would love it. I enjoyed skimming it, but am glad I only checked it out from the library. Not a keeper, but a fun quick read.
It's cute, though (if you know my issues with the author, a lot of it is weight stuff) I laughed when I got a Giantess. But damn if it's not true. Actually, I am mostly Giantess with a hint of Urban Elf, weirdly enough so was my fiance.
Anyway, I may wind up buying this for a friend I KNOW would love it. I enjoyed skimming it, but am glad I only checked it out from the library. Not a keeper, but a fun quick read.
June 20, 2015
It was a sweet book. Perfect for the group of young dreamers to giggle over and lovely for the ones to connect with themselves on a level they may not have known before. I didn't finish the book though. I read half way through, up until it began to describe the different relationships between each creature. After that point, it does get a little length and slow, but I lovely book non the less. I'll pass it on to a friend with excitement and confidence.
July 3, 2010
This is ridiculously adorable. It's practically impossible not to be charmed by this book, especially if you're in any way interested in mythology. (That said, enjoy it. Don't actually go out and try to identify men according to their mythological type. Just enjoy it, and the inventiveness it took to create it.)
February 10, 2010
I enjoy Francesca Lia Block's writing - since Weetzie Bat.. and this one is enjoyable because she describes different personalities and from there defines each person as a mythological creature - from wood nymphs yo weregirls, from centaurs to vampires. And of course there is always the combination types.. :)
And this can apply to people in general - not just romantic relationships..
And this can apply to people in general - not just romantic relationships..
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