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Dangerous Angels (Weetzie Bat #1-5)

by Francesca Lia Block (Goodreads Author)

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 · rating details · 5,351 ratings · 454 reviews

Love is a dangerous angel...Francesca Lia Block's luminous saga of interwoven lives will send the senses into wild overdrive. These post-modern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all: love.

Paperback, 478 pages

Published May 31st 1998 by HarperTrophy (first published 1998)

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Community Reviews

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Jul 02, 2007 Daryl Barnett rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I seem to be one of the only men to write a comment about this book, but I tell you this; this book not only changed my attitudes about my own writing style, it changed my heart. I can't tell you how many times I broke into tears while reading this book. There were passages that I would read over and over... gosh, now I'm gushing. Sorry... If you have ever spent time in L.A. the visuals alone are worth the time. If you've ever been in love or want to be in love... these characters and these stor...more

32 likes · like · see review

Dec 11, 2007 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-kids-are-all-right, favorite-authors, holy-shit, hornby-reads

I was introduced to Weetzie in college during my children's writing class and it was the best return on investment of those college loans. Never thinking that I would be a fan of L.A., and never really caring... I completely fell for Francesca's version of it. Not just in these books, but also in her others... I think using Houdini's mansion is wonderful. This changed how I approached my own writing. I know that they label it as young adult, but I feel that anyone with this mindset could fall in...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Seth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: masterpieces, young-adult

This omnibus collects all 5 YA books in the Weetzie Bat series.

These are fabulous books, although not every book will appeal to every reader equally, of course. The stories follow Weetzie Bat (yes, that's her name) from high school through mid-to-late 20s as she and her beau and their assortment of bohemian, artsy friends grow up and make lives for themselves in and around Hollywood.

Throughout, Weetzie maintains a wild and magical view of the universe. Characters don't get names, they get descr...more This omnibus collects all 5 YA books in the Weetzie Bat series.

These are fabulous books, although not every book will appeal to every reader equally, of course. The stories follow Weetzie Bat (yes, that's her name) from high school through mid-to-late 20s as she and her beau and their assortment of bohemian, artsy friends grow up and make lives for themselves in and around Hollywood.

Throughout, Weetzie maintains a wild and magical view of the universe. Characters don't get names, they get descriptions and we're told that everyone calls them by that name, even outsiders and family. Her feller is called My Secret Agent Lover Man--by everyone--and one of her children (well, a stepchild to her) is called Witch Baby. The group of friends make movies and never mention other means of support. Wishes are granted, ghosts are appeased, and shamans summon the wind.

But these aren't magical realism. It's clear from the beginning that we're seeing the world through Weetzie's eyes as she magnifies everything for us and filters it through a Hollywood history of fantasy and archetype. Weetzie--and later, her children--shows us more about the characters' and events' impact on one another than their actual mundane behavior. It's a highly effective device in Block's hands.

The books are worth reading on their own. Each addresses typical YA themes: finding love and identity, being the outsider, etc., but doesn't sugar-coat the pain and compromises even though the world is technicolor and liable to break out into a Busby Berkeley number at any time. The book where Witch Baby visits New York City and tries to abandon her mother's fanciful influence is especially interesting.

Whether or not the YA stories appeal to you, these quick reads are a must to prepare for the non-YA, mainstream book Necklace of Kisses, where Block strips away Weetzie's fantasy and shows us the same characters and world in the bright light of modern realism--at least for the first portion of the book. The shock of learning My Secret Agent Lover Man's given name and the normalcy of their day jobs makes the setting, which involves their reaction to the attacks on 9/11/2001 and a middle-aged introspection, will resonate with everyone who has ever wondered where their wonder went.(less)

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Aug 08, 2007 Christine E. rated it 1 of 5 stars

I know without a doubt that I would have loved the Weetzie Bat books if I'd read them in high school or college when I was an alterna-chick who scoured thrift stores for cool vintage clothes and went to underground clubs every night with gorgeous gay boys who loved me, but not the way I loved them. Back then, I might have sworn Francesca Lia Block had based her contemporary fairy tales on the everyday lives of my friends and me.

But I tried to read these books a couple of years ago, and found al...more

15 likes · like · see review

Nov 24, 2007 Neko rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone anywhere with a heart, a mind, and a little sense of magic

Shelves: favorites

I tuely adore this book. I recall the first time I read this book was some years ago when my mom rushed into my room clutching a tattered book. she thrust it at me saying "you have to read this book! it's my new favorite book now!" seeing how much my mom loved that book (love itself may be even insuffiencent so much as adored), I delved straight into it. I've read it several times over now, the pages of our favorite book worn and stained with finger-grease. It now sits in a place of honor on our...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 18, 2007 Mer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childhood

Lanky Lizards, I love the Weetzie Bat books!

Quoting the Wiki entry for this series: "The novel is set in a world not without pain, but seemingly without prejudice. Issues such as blended families, pre-marital sex, homosexuality and AIDS are described freely and without apology."

(Yeah, there's been some backlash. Predictably from rabid Evangelicals and other Christian fundamentalist watchdog groups. Thbbbpptt!)

These characters, while not particularly deeply drawn, are endearing and inclusive, wh...more

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Mar 20, 2009 Mia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am conflicted with thinking this book is amazing or if I wanted more from it. I loved the imagery. I loved that Block is writing about current issues.

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Jan 24, 2013 Thecat3786 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Perhaps to today's audience saturated by TV shows like Glee or Gossip Girls and teen novels that cover everything from abusive-human-vampire-werewolf-love-triangles to drugs, what Francesca Lia Block did in this series may not seem revolutionary, but she originally published these books in the 1990s. Her books were banned in libraries because she was brave enough to explore issues around sex and sexual orientation, things that preoccupy teen brains but for which they get few safe outlets to addr...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Lucy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Iffy character names, not so great of a book title, the cover didn't seem so great, and I skimmed the book blurb.
What made me take out this book then, you ask?
I read the first page.
That first paragraph:
"The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school was because no one understood. They didn't even realize where they were living. [Love, already] They didn't care that Marilyn's prints were pratically in their backyard at Graumann's; that you could buy tomahawks and plastic palm tree wallets at Farmer's...more Iffy character names, not so great of a book title, the cover didn't seem so great, and I skimmed the book blurb.
What made me take out this book then, you ask?
I read the first page.
That first paragraph:
"The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school was because no one understood. They didn't even realize where they were living. [Love, already] They didn't care that Marilyn's prints were pratically in their backyard at Graumann's; that you could buy tomahawks and plastic palm tree wallets at Farmer's Market, and the wildest, cheapest cheese and bean and hot dog and pastrami burritos at Oki Dogs; that the waitresses wore skates at the Jetson-style Tiny Naylor's; that twere was a fountain that turned tropical soda-pop colors, and a canyon where Jim Morrison and Houdini used to live, and all-night potato knishes at Canter's, and not too far away was Venice, with columns, and canals, even, like the real Venice but maybe cooler because of the surfers."
I was done. I knew if this book had any more writing like so ^ it would be a hidden gem. The book continued with strange names like Weetzie, Dirk, Duck, My Secret Agent Lover Man, etc but I loved every single one.
Besides the language that made me want to be in this world, there's just this amazing character development. (view spoiler)
And I've found like 30 good quotes in just 100 or so pages, I don't know if I should give up on taking pictures of them but they're just that good. I borrowed this book from my library but I'm going to end up buying my own copy.
NOTE: I'm not even done with this book yet but I know it's not going to disappoint. I've even cried already and this book makes me in love with love; in love with everything and all things. This book is the kind of writing I wish I had the talent for.(less)

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Dec 15, 2012 Marija added it

Shelves: slinksterest-books, stare-cover, yesyesyesyes, i-love-this, life-mantra, made-me-cry, love-this, no-candy-fluff, nice, photography-photography, reread-reread-reread, harry-potter-level-awesome

I LOVED THIS SERIES. Francesca Lia Block really is a genius to write such a beautiful series. This is one of the few book series that I have wanted to just jump into and live there. I really loved this series. It was both funny and sad, beautiful and painful, all wrapped up in one glowing blue globe world. This book is, like, Harry Potter level for me. And that is saying something. The writing is amazing, and the way Block wove magic into the story was so natural, it seemed like it was just ther...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my all-time favorite books (or all-time favorite book series, depending on what you consider it to be), and I reread it recently for the first time in years. I was afraid it wouldn't hold up, because Francesca Lia Block's work is so squarely aimed at the teenager I was when I first read this, but it actually ages incredibly well. I love Weetzie Bat and Baby Be-Bop as much as I ever did (and I'm only now realizing just how much I imprinted on Baby Be-Bop with regard to my own writi...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Lindsay Burnett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids, romance

Block can transform any mundane observation into magical description that is especially poignant to the adolescent crowd. Being a teenager consists of heightened emotions and desperation for deeper meaning and craving for insights on every random thought.

I'm only highlighting this particular series, one of her best, but nothing else was capable of understanding every dark and desperate place I was seeking exploration of then her. Block is a natural poet, in that she doesn't have to seek abstrac...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Shaina rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's important to me that I write this review because this is the book I wanted to love the most. When I read this, I was in high school and I guess I was the kind of audience FLB was writing for. I got through Weetzie Bat and some of Witch Baby, but after that, things started to trail off. I get what the author was doing - I get how certain people could report having some kind of life-changing epiphany after reading these books. But it wasn't me. The characters were lovable, but they were lovab...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt, historical-fiction, fantasy-scifi, anthologies, serious-topics

I read Weetzie Bat a while ago and while I didn't completely love it, I wanted to read the rest of the books in the series, so I picked up Dangerous Angels. The first book and its four sequels are compiled here in this omnibus, a term I had never heard of until reading other reviews for this collection. The more you know! I have to say that while there is so much to love about Weetzie and her artsy bohemian enclave, I can see how someone could hate these books. There isn't much in terms of plots...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Maggie Desmond-O'Brien rated it 5 of 5 stars

How do you even begin to describe these books? – perhaps urban fantasy where love is the real magic, a long string of incidents linked by tenuous threads that are nonetheless all equally enthralling to read. We start with an explanation as to why Weetzie Bat, our title character though by no means our only protagonist, hates high school—because no one understands. From there, it’s a roller coaster ride of new best friends, lovers, surfers, genies in lamps, Native American rituals, guitar, drums,...more How do you even begin to describe these books? – perhaps urban fantasy where love is the real magic, a long string of incidents linked by tenuous threads that are nonetheless all equally enthralling to read. We start with an explanation as to why Weetzie Bat, our title character though by no means our only protagonist, hates high school—because no one understands. From there, it’s a roller coaster ride of new best friends, lovers, surfers, genies in lamps, Native American rituals, guitar, drums, dingy New York subways, ghosts, and so much more. Try to pigeonhole this book into one genre and you will undoubtedly fail. It’s spare, to use that reviewer cliché, “lyrical”- written about teens, though, in places, more about adults than anything else. In short, while I was apprehensive at first between the “slinkster cool” L.A. slang and the highly unusual (though imaginative and original) voice in which it was told, all five novellas deserve to be called masterpieces.

It doesn’t make sense to review this compilation based on the quality of writing when it’s being published over twenty years after the first novella; “Weetzie Bat,” made waves in 1989. So many reviewers have already done that. Instead, what you have to look at how revolutionary it still is today. It’s come under fire for years for being inappropriate for its target audience because of its honest explorations of sensuality in all of its forms, including homosexuality. Frankly, that’s funny to me. I couldn’t imagine a worse perversion of the point—that we’re all looking for love, as the description says, the most dangerous angel of all.

What’s interesting about the novellas presented as an anthology is the seamlessness of the whole thing. While I love short stories and novellas, I have a hard time finding an enjoyable format in which to read them, because anthologies tend to feel jerky and distracting. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare this to your average anthology, as they all star the same characters by the same author, but it’s still unusually smooth. It never crosses the line into boring, though, with the varied voices and POVs, song lyrics, and settings all bleeding together into a seamless whole. It’s interesting that they’re even referred to as “The Weetzie Bat Books” when Weetzie fades into the background shortly after the first novella, giving the other characters—especially Cherokee Bat and Witch Baby—their time in the limelight. Though I’m not sure what else you could call it, seeing as character names vary from the short and sweet—Duck, Dirk, Coyote—to the intentionally ridiculous, such as My Secret Agent Lover Man

I’m not sure how a book so goofy, light, and sweet can tackle such straight-faced, dark, bitter topics as well as it does, but perhaps that is the only way you can handle these things. Either way, few books have made such a deep impression on me as “Dangerous Angels.” As long as you can handle the lush suspension of reality this world offers, these stories will linger in your daydreams for a long, long time. If love is a dangerous angel, my love for this book could very well be deadly.(less)

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Jan 15, 2012 Anna rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gave-up-on, young-adult

I don't normally give up on books, something really has to be bad or piss me off for me to put it down and never pick it up again and this book did both. I understand that not all fiction is realistic but as a book aimed at young adults this book encouraged some terrible behaviour and had some awfully bad parenting going on (lets go off and be all artistic and leave 2 young girls alone in the house, adult supervision provided by a Native American who lives a distance away and often is unavailabl...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Neil rated it 1 of 5 stars

i'm gonna sound like some fundamentalism old fart here,
but i really think this book is NOT appropriate for "young adults"
because it paints teen pregnancy with the author's
trademark modern-fairy-tale brush.

i'm sorry, but a teenage girl purposefully having children with
two gay teenagers is NOT a realistically stable environment for
the children of those children^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hyoung adults.

nina argued that this kind of book can help kids who were
victims of fucked-up situations pull out of spiral...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: magic, youth-fiction, 6-stars-out-of-5, heroines

Review from my blog, http://rosesandvellum.blogspot.com/

MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS.

Calling these books a series, while technically correct, is probably also not quite right. The books are not a series in the serial, following along directly from each other way that most books are. Instead, it is possible to read each one separately and enjoy it completely separate to the others, not to mention, while the first story focuses on Weetzie, the later ones focus on her children, and the last on the chi...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-fiction, children-ya, cover-pretty-white-girl

Dates approximate. I started reading this when someone quoted the "Love is a dangerous angel" line and I said, I have to know where that comes from. Fortunately, Google and the library came to my rescue.

These books had me at the author/characters knowing about Laurel Canyon. I instantly filed it with Kage Baker's books and others which are deeply rooted in the history of the state of California. (Some of Raymond Chandler's books also qualify as this.)

Anyway. Parts of these books are really aweso...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Karissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the collection of the Weezie Bat Books all into one book. I picked this up because it sounded like an interesting urban fantasy; that wasn't really what it was.

This book follows Weezie Bat's family. Each book is done from a different character's point of view. More than anything the books are about facing the difficulties of growing up and how a person's personality can affect that. For the most part the book takes place in LA. There are odd bits of magic thrown in at rare points; a geni...more This is the collection of the Weezie Bat Books all into one book. I picked this up because it sounded like an interesting urban fantasy; that wasn't really what it was.

This book follows Weezie Bat's family. Each book is done from a different character's point of view. More than anything the books are about facing the difficulties of growing up and how a person's personality can affect that. For the most part the book takes place in LA. There are odd bits of magic thrown in at rare points; a genie shows up to grant wishes, Baby Witch tours New York city with her dead grandfather. These fantastical happenings are rarities in the stories though; they are written in a way that leaves you wondering if the character really did run into something magical or are they just hallucinating?

What makes this book different and special is the way it is written. Block throws in so many crazy ways of describing things that it will leave your mind reeling. She tries to explain the taste of a picture, the sound of a smell, the texture of a sight. The novels are decadent purely because of the descriptions...there is so much glitter, so many feathers, petals falling, raindrops touching. With her descriptions Block turns LA into a fantasy world where one doesn't really exist. She uses this over-describing to give her characters personality. Weezie Bat is full of sunshine and everything she touches seems to turn to gold. Baby Witch is dark and chaotic and when she tells the story it is in shades of grey.

Overall I thought these were unique and interesting stories. They weren't what I expected. The characters didn't have a goal or a plot to follow, outside of obtaining their own happiness. Unfortunately like a really rich dessert, the decadent descriptions and frivolous characters started to be too much. By the end of the book, I just wanted to be done with it. The lack of a plot, the characters inability to make anything other than rash emotional decisions, and the amount of time it takes for Block to describe anything started to bug me. I know that these characters are supposed to be teaching life lessons, but they just seemed very immature. And though I enjoyed the novelty of Block's writing in the beginning, by the last story I was sick of it. I would imagine Block's books are something best taken in small doses.

Will I read another book by Block? Probably not, unless I am in the mood for something over the top, decadent, and wandering. (less)

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May 15, 2010 Gina rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ummm I don't know if I'm missing something or what, but I did NOT find these stories to be that interesting. I got through Weetzie Bat and started reading Witch Baby, and things just pretty much fizzled for me. I think I like the idea of the books more than the real thing, which is kind of a sad thing to say. I love how Francesca Lia Block wrote Weetzie Bat when she was in Berkeley for college (attending Cal) and how it was kind of a valentine to her hometown (LA) and how she coped with her home...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Gaelan D'costa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very impressed. Manages to maintain a fairytale structure while being both dark and relevant for its time. If the mandate of a children's book is to instruct children about life in a whimsical manner that both insulates the child from the horror it is explaining and maintain a certain joy with life, than this book (or set of books) very much reaches its goal.

It will be a book I keep in mine for a child; as someone who would like them to understand the concept of AIDS, of homosexuality, of the pl...more

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Apr 20, 2007 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, favorites, ya-books

Very pretty and amusing to read. Some great parts, but some of the books are WAY better than others, and some characters (like witch baby) are great, while others are unbelievable (not in a good way). Her style of writing definitely isn't for everyone, its very flowery and descriptive and flowy, but leaves somethign to be desired. I'd recommend it, but I wont promise that you'll like it. Check it out from a library, don't buy it. (I own it, but, like I said, it's not for everyone)

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Feb 01, 2013 Ciara Grace Taggart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dangerous Angels combines all of the Weetzie Bat stories in one book, and it's a dream of a novel - a vanilla-and-jacaranda-scented, feathered and flowery dream of a novel. Francesca Lia Block uses language in a way that is both fresh and old, and clear and summery and beautiful.

I got Dangerous Angels for my thirteenth birthday, and it was the first time I'd read a book so beautiful and lyrical and fantastical, a book so insightful and philosophical and thought-provoking. It's full of dreamy de...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Ian rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, urban-fantasy, young-adult, tripe, romance, languages, fantasy

I'm sure there are a number of reasons I didn't enjoy this book, among them the fact that I have a penis, I'm straight, I am not some kind of Valley-Girl-Hipster hybrid, and I hate California - especially Southern California - with a firey passion. This author's writing is too aggressively and pretentiously precious, the plots (such as they were) all felt tremendously contrived, and the so-called "insights"...well, again, I have a penis, I'm straight, I'm not some kind of Valley-Girl-Hipster hyb...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Carissa added it

Shelves: favorites

Dangerous Angels is a compilation of the Weetzie Bat books including Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan and Baby Be-bop.

What Francesca Lia Block does really well in her writing is tell a coming of age story, and there wasn't one sentence in this book that I haven't read over and over like a blind woman reading braille. And in those moments of my life when I feel like I am blind, or lost, or need a friend, I return to Dangerous Angels over and over again....more

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Dec 07, 2009 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-revisit, novel

Re-reading these as a 22 year old, I am a little embarrassed at a) how much I fawned over them as an adolescent and b) how much I subconsciously borrowed from them in my own writing. But I think they do hold up over time (unlike a lot of other YA novels I've tried to reread as an adult). Best to worst, I ranked them as this:

Missing Angel Juan
Witch Baby
Baby Be-Bop
Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys
Weetzie Bat

Unfortunately, Weetzie Bat's the first book and definitely the hardest to stomach. Block's wri...more

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Oct 27, 2007 Maynalg rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teenagers

this is lightweight, fantasy fiction geared toward alternative youth wanting inspiration and aspiring to re-invent themselves from the model of a quirky, mildly rebellious dream-like world. Sorta reminds me of sub-cultures like Harajuku in Japan! Given that, I enjoyed my identity crisis of my youth and think this book (which is actually five stort novels in one) offers the residual memory of that. maybe trite to some, but I call it bittersweet!

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Feb 01, 2012 Brittany rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, books-i-own

Weetzie Bat meets a genie and he grants her three wishes. That's where her story really starts to get interesting. Her and her friends and her kids have a wild time in L.A. They make movies, they make faces they make love. Reality is occasionally suspended while the magic seeps in to teach them lessons and help them enjoy life.

It's hard to describe or talk about Weetzie Bat to people who have never read it. It's a trip. She's just a funky naive chick. I love Witch Baby and her snarling, snapping...more Weetzie Bat meets a genie and he grants her three wishes. That's where her story really starts to get interesting. Her and her friends and her kids have a wild time in L.A. They make movies, they make faces they make love. Reality is occasionally suspended while the magic seeps in to teach them lessons and help them enjoy life.

It's hard to describe or talk about Weetzie Bat to people who have never read it. It's a trip. She's just a funky naive chick. I love Witch Baby and her snarling, snapping, kitten bites. She's a funky dark girl who needs to find her place in the big scary world. There are a lot of terrible things out there and Witch Baby needs to learn how to let go of them and find happiness in her own life. I love Weetzie too, even though she acts like a kid. She's just completely in her own world which is good for a story, but impractical in real life. I wish I could be as care-free and full of whimsy as she is. These stories blend magic and reality quite nicely, so you're never quite sure when you leave the real world. You don't really have to read Pink Smog first you can just dive right into Dangerous Angels and lose yourself in the slinkster cool Shangri-L.A. that Weetzie and her family have created. If you don't mind a little bit of magic and a girl with babies who is but a baby herself, than definitely check this out. I love the new cover too.

First Line of each story:
"The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school was because no one understood."
"Once upon a time."
"Cherokee Bat love the canyons."
"Angel Juan and I walk through a funky green fog."
"Dirk had known it since he could remember."

Favorite Lines:
"It was as if someone had stuck a needle full of poison into her heart. She moved like a sleepwalker. She was the girl in the fairy tale sleeping in a prison of thorns and roses."
"I don't know about happily ever after...but I know about happily, Weetzie Bat thought."
"Think of your pain like a bunch of red roses, a beautiful thorn necklace. Everyone has one."
"Witch baby heard his voice in her head as she skated home, stumbling into fences and tearing her skin on thorns."
"I want him to see flowers in my eyes and hear the songs in my hands."
"Sometimes, when she stood on the roof looking over the trees and smog and listening to the sirens, she saw ash in the air like torn gray flesh."

Read more: http://www.areadingnook.com/#ixzz1l9H...
(less)

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May 09, 2012 Laura Martinelli rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, young-adult

About halfway through reading this, I finally figured out what was bothering me about the Weetzie Bat books in general. It reminded me a lot of my feelings towards Rent. When I was sixteen, I freaking loved that musical. I thought it was so awesome, and raw, and real, and this is how real life totally is you guys. Nowadays, I still think Rent is a good show, but at least I realize how much of it is about trust fund hipsters whining about how no one recognizes their arty-ness. And having read Dan...more About halfway through reading this, I finally figured out what was bothering me about the Weetzie Bat books in general. It reminded me a lot of my feelings towards Rent. When I was sixteen, I freaking loved that musical. I thought it was so awesome, and raw, and real, and this is how real life totally is you guys. Nowadays, I still think Rent is a good show, but at least I realize how much of it is about trust fund hipsters whining about how no one recognizes their arty-ness. And having read Dangerous Angels, I think I have a very similar reaction. I’m sure if I had read this in my teens, I would have loved it, but as I’m reading it now, I feel like it’s a treatise on real art.

It’s hard reading this as an omnibus because the first three books—Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby and Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys —are incredibly weak. I do think Francesca Lia Block’s a fantastic writer, and there’s some beautiful descriptions throughout the whole series. But the first three volumes don’t do anything for me. There’s really not much to the plot and characters and a lot of the narration reads as “And then this happened. And then this happened.” It can be pulled off, but it doesn’t really work here. I also don’t like the strong emphasis on the magical aspect. There are moments of darkness sprinkled throughout the whole series, but it feels like Block has to shoehorn this fairyland of Hollywood glamour where nobody hurts. It’s part of the reason why I liked Missing Angel Juan the most, as it’s the only story to actually have its characters confront the darker aspect of the real world. With Weetzie Bat and most of the other characters, I feel like none of them ever progressed beyond the emotional age of nine years. Witch Baby feels like the only character who grows throughout the series, and the only who’s willing to leave said fairyland of Hollywood glamour. The thing I’ve liked about Block’s other books is that she’s able to blur the line between fantasy and reality a little more, and not this very overt “MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC.” And also, her dialogue feels so unnatural to me. Maybe it’s because I don’t live in SoCal in the late eighties, but I don’t get the feeling people actually talk like Weetzie and her friends. And sometimes, the slang feels like it’s saying, “Pfft, you can’t keep up with our slinkster-cool talk, you lanka.”

I really wanted to love these books, but I just couldn’t get into the story right away, which really lessened my enjoyment of the volumes I did like. And then I feel disappointed in myself because I don’t know if I’m missing something and I feel like an idiot. I don’t know.
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About Francesca Lia Block

Francesca Lia Block was born in Los Angeles to a poet and a painter, their creativity an obvious influence on her writing. Another influence was her childhood love of Greek mythology and fairy tales.
She has lived in the city all her life, and still resides there with her daughter, Jasmine Angelina (about whom she wrote her book Guarding the Moon), her son Samuel Alexander, and her two dogs: a spr...more

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The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

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“Do you know when they say soul-mates? Everybody uses it in personal ads. "Soul-mate wanted". It doesn't mean too much now. But soul mates- think about it. When your soul-whatever that is anyway-something so alive when you make music or love and so mysteriously hidden most of the rest of the time, so colorful and big but without color or shape-when your soul finds another soul it can recognize even before the rest of you knows about it. The rest of you just feels sweaty and jumpy at first. And your souls get married without even meaning to-even if you can't be together for some reason in real life, your souls just go ahead and make the wedding plans. A soul's wedding must be too beautiful to even look at. It must be blinding. In must be like all the weddings in the world-gondolas with canopies of doves, champagne glasses shattering, wings of veils, drums beating, flutes and trumpets,showers of roses. And after that happens-that's it, this is it. But sometimes you have to let that person go. When you are little, people , movie and fairy tales all tell you that one day you're going to meet this person. So you keep waiting and it's a lot harder than they make it sound. Then you meet and you think, okay, now we can just get on with it but you find out that sometimes your sould brother partner lover has other ideas about that. ” — 206 people liked it

“Any love that is love is right.” — 114 people liked it

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Dangerous Angels (Weetzie Bat #1-5)

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