Francesca Lia Block, winner of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award, is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling books, including Weetzie Bat; the book collections Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books and Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets; the illustrated novella House of Dolls; the vampire romance novel Pretty Dead; and the gothic werewolf novel The Frenzy. Her work is published around the world.
"The writing continues to dazzle."--"The New York Times""As always, Francesca Lia Block's writing is a dream--minimalist yet poetic."--"Sassy"
Gr 8 Up-In her three previous novels, Block created a quirky California culture set in an L.A. landscape so lovely and lush that it literally has a life of its own. In Missing Angel Juan, however, she boldly takes on a new and radically different setting. Angel Juan, the boyfriend of Weetzie Bat's almost-daughter Witch Baby, moves to New York to make his own music. Witch Baby, shattered by loneliness and loss, flies off to Manhattan in search of him and quickly discovers that ``New York is not a Weetzie-city.'' Instead, ``the light is chilly and the color of lead''; ``men (are) crumple-slumped in the gutters like empty coats.'' However, the young woman quickly finds a loving friend and guide there in a wistfully charming ghost, Weetzie's father, whose old apartment she is staying in. There are angelic manifestations everywhere (but no Angel Juan). When Witch Baby first descends into the underworld of the subways in search of her musician lover, there are strong echoes of Orpheus's descent into Hades (although the roles are reversed here). A later, even more dramatic descent reinforces this notion, while adding to it the nightmare quality of Alice's underground in which a psychedelic tea party is in progress. Like Block's earlier novels Missing Angel Juan is an engagingly eccentric mix of fantasy and reality, enhanced-this time-by mystery and suspense. It is also magical, moving, mischievous, and-literally-marvelous. It establishes, once again, that Block is a brilliant visionary who imagines worlds where paradise is a possibility; where every sight and sound is a blessing; and where love, in its infinite varieties, is both humankind's natural estate and heart-magic strong enough to redeem any loss.-Michael Cart, formerly at Beverly Hills Public Library
"The writing continues to dazzle."--"The New York Times""As always, Francesca Lia Block's writing is a dream--minimalist yet poetic."--"Sassy"
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