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Weetzie Bat: 01/22/17
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block is the start of a seven book series (the last one being a prequel published in 2012). It's really more of a novella than a fully fledged novel. The titular character is a young woman looking for true love and adventure in Los Angeles. Everything though is written in a roundabout, metaphoric language. Takeaway the lyrical prose and it's a simple, sweet little story about a woman, two men, and the the baby they decided to have together. Near the end though, things turn dark as the specter of AIDS rears its ugly head. In 1989, AIDS was still a huge, scary, deadly epidemic that was hitting the gay community especially hard. In a book written like a fairytale, it might as well be the big bad wolf. Also in 1989 when this series started, I was sixteen and just starting high school. In the suburban area I lived I never heard of the book, even though it was one of the most talked about books of the decade. I can say that had I read it, I would have been absolutely captivated by it. Reading it now as an adult, I still enjoyed it but it seems rather sweetly naive. Four stars Comments (0) |