My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would...
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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.
Review:
"Ms. Block's far-ranging free association has been controlled and shaped...with sensual characters. The language is inventive Californian hip, but the patterns are compactly folkloristic and the theme is transcendent." The New York Times Book Review
Review:
"Magic is everywhere in Block's lyrical and resonant fables....At once modern and mythic, her series deserves as much space as it can command of daydream nation's shrinking bookshelves." The Village Voice
Review:
"Block's extravagantly imaginative setting and finely honed perspectives remind the reader that there is magic everywhere." Publishers Weekly
Review:
"A poetic series of books celebrating love, art, and the imagination, all in hyper-lyrical language....Tenderly intoxicating." Spin
Review:
"Block is a cutting-edge young adult author....She writes gay-lesbians as characters rather than poster children. Books such as these can help bridge the feelings of isolation that some young adults may be experiencing." Susie Wilde, Children's Literature
Review:
"Transcendent." New York Times Book Review
Synopsis:
About The Book:
Dangerous Angels brings together in one volume all five of Francesca Lia Block's celebrated novels about Weetzie Bat and her nontraditional L.A. family of musicians and filmmakers. Populated by fascinating characters, filled with the magic, and occasional misery of the creative life and enriched by themes of the redemptive power of love, respect for the natural world, and the universal search for self-identity, the Weetzie Bat books are modern classics in the making.
The publication of Weetzie Bat in 1989 heralded the arrival of one of the most powerfully original voices in contemporary literature. Francesca Lia Block's marriage of gritty realism and magic in the pages of her postmodern, punk fairy tale was brilliantly innovative. At the same time, her celebration of love in all of its varieties — both heterosexual and homosexual — and the expression it finds in nontraditional or blended families invited controversy among critics but attracted the passionate devotion of readers everywhere. In the books that followed, Witch Baby (1991), Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys (1992), Missing Angel Juan (1993), and Baby Be-Bop (1995) Block enriched readers' understanding of her characters, of the intertwining of love and magic, and of the conflict between light and darkness in contemporary life. Block's wonderfully lyrical writing style matches the authentic sweetness and fundamental innocence of her sensibility and that of her characters. Because of the vividness she brings to her California settings, Los Angeles is as lively a character as Weetzie Bat herself. Block is sometimes described as a regional writer. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, her characters' search for love, self expression, and personal identity is equally indigenous to the concrete canyons of New York and the wheat fields of the Great Plains, as it is to Hollywood or Weetzie's flower bedecked home in Laurel Canyon.
Questions For Discussion: The title of this book comes from a quote from Weetzie Bat: “ ‘ Love is a dangerous angel, ’ Dirk said.” p. 11 What does Dirk mean by this? How would you apply this quote to the four other Weetzie Bat books? According to "The New York Times, “ Ms. Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler.” Discuss some of the ways in which the author brings such vivid life to her setting. "Missing Angel Juan takes place in New York. Does this change of setting make the novel significantly different from the other Weetzie Bat books? This is also the only Weetzie Bat novel to be told in a first person voice, that of Witch Baby. In what ways does this change the experience of reading the book? In such phrases as “ lanky lizards, ” “ duck hunt, ” and “ slinkster cool” Block invents a “ slanguage” for her characters. Can you find other examples? How do these compare with slang that you use in talking with your friends? Francesca Lia Block is also a poet. How has this influenced her style as a fiction writer? The author says that Witch Baby is the character with whom she most closely identifies. How would you describe Witch Baby as a person? How does she change over the course of the two books about her ("Witch Baby and "Missing Angel Juan)? Witch Baby “ outs” Duck to his mother p.110 . Why do you think she does this? Is it wrong for her to do this? Block’ s characters love not only one another but the natural world as well. How do they demonstrate this? How does the character of Coyote Dream Song embody this? How and why do the four magical animal “ gifts” in Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys change the band members? At the end of "Baby Be-Bop, Dirk thinks, “ Our stories can set us free. When we set them free.” p. 478 Discuss what he means by this. Magic is a regular part of all of the Weetzie Bat books. Genies, magic lamps, ghosts, tree spirits, and more are part of the characters’ daily lives. Why do you think Block adds these magical elements to her stories? Are they enriched by this intermingling of the magical and the realistic? And what do you think Block meant when she told an interviewer, “ Magic and love. That’ s the equation, finally. Out of love there emerges transformation and transcendence.” Finally, how does she demonstrate this in her use of myth and fairy tales in her novels? (E.g., the Orpheus myth in Missing Angel Juan.)
About The Author:
Francesca Lia Block, nurtured by a painter/filmmaker father and a poet mother, wrote most of her first novel, "Weetzie Bat, while she was studying at the University of California– Berkley. Since then, Block has written four Weetzie sequels— "Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, and "Baby Be Bop. Like Weetzie, all have received high praise and prestigious awards. Ms. Block is also the author of "The Hanged Man, Girl Goddess #9, and "I Was a TeenageFairy. Francesca Lia Block lives in Los Angeles, California.
Francesca Lia Block is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestsellers: Guarding the Moon, The Rose and the Beast, Violet & Claire, and Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books, as well as I Was a Teenage Fairy, Girl Goddess #9, The Hanged Man, Echo, and Nymph. Her work has been translated into seven languages. She lives in Los Angeles.
kismet, September 22, 2008 (view all comments by kismet)
A beautifully lyrical series of stories which follows a cool chosen family as they find their way in a world that is sometimes unkind. Block's writing is amazingly tactile, perhaps due to her background in poetry. This is one of those books that I will reread again and again.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
"Review"
by The New York Times Book Review,
"Ms. Block's far-ranging free association has been controlled and shaped...with sensual characters. The language is inventive Californian hip, but the patterns are compactly folkloristic and the theme is transcendent."
"Review"
by The Village Voice,
"Magic is everywhere in Block's lyrical and resonant fables....At once modern and mythic, her series deserves as much space as it can command of daydream nation's shrinking bookshelves."
"Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Block's extravagantly imaginative setting and finely honed perspectives remind the reader that there is magic everywhere."
"Review"
by Spin,
"A poetic series of books celebrating love, art, and the imagination, all in hyper-lyrical language....Tenderly intoxicating."
"Review"
by Susie Wilde, Children's Literature,
"Block is a cutting-edge young adult author....She writes gay-lesbians as characters rather than poster children. Books such as these can help bridge the feelings of isolation that some young adults may be experiencing."
"Review"
by New York Times Book Review,
"Transcendent."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
About The Book:
Dangerous Angels brings together in one volume all five of Francesca Lia Block's celebrated novels about Weetzie Bat and her nontraditional L.A. family of musicians and filmmakers. Populated by fascinating characters, filled with the magic, and occasional misery of the creative life and enriched by themes of the redemptive power of love, respect for the natural world, and the universal search for self-identity, the Weetzie Bat books are modern classics in the making.
The publication of Weetzie Bat in 1989 heralded the arrival of one of the most powerfully original voices in contemporary literature. Francesca Lia Block's marriage of gritty realism and magic in the pages of her postmodern, punk fairy tale was brilliantly innovative. At the same time, her celebration of love in all of its varieties — both heterosexual and homosexual — and the expression it finds in nontraditional or blended families invited controversy among critics but attracted the passionate devotion of readers everywhere. In the books that followed, Witch Baby (1991), Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys (1992), Missing Angel Juan (1993), and Baby Be-Bop (1995) Block enriched readers' understanding of her characters, of the intertwining of love and magic, and of the conflict between light and darkness in contemporary life. Block's wonderfully lyrical writing style matches the authentic sweetness and fundamental innocence of her sensibility and that of her characters. Because of the vividness she brings to her California settings, Los Angeles is as lively a character as Weetzie Bat herself. Block is sometimes described as a regional writer. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, her characters' search for love, self expression, and personal identity is equally indigenous to the concrete canyons of New York and the wheat fields of the Great Plains, as it is to Hollywood or Weetzie's flower bedecked home in Laurel Canyon.
Questions For Discussion: The title of this book comes from a quote from Weetzie Bat: “ ‘ Love is a dangerous angel, ’ Dirk said.” p. 11 What does Dirk mean by this? How would you apply this quote to the four other Weetzie Bat books? According to "The New York Times, “ Ms. Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler.” Discuss some of the ways in which the author brings such vivid life to her setting. "Missing Angel Juan takes place in New York. Does this change of setting make the novel significantly different from the other Weetzie Bat books? This is also the only Weetzie Bat novel to be told in a first person voice, that of Witch Baby. In what ways does this change the experience of reading the book? In such phrases as “ lanky lizards, ” “ duck hunt, ” and “ slinkster cool” Block invents a “ slanguage” for her characters. Can you find other examples? How do these compare with slang that you use in talking with your friends? Francesca Lia Block is also a poet. How has this influenced her style as a fiction writer? The author says that Witch Baby is the character with whom she most closely identifies. How would you describe Witch Baby as a person? How does she change over the course of the two books about her ("Witch Baby and "Missing Angel Juan)? Witch Baby “ outs” Duck to his mother p.110 . Why do you think she does this? Is it wrong for her to do this? Block’ s characters love not only one another but the natural world as well. How do they demonstrate this? How does the character of Coyote Dream Song embody this? How and why do the four magical animal “ gifts” in Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys change the band members? At the end of "Baby Be-Bop, Dirk thinks, “ Our stories can set us free. When we set them free.” p. 478 Discuss what he means by this. Magic is a regular part of all of the Weetzie Bat books. Genies, magic lamps, ghosts, tree spirits, and more are part of the characters’ daily lives. Why do you think Block adds these magical elements to her stories? Are they enriched by this intermingling of the magical and the realistic? And what do you think Block meant when she told an interviewer, “ Magic and love. That’ s the equation, finally. Out of love there emerges transformation and transcendence.” Finally, how does she demonstrate this in her use of myth and fairy tales in her novels? (E.g., the Orpheus myth in Missing Angel Juan.)
About The Author:
Francesca Lia Block, nurtured by a painter/filmmaker father and a poet mother, wrote most of her first novel, "Weetzie Bat, while she was studying at the University of California– Berkley. Since then, Block has written four Weetzie sequels— "Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, and "Baby Be Bop. Like Weetzie, all have received high praise and prestigious awards. Ms. Block is also the author of "The Hanged Man, Girl Goddess #9, and "I Was a TeenageFairy. Francesca Lia Block lives in Los Angeles, California.
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