Witch Baby (Weetzie Bat, #2) by Francesca Lia Block

Witch Baby (Weetzie Bat, #2) Reviews

• 
  Calista

  I loved the first Weetzie Bat book. It was so stylish and this California surfer greaser vibe. It was one of the first books in the early 90s with gay characters for a young adult audience. Now that is so normal that it isn't much of a big deal, but respect for the groundbreaker.
  
  This story follows Witch Baby, the daughter that was left on Weetzie and My Secret Agent Lover-Man's doorstep. They live in a house with several couples and Dirk and Duck are a gay couple. It's has a commune vibe. All the adults help to take care of Witch Baby, but she doesn't feel like she belongs and she stows away in the jeep of Dirk and Duck when they are on a weekend to Duck's parent's home and they don't know he's gay. Then she runs away looking for her mom. We find out Witch Baby is actually My Secret Agent Lover Man's daughter with another mother.
  
  Witch Baby is experiencing alienation here and she is a drummer and a photographer and we don't know exactly how old she is here.
  
  I didn't connect with this story nearly as much as the first one. It wasn't horrible, but I don't really remember a lot either. The story is really a Novella at about 80 pages. I thought Dirk and Duck could have had an interesting storyline if the story was focused there, but it wasn't. I think it's having the book be from a child's perspective. That's why it didn't work. That's it. That's the problem with this book. It really hobbled the story.
  
  I do plan on going ahead with this series at some point. The next book is longer.
• 
  sari

  i was going to read the series, but after 2 books i can't continue reading because of the immense cultural appropriation (seriously, is she legally required to mention something about headdresses or powwows or moccasins for the white characters every chapter or what?) and bordering-on-racist archetypes. i know this book was real important to many people i knew as they were growing up, but i see no real value in it besides showcasing a gay couple in a fairly non-shitty way.
• 
  Bitsy

  In Witch Baby Francesca Lia Block really spreads her wings and finds her pace. Witch Baby is the second book in her Dangerous Angels series and is her sophomore novel. You really need to have read Weetzie Bat for Witch Baby to make any sense.
  
  Witch Baby is my favorite character in the whole crazy Bat family. She is a black sheep, an outsider, a loner. She doesn’t want to stick her head in the sand and forget about the troubles in the world, or pretend they don’t exist. She doesn’t try and use smoke and mirrors in the guise of drugs, alcohol, parties, etc to hide from the ugly truth of the world. She faces it head on. She puts it on display for everyone to see and forces other people to acknowledge the pain and suffering, the poisons and toxins, the ignorance and fear.
  
  Between this gruff take on life and her various eccentricities which tend to alienate her from other people she lives a very lonely life for being in such a large family.
  
  I always had a special place for Witch Baby ever since she was introduced in Weetzie Bat. Here we have a child that was dropped on their door stop and this loving/happy/glowing family's first reaction is to kick the baby out. She is an illegitimate love child (so is Cherokee, for all they know) and even her own father doesn't want her around. Then they decide to keep her but because the woman who seduced My Secret Agent Lover Man was an evil witch (he couldn't possibly have just f'd up and made a mistake, amirite? it's the woman's fault) they decided to predetermine this baby to follow in her mother's foot steps and name her Witch Baby. Great.
  
  In just a few paragraphs everyone (even the baby Cherokee) start treating Witch Baby like a horrible witch child and so the child reacts accordingly. She is a monster of their creation, but because she is not cut from the same glowingly love, love, love cloth as everyone else in the family she becomes a more well rounded character. She sees the dark and she is not afraid of it. She wants to help her father create movies that show these dark things and the lessons to be found in them. She wants to acknowledge the times that we live in, but most importantly she wants to find a place to belong.
  
  The book Witch Baby takes us on an adventure with her as we see LA through more realistic eyes and discover more back story on her and several of the other characters (but mainly the lovers Dirk and Duck). Through her camera she sees everything both from an in and outside perspective and is remarkably perceptive for a child her age. They never say it but I would guess she's in her tweens.
  
  Again I think this is a book appropriate for more of a high school audience, but I think it is much better than Weetzie Bat. There is more depth, more rounded characters, more of an overall plot and a strong message. The ending wraps up very quickly into a ridiculously unrealistic bow, but that is the way of the magical books in the Dangerous Angels series. Highly recommended GLBT fiction. Witch Baby delivers hope, understanding, courage and love.
• 
  Steph

  If ever there was a book that captured the essence of what it feels like to be estranged from family or, worse, to feel as though you've never belonged anywhere, it's Witch Baby.
  
  There's not a lot I can say about Francesca's stories that I haven't said before. Witch Baby is unique, it's lyrical, and the heart of the characters leaps off the page and grabs you by the throat (but in a good way).
  
  This is a flawless sequel to Weetzie Bat. Whether reading this as an adolescent or an adult, this novel is sure to strike a chord with you, as the emotions behind it are so eloquently raw and truthful.
• 
  Rosa Folgar

  I don't that I can really say much about this book. It always makes me cry. Every. Single. Time. I don't know what t is, but seeing the world through tilty purple eyes and feeling the overwhelming sadness and loneliness Witch Baby has always raises a lump in my throat, tear tracks in my pillow, and a dull ache in my heart. Everyone is so caught up in their own world and lives, they ignore a very special, very soulfully little witch baby who wants to find her place.
  
  
  My favorite/the worst part is when she sees Coyote so sad because they are cutting the trees across the street. He has 5 Joshua Tree seeds he cherishes and shows the baby witch. He tells her that trees are spirits and if you are quiet enough you can hear them when you hug them and leaves too sad from the cut trees to even eat. Witch baby stole his seeds before he left and plants them in the same place where they just tore down the old trees hoping one day she and Coyote will hear them talking.
  
  The next day Coyote wakes her up and yells at her about the seeds saying they will not grow outside of the desert and that they are basically wasted. Poor Witch Baby spends the next 3 nights digging with a flashlight and her nails trying to get is seeds back for him because she feels so bad. She only stops because Dirk finds her one night and takes her home.
  
  I can't praise this book enough. I love it. The language, the message, the main character, the plot. "Why is the city called Los Angeles when there are no angels here....it should be called Los Diablos"
  
  Will probably read at least 20 more times and keep crying every time. The day I read it and I don't cry, I will have to take a look at myself and my values.
• 
  Allison Floyd

  "'My pain is ugly, Angel Juan. I feel like I have so much ugly pain,' says Witch Baby in a dream.
  'Everyone does,' Angel Juan says. 'My mother says that pain is hidden in everyone you see. She says try to imagine it like big bunches of flowers that everyone is carrying around with them. Think of your pain like a big bunch of red roses, a beautiful thorn necklace. Everyone has one.'"
  
  This is leaps and bounds beyond Weetzie Bat in terms of plot and characterization and, like its predecessor, reads like a delectable poem written in spun sugar. Witch Baby is an interesting, complex--if not (to me) especially endearing--character.
  
  The book gets a little heavy-handed with its "facing the pain" message toward the end, but it's still a joy to read.
• 
  Emily Joyce

  MAGIC ITS ALL MAGIC ALL THE TIME
• 
  Madeleine

  I liked this sequel to WEETZIE BAT even better than the first. I was talking to someone about Weetzie Bat and one of the main reasons she hated it and didn't continue to read the series because of the horrible, controversial topics that were glossed over. And I agreed with her...however, all those things made much more sense after reading this book. This was like an answer to Weetzie...a recognition that everyone was willingly ignoring the negative parts of life by smoothing it over and bedazzling more curtains.
  I liked the character of Witch Baby, she was a loner and didn't have the lightness of the other characters. You could see how frustrating it was, being the odd man out in such a tight-knit and happy-go-lucky family. On the other hand, you could also see why the other characters would ignore and avoid her. She was almost feral...preferring snarling and isolation to spending time with the family.
  The relationship between Dirk and Duck became much more developed in this installation as well which was nice to see.
  
  3 out of 50 book year
• 
  Emily

  Like other reviewers have commented, the persistent cultural appropriation is uncomfortable and wrong and I wouldn't blame anyone for passing on this series because of it. But I can see why people like these books so much, there is a realer-than-real quality to these books because of how dream-like they are and there are real, emotional questions at the center (in this book; what do you do with all the pain in the world? with your own pain?) that are handled well.
• 
  Melissa

  Pretty sure this was my fave in the series 20 years ago. Better than Weetzie Bat but still loses major points for its weird fetishistic treatment of Native Americans and their culture. If you can put that aside though (not that you have to), the story of alienation and not feeling like one belongs anywhere is one that resonates. And this book does touch on some bigger social issues - queer coming out & acceptance, immigration and deportation.
• 
  Mauoijenn

  This was a cute book. I liked it very much. I need to find a bat shaped backpack, like Witch Baby.
• 
  Zoe

  im going to start writing reviews maybe and so what i want to say about this book is that i wish my name was weetzie bat. also i now am going to be using using brat bath mat bat as an insult. i think this book is having a lot of fun with itself and its language and it feels childish but in a joyful way not a juvenile way. in the future i want a family like the bat family (a family of friends living in a little cottage). reminds me of faggots & their friends a little but definitely has less of a nuanced/ political take
• 
  Derek Moody

  It has been a joy to reread these books I loved so much as a teen/twenty something as a 40 year old. They are still so uplifting and magical and inclusive.
• 
  Meghan

  Witch Baby was the first of the Weetzie Bat series I read back in junior high. I have a soft spot for tangled, snarled hair that persists until this day, and a slight inferiority complex about both photography and playing the drums.
  
  Anyway, 20 years later, after I now know about Francesca Lia Block's struggles with an eating disorder, after I see the danger and weirdness of the positive racial stereotype characters in the book, I still can't help but love this book the most, because how could I not? With its sparkling fairy tale Los Angeles and sad girl with purple, tilty eyes?
  
  

  “Under the twinkling trees was a table covered with Guatemalan fabric, roses in juice jars, wax rose candles from Tijuana and plates of food — Weetzie's Vegetable Love-Rice, My Secret Agent Lover Man's guacamole, Dirk's homemade pizza, Duck's fig and berry salad and Surfer Surprise Protein Punch, Brandy-Lynn's pink macaroni, Coyote's cornmeal cakes, Ping's mushu plum crepes and Valentine's Jamaican plantain pie. Witch Baby's stomach growled but she didn't leave her hiding place. Instead, she listened to the reggae, surf, soul and salsa, tugged at the snarl balls in her hair and snapped pictures of all the couples.”

  
  
  How could a person not want this beautiful life?
• 
  Claire

  “What time are we upon and where do I belong?”
  This sequel centers on the character I initially cared least about (I resented her very existence toward the end of Weetzie Bat) but it resonated with me emotionally in an unexpected way. This book somehow gets it- that snarled feeling deep in your chest of wanting love and not being able to ask for it, of feeling left out in a family of people who love you. If you’ve ever hidden and watched at a party, or been very young and jealous of the love that adults have, this book might feel very poignant. It definitely brought tears to my eyes lots of times, mostly out of happiness.
  
  I’m coming to see FLB as yet another “problematic fave” in that she uses cultural elements as decorations in an uncomfortable way. This book is full of blonde white girls decked out in feathered headdresses and turquoise, talking about powwows and papooses. I think it’s coming from a place of positivity and appreciation, but I’m always wary when we end up with a bunch of pretty accessories and not much new insight about those cultures themselves. She also tends to describe people of color with a lot of food words, which feels borderline icky.
  
  But, again, the magic and love and California pride spilling out of these books makes them precious to me. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
• 
  Evie

  Francesca Lia Block definitely has a style all her own, that's for sure. I've read some of her poetry and other works, so I have some context for how she operates. But, while this one has that same Hollywood glitz and underlying dangerous magic, it's so rife with cultural appropriation. Referring to someone as a "blonde Indian," wearing white suede, feather headdresses, and moccasins… just stop. If she's not Native, she's not Native. There are other positive portrayals, I suppose, like Duck and Dirk's gay relationship, and having a conversation about Mexican immigrant families, but the frequency of white people wearing other cultures as slinkster-cool hip fashion is overwhelming. I just keep thinking, stop, okay, they're not your movie props or costumes, these thingsmean something to other people. When an individual from that culture invites you to join, that's one thing-- but I'm not seeing that happen, especially with Cherokee.
  
  I know this was a ground-breaking series for many people, but sometimes, I just can't get onboard with it.
• 
  Jess

  Francesca Lia Block's books are sweet fairy tales, but sometimes that's all they are for me. I can't take some of the hipster Native American cultural appropriation stuff seriously, and when the topic of Mexican immigrants came up, I was worried about how it would be portrayed in such a surreal book. But Block dealt with the topic in a mature way that was also accessible to teenagers who may have undocumented friends and loved ones but may not understand the circumstances of the situation.
  
  I have faith in Block- she's always been political with a hidden message, and it usually works. I just worry about how it is portrayed with her writing style- she can go from fun and wild and colorful to somber and dark in a matter of sentences. Sometimes it is hard to keep up, but I have fun with it.
• 
  g_jinx

  What I learned from this book?
  
  Everything.
• 
  Lenny Burnham

  The writing in this book was a big step up from Weetzie Bat and it was pretty emotionally engaging. Unfortunately, the way it talks about people of color is very fetishizing. Also, in the end everyone tells Witch Baby they shouldn’t have gotten mad at her for things she legitimately did wrong, a gay man even THANKS her for outing him. I think the author could’ve done a feel-good ending while still acknowledging Witch Baby’s mistakes.
• 
  Erica Leigh

  Maybe it’s because I haven’t read FLB since I was a tween, but I could not get into this. FLB has a unique, lyrical, poetic voice, sure, and I get that this is supposed to be a ~modern day fairytale that addresses anxieties surrounding lgbtq culture, the environment, the search for belonging, etc., but I could not get past the weird racist stereotypes and ridiculous names.
• 
  Molly

  As this one stands at #2 in the Weetzie Bat series, I would highly recommend starting with the first. I made the mistake and read this one before reading Weetzie Bat. While I really did enjoy the books and the quick read, I feel I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I had read them in the proper order.
  
  The reader gets a very quick run through of the characters in the household and is left to enjoy the craziness that is the family. Witch Baby, who feels like an out of place outcast, tries hard to find her place in the world and understand everything around her. While we aren't told exactly how old Witch Baby is, we do get the general idea that she is very young. She reminds me a bit of a very wild child version of Ramona from Beverly Cleary. A very wild child version and it makes me love her.
  
  The time this book is written, AIDS was starting to be more understood in the United States and is mentioned briefly. It's not an in the reader's face but is shown to the reader, who understands it is a threat for the characters as well as a very real thing. While it isn't mentioned by name, it still gets the point across to readers as they go. It is handled beautifully for a book written in 91.
• 
  Jennifer

  I wasn't going to review these books, but I can't keep quiet anymore.
  
  I'd rate them higher for being wildly unique and one of the
  most entertaining magical realism books I've ever read, but they're filled with racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation that as a native person, I don't appreciate. It's laughable how bad it is, but seriously, I hope this author has learned that it's not okay because she's still writing. It's not just native culture that's appropriated here either.
  
  I read an article that intrigued me about this author (didn't mention the racism at all) and they're cult classics so I'm disappointed that all the psychedelic bubblegum poetry is ruined by such blatant racial stereotyping.
  
  I'm going to keep reading because I want the wide scope of the author's work for various reasons, but I cringe a lot while doing so.
  
  One final good point: the books tackle some serious issues and have some dark undertones for being so poppy and fantastical. Another negative though: I think these could possibly influence some teens badly. They probably already did.
  
  *sigh* On to the next one because I'm such a glutton for punishment.
• 
  Erika Worley

  I discovered this book back in middle school before I knew how to check if a book was a sequel or not. So, I thought it was a standalone book. And, being the fantasy lover I am, I had to check out a book called "Witch Baby." In many ways I was too young for the story and the writing; I found many parts confusing in what was already a surreal story. The fortunate thing was probably that I happened to choose Witch Baby since it is from the perspective of a child, while the other books in the series are about adults or teenagers with experiences I probably would have been a bit shocked by. (My middle school library had a really weird selection. I found a lot of books meant for high school students and above.) Anyway, what I understood from the book, I loved. The main character is almost magical, but is she? Her experiences are those of a child who wishes she was magic and had power over her world, but ends up watching it pass by from the shadows. Simple and strange, it is a lovely book.
• 
  Hailey

  I have no words. Okay, maybe a few short and sweet words, but none that are the slightest bit worthy of Block and her beautiful stories. Now, I've slept a few times since reading the first book of the series, but this book really spoke to me, even more so than Weetzie Bat (and I loved Weetzie Bat). In fact, I'm planning on framing or making an art piece out of the last two pages for my wall because they spoke so deeply to me. I'm pretty sure I'm Witch Baby and FLB is an omniscient goddess writing out my heart and soul. FLB is truly a magician with words and themes. In this book, she speaks with her usual colorful, dreamy, Weetzie Bat-language, but she ties it together strongly with pain and suffering. Witch Baby feels and sees it all, the great and the terrible. She's an empath, like myself, and her story has given me a sense of hope and peace.
• 
  Dominika

  a pure slice of a California hippie fairy tale. The style is so over the top, but it still has a heart. I might scour all of the Goodwills in the area for the other books in the series.
  
  (By the way, there's a lot of cultural appropriation in this. That is hippie culture. You will see the same thing at most new age store's. I'm not saying it's right or ok, but this book was written 25 years ago about people who did that)
• 
  Morgan

  "Witch Baby saw that her own sadness was only a small piece of the puzzle of pain that made up the globe. But she was a part of the globe--she had her place. And there was a lot of happiness as well, a lot of love" (102-03). Beautiful, lyrical, this novella captures the timeless and timely feeling of its predecessor, but creates a new and equally interesting heroine in Witch Baby. FLB's prose is so economical yet so moving--I'm kind of surprised people don't study it more.
• 
  Tina

  I love this series so much. After reading
  Weetzie Bat, I wanted to know more about Witch Baby.
  
  Francesca Lia Block has a gorgeous, delicious writing style and that's what keeps me coming back for more. It's just the right amount of prose.
• 
  Patty

  Delightfully deliciously quirky. Heart warming situations. A sort of light handed way to deal with really tough real life issues.
  I can not get enough of the names of the key players...Weetzie Bat and Dirk and Duck and Cherokee and
  Witch Baby. Soulful situations...lovely stories. A truly yummy book.