Monday, December 8, 2014

Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block | Book Review


Just like Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby is also a quick, short, lyrical read.  Out of the five Weetzie Bat books, I think this one was not my favorite.  Not bad, but not as great as the other four.

While Weetzie Bat was from Weetzie's point of view, Witch Baby is from the perspective of Weetzie's almost-daughter, Witch Baby.  In Weetzie Bat, Weetzie, Duck, and Dirk find a baby in a basket on their front porch and they take her in.  Now she's grown up a bit (again, no age is given) and she's off to try to find out who she is and where she belongs.  Witch Baby is full of anger (maybe because of her name? :P) and she doesn't feel like she belongs in the fair, light, hippie-ish family with Weetzie, Duck, Dirk, and Cherokee.  So she sets off to find her biological parents.

There was kind of a big plot hole in that Witch Baby just sets off one day to rollerskate across LA to find her parents... but how does she know where to look?  And how old is she, exactly?  I was at first picturing a youngish teen, but there's no mention of school in the book and she goes off on an overnight trip alone, so maybe she's an older teen?  Even a young adult?  That was my biggest peeve with these books:  how old are these freaking characters???

Sorry... that was a tangent.  Anyway, Witch Baby was rather darker than the other four books, so perhaps that's why it's not my fave.  It was still wonderfully written.  Ms. Block has this way of writing where you can feel the beat move along with the words.  It's very dreamy.  I would definitely recommend reading this one after you've read Weetzie Bat to continue the story.

*I checked out my copy of Witch Baby from my local library.

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