Weetzie Bat is Tales of the City on peyote.
It is the first book in a series by Francesca Lia Block. I had heard that it was a pioneering work of urban fantasy, like War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. Now that I’ve read of, I really can’t see it.
That said, boy is it its own thing.
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Plot wise, Weetzie Bat is about how Weetzie Bat and her gay best friend find their soul mates and form a family with some bumps along the way.
The only overtly magical event is Weetzie using a genie’s wishes to form said family. Although not even she is sure that it happened. I get the impression that the later books might have more overt fantasy elements but it felt more like Tom Robbins than Charles de Lint.
The book takes place in what feels like a mythic Los Angeles, a place of Hollywood legends and local restaurants. However, the book also describes these things getting torn down and replaced. I felt like the characters want to live in a dream world but the real world keeps creeping in.
In fact, I would go so far as to describe Weetzie Bat as prose poem disguised as a short novel. The book plays with names and lists and imagery.
I am not the main demographic for Weetzie Bat, although online commentary makes it clear this was an important book for many people. It is technically a young adult book but it is one of those young adult books where you have to be told that it is one.
However, the chapter about the death of Weetzie Bat’s dad, Charlie Bat, that was powerful. His overdose makes it clear something precious but broken was lost. That chapter ended up being where the book clicked for me and the reason that I might read more of the books.
I don’t think Weetzie Bat is a part of the same literary evolution at Charles de Lint. However, it does its own thing and stands by it.
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