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    Witch Baby
    Witch Baby
    Witch Baby
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    Witch Baby

    By Francesca Lia Block

    4/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Once upon a time in the city of Shangri-L.A., someone left a baby on a doorstep. She had wild, dark hair and purple eyes and looked at the world in a special way.

    The family that took her in called her Witch Baby and raised her as their own. But even though she tried to fit in, Witch Baby never felt as though she truly belonged.

    So one day she packed her bat-shaped backpack, put her black cowboy-boot roller skates, and went out into the real world to find out who she really was....

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperTeen
    Release dateNov 3, 2009
    ISBN9780061986642
    Witch Baby
    Author

    Francesca Lia Block

    Francesca Lia Block, winner of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award, is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling books, including Weetzie Bat; the book collections Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books and Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets; the illustrated novella House of Dolls; the vampire romance novel Pretty Dead; and the gothic werewolf novel The Frenzy. Her work is published around the world.

    Read more from Francesca Lia Block

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    Reviews for Witch Baby

    4/5

    147 ratings4 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Bleah.Admittedly, I haven't read the first book in the Weetzie Bat series, and my head was spinning a bit after getting through the accelerated recap at the start. But only the knowledge that I had borrowed this book, and therefore had to take good care of it, kept me from hurling it across the room partway through.Part of this is due to the oppressively pervasive use of slang-- I am so sick of "slinkster," for starters. Part of this is due to the unbearably cutesy names-- one character is actually named "My Secret Agent Lover Man." But these pale by comparison to the main problem, which is that this book is concerned with the doings of a thoroughly dislikable cast of characters, who are uniformly immature, self-absorbed, self-righteous, and bloody stupid to boot. And I'm especially speaking of the alleged adults here.To pick one illustration... the eponymous character, Witch Baby, is the daughter of My Secret Agent Lover Man, and Vixanne Wigg. She, however, doesn't know that, despite being raised by My Secret Agent Lover Man and Weetzie Bat; her father has been lying to her and claiming not to be her father.Not entirely surprisingly, the central problem for Witch Baby in this book is that she doesn't know where she came from, and doesn't feel as if she belongs anywhere. Eventually, she confronts My Secret Agent Lover Man, and he reluctantly admits that he is her father, and says that he's been lying to her every day and repudiating his relationship with her for all these years because "I was afraid you would be ashamed of me." Are we supposed to take this as a reasonable excuse? Are we supposed to take this as an even remotely sympathetic character? Please.(Again, this is just one example. Others abound throughout the book.)Now, if this were intended as a novel in which the central character survives in a world of selfish, clueless grownups, there might be something here. But from all indications, the author expects us to like these characters.Possibly this is another example of the New York / L.A. divide, but if you ask me, this book sucks.
    • 3/5
      Second in the series, told through the eyes of the adopted daughter, Witch Baby. She is trying to find out who she is, and how she fits into the chaotic family around her. An issue I had with this book, is not being able to tell how old the two girls in the story are. The reason being, is some of the situations seemed childish, or too "grown" up, depending on how old the girls are suppose to be. The ending also seemed a little jarring to me, too much of a Band-Aid fix.  Block still maintains the magical elements in her books. Her books always make me think a lot about the world around me, and how I see it. Do I see the dust or the glitter? the love or the pain.
    • 1/5
      Bleah.Admittedly, I haven't read the first book in the Weetzie Bat series, and my head was spinning a bit after getting through the accelerated recap at the start. But only the knowledge that I had borrowed this book, and therefore had to take good care of it, kept me from hurling it across the room partway through.Part of this is due to the oppressively pervasive use of slang-- I am so sick of "slinkster," for starters. Part of this is due to the unbearably cutesy names-- one character is actually named "My Secret Agent Lover Man." But these pale by comparison to the main problem, which is that this book is concerned with the doings of a thoroughly dislikable cast of characters, who are uniformly immature, self-absorbed, self-righteous, and bloody stupid to boot. And I'm especially speaking of the alleged adults here.To pick one illustration... the eponymous character, Witch Baby, is the daughter of My Secret Agent Lover Man, and Vixanne Wigg. She, however, doesn't know that, despite being raised by My Secret Agent Lover Man and Weetzie Bat; her father has been lying to her and claiming not to be her father.Not entirely surprisingly, the central problem for Witch Baby in this book is that she doesn't know where she came from, and doesn't feel as if she belongs anywhere. Eventually, she confronts My Secret Agent Lover Man, and he reluctantly admits that he is her father, and says that he's been lying to her every day and repudiating his relationship with her for all these years because "I was afraid you would be ashamed of me." Are we supposed to take this as a reasonable excuse? Are we supposed to take this as an even remotely sympathetic character? Please.(Again, this is just one example. Others abound throughout the book.)Now, if this were intended as a novel in which the central character survives in a world of selfish, clueless grownups, there might be something here. But from all indications, the author expects us to like these characters.Possibly this is another example of the New York / L.A. divide, but if you ask me, this book sucks.
    • 4/5
      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.

    Book preview

    Witch Baby - Francesca Lia Block

    Upon Time

    Once upon a time. What is that supposed to mean?

    In the room full of musical instruments, watercolor paints, candles, sparkles, beads, books, basketballs, roses, incense, surfboards, china pixie heads, lanky toy lizards and a rubber chicken, Witch Baby was curling her toes, tapping her drumsticks and pulling on the snarl balls in her hair. Above her hung the clock, luminous, like a moon.

    Witch Baby had taken photographs of everyone in her almost-family—Weetzie Bat and My Secret Agent Lover Man, Cherokee Bat, Dirk McDonald and Duck Drake, Valentine, Ping Chong and Raphael Chong Jah-Love, Brandy-Lynn Bat and Coyote Dream Song. Then she had scrambled up the fireplace and pasted the pictures on the numbers of the clock. Because she had taken all the pictures herself, there was no witch child with dark tangled hair and tilted purple eyes.

    What time are we upon and where do I belong? Witch Baby wondered as she went into the garden.

    The peach trees, rosebushes and purple-flowering jacaranda were sparkling with strings of white lights. Witch Baby watched from behind the garden shed as her almost-family danced on the lawn, celebrating the completion of Dangerous Angels, a movie they had made about their lives. In Angels, Weetzie Bat met her best friend Dirk and wished on a genie lamp for a Duck for Dirk and My Secret Agent Lover Man for me and a beautiful little house for us to live in happily ever after. The movie was about what happened when the wishes came true.

    Witch Baby’s almost-mother-and-father, Weetzie Bat and My Secret Agent Lover Man, were doing a cha-cha on the lawn. In a short pink evening gown, pink Harlequin sunglasses and a white feathered headdress, Weetzie looked like a strawberry sundae melting into My Secret Agent Lover Man’s arms. Dirk McDonald was dancing with Duck Drake and pretending to balance his champagne glass on Duck’s perfect blonde flat-top. Weetzie’s mother, Brandy-Lynn Bat, was dancing with My Secret Agent Lover Man’s best friend, Coyote. Valentine Jah-Love and his wife, Ping Chong, swayed together, while their Hershey’s-powdered-chocolate-mix-colored son, Raphael Chong Jah-Love, danced with Weetzie’s real daughter, Cherokee Bat. Even Slinkster Dog and Go-Go Girl were dancing, raised up circus style on their hind legs, wriggling their rears and surrounded by their puppies, Pee Wee, Wee Wee, Teenie Wee, Tiki Tee and Tee Pee, who were not really puppies anymore but had never gotten any bigger than when they were six months old.

    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. She wanted to dance but there was no one to dance with. There was only Rubber Chicken lying around somewhere inside the cottage. He always seemed to end up being her only partner.

    After a while, Weetzie and My Secret Agent Lover Man sat down near the shed. Witch Baby watched them. Sometimes she thought she looked a little like My Secret Agent Lover Man; but she knew he and Weetzie had found her on their doorstep one day. Witch Baby didn’t look like Weetzie Bat at all.

    What’s wrong, my slinkster-love-man? Witch Baby heard Weetzie ask as she handed My Secret Agent Lover Man a paper plate sagging with food. "Aren’t you happy that we finished Angels?"

    He lit a cigarette and stared past the party into the darkness. Shadows of roses moved across his angular face.

    The movie wasn’t enough, he said. We have more money now than we know what to do with. Sometimes this city feels like an expensive tomb. I want to do something that matters.

    But you speak with your movies, Weetzie said. You are an important influence on people. You open eyes.

    It hasn’t been enough. I need to think of something strong. When I was a kid I had a lamp shaped like a globe. I had newspaper articles all over my walls, too, like Witch Baby has—disasters and things. I always wished I could make the world as peaceful and bright as my lamp.

    Give yourself time, said Weetzie, and she took off his slouchy fedora, pushed back his dark hair and kissed his temples.

    Witch Baby wished that she could go and sit on Weetzie’s lap and whisper an idea for a movie into My Secret Agent Lover Man’s ear. An idea to make him breathe deeply and sleep peacefully so the dark circles would fade from beneath his eyes. She wanted Weetzie and My Secret Agent Lover Man to stroke her hair and take her picture as if they were her real parents. But she did not go to them.

    She turned to see Weetzie’s mother, Brandy-Lynn, waltzing alone.

    Weetzie had told Witch Baby that Brandy-Lynn had once been a beautiful starlet, and in the soft shadows of night roses, Witch Baby could see it now. Starlet. Starlit, like Weetzie and Cherokee, Witch Baby thought. Brandy-Lynn collapsed in a lawn chair to drink her martini and finger the silver heart locket she always wore around her neck. Inside the locket was

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