This is actually 5 books in one, and the quality of each book varies quite a lot. Unfortunately the book starts off with the weakest stories, I nearly gave up right at the beginning. I'm glad I didn't though, because the last two stories are great and I closed the book wanting more. The Los Angeles that Block describes is dazzling and magical, and her stories of love and longing are uplifting. It takes a while to get used to her writing style and you have to learn to read between the lines a little. I think I would have loved this as a teenager.

I'd rank the stories like this: Missing Angel Juan > Baby Be-Bop > Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys = Witch Baby = Weetzie Bat. ( )

Five books from the Weetzie Bat series rolled into one volume. What a treat! Although I’d read the first three books previously, it was great to read them as one cohesive piece. As I read, I remembered what a delightfully unique writer Ms. Block is. The language of these books pulls you into a world in which anything can happen, whether you imagine it or not.

The whimsy and joy of Weetzie Bat brought me quickly to a magical realm of reality by the joyful and pain-filled lives of the characters. In the end we are blessed with a vision of what a family can be.

Granted these stories won’t be for every reader. You must form an agreement with the author to suspend all previous assumptions about life and go along for the ride, trusting that she knows what she’d doing. And I believe that she does. These are stories from the heart, and if you look beneath the surface of what could be construed as child neglect in the real world, you feel the love that the members of this family have for one another and realize that this isn't the real world. Each of the characters is searching for his or her place in the universe, just as each young adult reader is. Perhaps that is the appeal.

This is the kind of book that people will love or hate, will “get” or shake their heads in puzzlement, will praise or condemn.
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I started reading this book years ago, but got too busy with school and never finished it. I remember the names and some of the things the characters would say sounded weird, but it was harder to get into it now as a 29 year old. I liked the magical realism and appreciated some of the descriptions of LA, especially West Hollywood and the punk scene. Though at times it felt over-romanticized, it helped ground the story and made it somewhat relatable to me. ( )

Very impressed. Manages to maintain a fairytale structure while being both dark and relevant for its time. If the mandate of a children's book is to instruct children about life in a whimsical manner that both insulates the child from the horror it is explaining and maintain a certain joy with life, than this book (or set of books) very much reaches its goal.

It will be a book I keep in mine for a child; as someone who would like them to understand the concept of AIDS, of homosexuality, of the pleasures and dangers of sex, it is definitely a book I would try to pass off to a beloved child at the right age.

Complaints? Not many fair ones. There is a subtext that eventually one will discover the ones they love, that there is an inherent knowledge and awareness of that love, that there are external forces, some supernatural, some metaphor, that are actively on your side. The pessimist in me scoffs at that promise, though it conflicts in what I've said above. I fully admit that perhaps my tune would be different had this book and others of its kind infected me at a young age :P ( )

I first read these books when I was in middle school, and while I didn't necessarily get everything that was going on, I loved the characters and they made me feel like being different wasn't such a bad thing. That even though I was different, I was and am still an amazing person to my friends and family. Rereading these books now as an adult, I feel like this message is more important then ever. All of the characters are interesting and creative but not exactly the most normal people in the world. From their unique living/family situation to their crazy names, they are as different from each other as can be. But they still all love each other, and Block's beautiful writing truly shows the beauty within each of the characters, and within the settings. I still love these books and hope others do too. ( )