Books by Francesca Lia Block
Weetzie Bat (Weetzie Bat, 1)
“Transcendent.” —New York Times Book Review
“Magnificent.” —Village Voice
“Sparkling.” —Publishers Weekly
Francesca Lia Block’s dazzling debut novel, Weetzie Bat, is not only a genre-shattering, critically acclaimed gem, it's also widely recognized as a classic of young adult literature, having captivated readers for generations.
This coming-of-age novel follows the eponymous Weetzie Bat and her best friend Dirk as they navigate life and love in a timeless, dreamlike version of Los Angeles. When Weetzie is granted three wishes by a genie, she discovers that there are unexpected ramifications….
Winner of the prestigious Phoenix Award, Weetzie Bat is a beautiful, poetic work of magical realism that is perfect for fans of Laura Ruby, Neil Gaiman, and Kelly Link.
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Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books
Francesca Lia Block's luminous, postmodern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all: love.
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Weetzie Bat (10th Anniversary Edition)
Ten years ago Francesca Lia Block made a dazzling entrance into the literary scene with what would become one of the most talked-about books of the decade: Weetzie Bat. This poetic roller coaster swoop has been repackaged with a sleek new design and is available in both hardcover and paperback editions. Rediscover the magic of Weetzie Bat, Ms. Blocks sophisticated, slinkster-cool love song to L.A.the book that shattered the standard, captivated readers of all generations, and made Francesca Lia Block one of the most heralded authors of the last decade.
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The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out.
Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place.
A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse.
And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men.
Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself.
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The Hanged Man
After the death of her father, Laurel is haunted by a legacy of family secrets, hidden shame, and shattered glass. Immersing herself in the heady rhythms of a city that is like something wild, caged, and pacing, Laurel tries to lose herself. But when she runs away from the past, she discovers a passion so powerful, it brings her roundabout and face-to-face with the demons she wants to avoid.
In a stunning departure from her enormously popular Weetzie Bat books, Francesca Lia Block weaves a darkly exhilarating tale of shattered passions and family secrets.
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I Was a Teenage Fairy (Ageless Books)
Maybe Mab was real. Maybe not. Maybe Mab was the fury. Maybe she was the courage. Maybe later on she was the sex . . .
A tiny fairy winging her way through the jasmine-scented L.A. night. A little girl caught in a grown-up glitz-and-glitter world of superstars and supermodels. A too beautiful boy with a secret he can never share . . .
From the author of Weetzie Bat comes a magical, mesmerizing tale of transformation. This is the story of Barbie Marks, who dreams of being the one behind the Cyclops eye of the camera, not the voiceless one in front of it; who longs to run away to New York City where she can be herself, not some barley flesh-and-blood version of the plastic doll she was named after. It is the story of Griffin Tyler, whose androgynous beauty hides the dark pain he holds inside. And finally it is the story of Mab, a pinkie-sized, magenta-haired, straight-talking fairy, who may or may not be real but who helps Barbie and Griffin uncover the strength beneath the pain, and who teaches that love—like a sparkling web of light spinning around our bodies and our souls—is what can heal even the deepest scars.
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Wasteland
An exquisite novel about the consequences of who we choose to love.
Lex and his sister, Marina, are inseparable. The air they share has always been light and boundless, but suddenly it's weighted down. And now Lex is gone. When the one relationship that cradled her turns out to shatter her sense of self, Marina needs her friend West to help put the pieces back together. But Marina won't feel truly complete until she faces the past that is haunting her.
Highly acclaimed and award–winning author Francesca Lia Block tells the tale of a brother and sister whose loving relationship is too intense for them to bear. With the sensitivity and refinement that Block is known for, she manages to weave together her characters and their lives into this beautiful and thought–provoking tale.
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Wasteland
When you were a baby I sat very still to hold you. I could see the veins through your skin like a map to inside you. I stopped breathing so you wouldn't ... You were just a boy on a bed in a room, like a kaleidoscope is a tube full of bits of broken glass. But the way I saw you was pieces refracting the light, shifting into an infinite universe of flowers and rainbows and insects and planets, magical dividing cells, pictures no one else knew ... Your whole life you can be told something is wrong and so you believe it.
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Necklace of Kisses
“Weetzie’s many fans will most appreciate this reunion. . . but those just meeting Block’s whimsical entourage and sparkling prose will also appreciate the book’s message: that magic can be found in stolen moments and, in Dirk’s words, though ‘love is a dangerous angel,’ it’s well worth the risk.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
In this installment of Francesca Lia Block’s phenomenal Weetzie Bat series, we follow Weetzie through a life-altering and magical journey, where anything is possible, even true love.
Turning 40 and stuck in a relationship gone stale, Weetzie packs up one day and leaves Max, the same secret agent lover man who was once the other half of a passionate relationship. She stays at an enchanted pink hotel, where she meets an otherworldly cast of characters, among them a blue-skinned receptionist, an invisible cleaning lady, a seductive room service clerk, and a sushi-eating mermaid who gives her a kiss that sets the wheel of self-discovery in motion.
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Beautiful Boys: Missing Angel Juan and Baby Be-Bop (Weetzie Bat)
Two darkly magical Weetzie Bat stories about the search for self from Francesca Lia Block: Missing Angel Juan and Baby Be-Bop.
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Goat Girls: Witch Baby and Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys (Weetzie Bat)
Two magical-realist coming-of-age Weetzie Bat stories from Francesca Lia Block: Witch Baby and Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys.
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Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories
Meet Tweetie Sweet Pea and Peachy Pie, Jacaranda and Rave and Desiree...
Meet Lady Ivory and Alabaster Dutchess, who interview their favorite rock star, Nick Agate, only to discover the magic and power in themselves. Meet Tuck Budd, who is happy living in Manhattan with her two moms, Izzy and Anastasia, until she begins to wonder who her father is. Meet La, who faces the loss of her mother with an imaginary androgynous blue friend who lives in her closet. Zingingly bright and dreamily dark, full of wonder and gritty reality, these stories by acclaimed author Francesca Lia Block show the reader that in every girl there truly is a goddess. The cutting-edge author of Weetzie Bat once again breaks new ground with Girl Goddess #9, nine stories about girl goddesses of every age and shape and color and size, wearing combat boots and spiky hair or dressed all in white. One girl has two moms, another has no mother at all but a strange blue skinned creature that lives in her closet. One is a rock star groupie, another loves dancing and reading poetry and having picnics in the backyard when the moon is full. These are stories about girls discovering that the world is not a simple place and that there is more than one way to live'all in Ms. Block's rich, lyrical language that fans have come to adore and that Sassy magazine called ‘a dream.'
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Ecstasia
From the bestselling author of Weetzie Bat comes a fantasy adventure.
Siblings Calliope and Rafe, along with Dionisio and Paul, are Ecstasia—the most popular band in Elysia, a city of jewels and feathers, of magic and music, where the only crime is growing old. Then Calliope’s visions take her to Under, where the Old Ones go to die, and where her parents had vanished long ago. Rafe joins her there, in search of the Doctor, who can bring back the dead to ease their loved ones’ broken hearts. And that is when rapture turns to nightmare.
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Primavera
Unable to have the man she loves, Primavera goes in search of Elysia, a magical city once ruled by her parents' band, Ecstasia, unaware that if she gets there, she may not be able to return home.
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The Frenzy
Love is a werewolf, influenced by the moon and terror, and always about to change.
Liv has a secret.
Something happened to her when she was thirteen. Something that changed everything. Liv knows she doesn’t belong anymore—not in her own skin, not in her family . . . not anywhere. The only time she truly feels like herself is when she’s with her boyfriend, Corey, and in the woods that surround her town.
But in the woods, a mysterious woman watches Liv. In the woods, a pack of wild boys lurks. In the woods, Liv learns about the curse that will haunt her forever. The curse that caused the frenzy four years ago. And that may cause it again, all too soon.
While Corey and Liv’s love binds them together, Liv’s dark secret threatens to tear them apart as she struggles to understand who—or what—she really is. And by the light of the full moon, the most dangerous secrets bare their claws. . . .
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Psyche in a Dress
But this is what
I could not give up:
I could not give up myself
Psyche has known Love—scented with jasmine and tasting of fresh oranges. Yet he is fleeting and fragile, lost to her too quickly. Punished by self-doubt, Psyche yearns to be transformed, like the beautiful and brutal figures in the myths her lover once spoke of. Attempting to uncover beauty in the darkness, she is challenged, tested, and changed by the gods and demons who tempt her. Her faith must be found again, for if she is to love, she must never look back.
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How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity
by Emma Donoghue, Francesca Lia Block, David Levithan, Julie Anne Peters, Michael Cart, Ron Koertge, Eric Shanower, Jennifer Finney Boylan, William Sleater
A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years.
Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others—and themselves—in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.
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Pretty Dead
People pity me, but mostly they feel envy. I have all the luxury and freedom a girl my age could want.
Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of Los Angeles, it consumes her from the inside out. But whether it is her eternal loneliness, the memory of her brother, the return of her first love, or the brooding, magnetic Jared—she cannot say. What if it's something more . . .
Something to do with the sudden tear in her perfect nails. The heat she feels when she's with Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins.
For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her.
In what way will you be transformed?
Until now.
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Pretty Dead
Even if I wanted to die for someone, it wouldn't be that easy. They just keep dying for me.
Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of L.A., it consumes her from the inside out.
Something to do with the tear in her enviably perfect nails. The way she feels when she's with the brooding, magnetic Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins.
For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her.
Until now.
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Firebirds Rising: An Original Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy
by Francesca Lia Block, Emma Bull, Sharyn November, Kara Dalkey
A sequel to the anthology, Firebirds, provides young adults with a collection of fantastical tales from an array of celebrated authors, including Charles de Lint, Diana Wynne Jones, and Patricia A. McKillip.
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Love in the Time of Global Warming
Seventeen-year-old Penelope (Pen) has lost everything―her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother. Like a female Odysseus in search of home, she navigates a dark world full of strange creatures, gathers companions and loses them, finds love and loses it, and faces her mortal enemy.
In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm of Love in the Time of Global Warming is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.
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Quakeland
“[Francesca Lia] Block writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone since Raymond Chandler.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[Block] uses language like a jeweled sword glittering as it cuts to the heart.”—Kirkus Reviews
After enduring from afar a seemingly endless series of outside worldwide disasters—including 9/11 and the Asian tsunami—while living in earthquake-prone Los Angeles, a bereft Katrina experiences deep inner longings for some sense of permanence, meaning, and intimacy. A preschool teacher contemplating the unsettling challenges of her mid-life, she finds solace in the company of her dear friend Grace, and conflict in the arms of a narcissistic yoga instructor, Jasper.
In this intertwining series of emotionally charged stories, wistful characters weave together a dance of joy and sorrow, gain and loss, harmony and dissonance. Beautifully written, Quakeland speaks in a deeply stirring female voice to an unspoken sense of universal longing that seems quietly prevalent in these times. It is a brave, poetic work that acknowledges the pain and loss we live with every day, and offers hope—through art and through connection—of something more.
Francesca Lia Block is renowned for her groundbreaking novels and stories, including the best-selling Weetzie Bat—postmodern, magic-realist tales for all ages. Her work transports readers through the harsh landscapes of contemporary life to magic realms of the senses where love is always a saving grace. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets
Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, gathers together three of her most enchanting books into one volume. Retelling age-old fairytales and Classical myths, this collection captures the best Block has to offer: extravagantly imaginative tales, dark landscapes, fierce poetry, and storytelling that is nothing short of magical.
Psyche in a Dress is told in free verse. A contemporary retelling of several Greek myths rolled together, it is set in California in a world where Aphrodite owns a dress shop and Orpheus is a rock musician.
Echo is a prose reimagining of the stories of Echo and Narcissus. It stars a Hollywood girl who goes on a quest for love and along the way comes across angels, vampires, and fairies.
The Rose and the Beast is a collection of nine short stories which put a modern and original spin on fairytales such as Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Rose Red and Rose White, and others.
Roses and Bones was praised by VOYA as "a vivid and sensual ride." And each book in this evocative collection received multiple starred reviews, including one from Kirkus which proclaimed "Block uses language like a jeweled sword, glittering as it cuts to the heart."
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Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles
by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Ellen Hopkins, Francesca Lia Block, Lauren Oliver, Maureen Johnson, Melissa Marr, Cynthia Hand, Kimberly McCreight, Robison Wells, Dan Wells, Aprilynne Pike, Sarah Fine, Sara Zarr, Amber Benson, Cyn Balog, Francisco X. Stork, Amy Reed, Jessica Burkhart, Karen Mahoney, Tom Pollock, Hannah Moskowitz, Wendy Toliver, Cindy L. Rodriguez, Candace Ganger, Rachel M. Wilson, E. Kristin Anderson, Kelly Fiore-Stultz, Scott Neumyer, Crissa-Jean Chappell, Tara Kelly, Megan Kelley Hall
“Who better to raise teens’ awareness of mental illness and health than the YA authors they admire?” —Booklist (starred review)
“[A] much-needed, enlightening book.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
Your favorite YA authors including Ellen Hopkins, Maureen Johnson, and more recount their own experiences with mental health in this raw, real, and powerful collection of essays that explores everything from ADD to PTSD.
Have you ever felt like you just couldn’t get out of bed? Not the occasional morning, but every day? Do you find yourself listening to a voice in your head that says “you’re not good enough,” “not good looking enough,” “not thin enough,” or “not smart enough”? Have you ever found yourself unable to do homework or pay attention in class unless everything is “just so” on your desk? Everyone has had days like that, but what if you have them every day?
You’re not alone. Millions of people are going through similar things. However issues around mental health still tend to be treated as something shrouded in shame or discussed in whispers. It’s easier to have a broken bone—something tangible that can be “fixed”—than to have a mental illness, and easier to have a discussion about sex than it is to have one about mental health.
Life Inside My Mind is an anthology of true-life events from writers of this generation, for this generation. These essays tackle everything from neurodiversity to addiction to OCD to PTSD and much more. The goals of this book range from providing a home to those who are feeling alone, awareness to those who are witnessing a friend or family member struggle, and to open the floodgates to conversation.
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Taking Aim: Power and Pain, Teens and Guns
by Joyce Carol Oates, Chris Crutcher, Francesca Lia Block, Walter Dean Myers, Alex Flinn, Peter Johnson, Elizabeth Wein, Chris Lynch, Michael Cart, Ron Koertge, Eric Shanower, Marc Aronson, Will Weaver, Tim Wynne-Jones, Jenny Hubbard, Gregory Galloway, Edward Averett
Powerful, riveting, real. Sixteen celebrated authors bring us raw, insightful stories that explore guns and teens in a fiction collection that is thought provoking and emotionally gripping. For fans of Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and Give a Boy a Gun, and with an array of YA talent like the late great Walter Dean Myers, the poetic Joyce Carol Oates, the prophetic Elizabeth Wein, and the gritty Chris Crutcher, these are evocative voices that each has a different perspective to give. Capturing the hurt and the healing, victims and perpetrators, these stories get to the heart of the matter.
From a boy whose low self-esteem is impacted when a gun comes into his possession to a student recalling a senseless tragedy that befell a favorite teacher, from a realistic look at hunting to a provocative look at a family that defies stereotypes, each emotional story stirs the debate to new levels. The juxtaposition of guns and their consequences offers moving tales, each a reminder of how crucial the question of guns in our society is, and the impact they have on all of us.
Other acclaimed contributors are Marc Aronson, Edward Averett, Francesca Lia Block, Alex Flinn, Gregory Galloway, Jenny Hubbard, Peter Johnson, Ron Koertge, Chris Lynch, Eric Shanower, Will Weaver, and Tim Wynne-Jones.
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