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Title: A truly disappointing effort from a remarkable writer
Review: Readers of Francesca Lia Block's gorgeous, lyrical prose will be sorely disappointed by her latest novel. This book contains little of the offbeat charm and irreverance of Block's earlier works; even her normally beautiful language seems stilted and pretentious. The characters in the novel are one-dimensional and Block, usually so good at evoking emotion, does not seem to be able to rescue them from the confines of the page. Much of what makes the novel so disappointing is the feeling that she has rendered all of these characters much more fully and luminously in her other works. I'm not sure if Block is finished with the Weetzie Bat series, but if she is looking for a new series of characters, she hasn't found them in "I Was A Teenage Fairy." Those new to Block's work should try "Witch Baby," "Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys," or "Missing Angel Juan" to glimpse this extraordinary writer at her finest.
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