Customer Reviews

Missing Angel Juan (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the 4th in a series which began with the awesome "Weetzie Bat," and progressed another 4 books detailing the lives of Weetzie's children, family, and friends. All 5 are great and worth checking out, but this one is my absolute favorite of the series.

The story revolves around Witch Baby, Weetzie Bat's almost-daughter, who travels to New York City to find her love, Angel Juan, and bring him back to L.A. She meets an assortment of wonderful, magical people here, including the spirit of Weetzie's father. It is through the very real magic of love that Witch Baby is able to discover clues about Angel's whereabouts, and save him from a very tragic fate...

The other 4 books in this series are written in a very breezy "Californian" way, but since we venture out of the warmth of the west coast and into the dark and chill of New York at Christmastime in this book, it is not surprising that the prose seems less light, yet still dreamlike, as Witch Baby wanders the streets with only her heart to lead her. It is this darkness, this endless searching that made me love this book. It is beautiful and haunting, sad yet uplifting, and very true to Witch Baby's character, as people who read the 2nd book in this series, named for this character, will know.

Francesca Lia Block's writing is superb here, and her descriptions of everything, from the City itself to how Witch Baby feels when she catches a cold are so vivid you can almost see and feel everything in this book, like they were a dream you just woke up from. This is a great book for anyone in love, having love troubles, or searching for love, and anyone in between too! Reading the preceding 3 books will definately help you to understand the characters and plot a little better, so I'm also going to recommend "Weetzie Bat", "Witch Baby", and "Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys". Enjoy!

Missing Angel Juan is easily my favorite Francesca Lia Block book. i loved witch baby from the moment i first read about her, way back in Weetzie Bat. i enjoyed watching her grow, and now her story of love, lonlieness, and redemption takes center stage, in this beautifully written book. her feelings of loss over angel juan's departure are easy to relate to, as is her restlessness in a city of dangerous angels. her exodus to new york is both transcendant and haunting, and left me both satisfied and shaken. perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the book is the character Cake, if only because such a thing could really happen. in all, it's one of the best books i've ever read, though far too short, and it left me screaming out for more, though grateful that i'd had the privelege of reading it.

I have read and loved all of Block's books, but Missing Angel Juan made the most profound impact on me. This isn't like reading a book, it's an expansion and exploration of the imagination. After finishing the book, it played through my head like a movie. Like a dream you thought was real.

Another Block book that comes in the middle of her Weetzie Bat series, this story focuses on WitchBaby and Angel Juan, two teenagers in love. There are tears, fear, love, romance, sex, drugs, and alcohol in this story, all of which are combined into the most magical plot you will have ever laid eyes on. These two lovers run through New York City, having grown up in Los Angeles, and find many adventures. As you read the Weetzie Bat series, this puts different perspectives into view. Enjoy -- you won't regret reading it.

where were you when the stars fell?

man, i don't know what to say, some of those reviews really make me wonder about francesca's readership :> but, i guess it's the minority? :) not sunny enough? witchbaby, to me, is the most beautiful character, i think the real dangerous angel, the one who seeks the most, has the most potential for transformation. why rehash the plot? remember the part where the masks come off? remember the part where she makes peace with the ghost of her father, with abandonment, with life without (happy)endings? going to coney island, falling, finding (maybe just because i lived close enough to coney island a lot of my life, but it's mystical, surreal, beautiful)

she has such a true way of writing about 'the quest', the girl-goddess finding sorrow and light, like the last unicorn. but she started out with sorrow and found the tangly threads of art and love weaving in. witchbaby is living out her deep desires, working to save her secret self of love, working/willing to be real even though the world is falling all around her, and it is, but it's true, she can fly. okay, i admit, it's pretty cool to be a jinn's daughter, but :> all of us fatherless witch-girls must have imagined the like...

with the most depth of any of francesca's characters, witchbaby is struggling to be at peace with herself, to be real. sunny? heh no, it's luminous, it's brilliant, it's shining like 3 moons. and you know she will find him, the Boy, because looking at everything, looking and seeing herself (and her love) unmasked, she is free.

This was my first exposure to Francesca Lia Block, and it, along with GIRL GODDESS #9, is one of my favorite books. MISSING ANGEL JUAN has a universal-ness and beauty. I was going through a time that I was having to let go of love when I read it, and it helped me to see that it was better to let go. I reccomend this to anyone remotely between the ages of 12 and 112 (yes, that is a bad cliche, but it's true).

For every fan of the new modern love triangle, "tru wuv", your love is my drug, I will die without you YA romance novels that have been published recently I humbly beg and plead for you to read this book. It's time for you to wake up.

Missing Angel Juan is a fantastical, magical, fairy tale story that addresses some very real emotions, needs and addictions of a teen couple who separate through their fear and addiction to love.

Angel Juan leaves to try and find himself. He feels like he is only an object to be loved and used like a drug, he feels like he is being suffocated in this unhealthy, clinging, I-will-die-without-you relationship and wants to go and find himself. He fears love as well for those reasons.

Witch Baby feels lost and alone without him. She loves him, she needs him and she doesn't understand why he went away. She leaves school and follows her (older, out of school) boyfriend to New York to try and find him. She starves herself and pines and discards everything and everyone in her life to track down her other half. That's when both Angel Juan and Witch Baby discover things they never expected. Witch Baby meets up with her step mother's father Charlie Bat (a ghost that only she can see, by the way) and Angel Juan meets up with someone far more sinister (if you can believe it).

They both have a lot of lessons to learn. She needs to learn to use herself to find happiness through music and art and life. She needs to learn to love, but also to let go. He needs to learn the same lessons about finding and using himself for his own happiness, and also how to love and be loved in return. They both need to learn about how to form a healthy relationship and how to be happy both together and apart.

With each new book in Dangerous Angels Francesca Lia Block gets better and better. Witch Baby was always her most well rounded and vivid character and she really comes into her own in this novel. I loved reading about Witch Baby's take on New York and about the magic she finds on every street corner, whether in soho, central park, or the meat packing district. The language sparkles and really brings the world and characters to life.

The message is also one that you hear precious little of in YA romance today and it's one I would like to see more of. I want to see girls forming healthy relationships, getting out of or changing unhealthy ones, changing unhealthy mindsets, and having enough self respect to draw the line even if it feels like it's going down your middle. Most importantly I want to see them learning the difference between love and need and addiction and seeing that they are not all one and the same. This book does just that.

First sentence: "Angel Juan and I walk through a funky green fog."

When Angel Juan leaves for New York, a shattered Witch Baby follows him and finds angels and uncles, ghosts and monsters. One of these ghosts accompanies her through the city, with her camera showing her what's truly happening despite appearances. There are treehouses and shivering cold, feasts and Ferris wheels, museums and menacing mannequins. Block articulates the pain and panic of loss so beautifully, so poetically, so wrenchingly deeply.

Another in the beautiful Weetzie Bat series ... If your heart is "a teacup covered with hairline cracks," or if your teacup heart has already broken into jagged pieces, this book will show you how to save yourself.

First sentence: "Angel Juan and I walk through a funky green fog."

When Angel Juan leaves for New York, a shattered Witch Baby follows him and finds angels and uncles, ghosts and monsters. One of these ghosts accompanies her through the city, her camera showing her what's truly happening despite appearances. There are treehouses and shivering cold, feasts and Ferris wheels, museums and menacing mannequins. Block articulates the pain and panic of loss so beautifully, so poetically, so wrenchingly deeply.

Another in the beautiful Weetzie Bat series ... If your heart is "a teacup covered with hairline cracks," or if your teacup heart has already broken into jagged pieces, this book will show you how to save yourself.

I have enjoyed the Weetize Bat series of books and this continues Francesca Lia Block's continuation of Magical Realism for young adults, yet continues themes mature enough for adult readers.