This Weetzie is still soft in places where in the later books she's become hardened by her experiences with the world and her parents' divorce, and here we're only experiencing the beginning twinges of this divorce with her for the first time.

This is the first time we've seen and interacted fully with this version of Weetzie, as opposed to the mid-to-late teen and 20's version, and in a 'Necklace of Kisses', near middle aged version. Make no mistake - 'Pink Smog' may be a prequel, but it's a book you cannot miss in 2012.Įven if you're new to the 'Weetzie' canon, Block starts 'Pink Smog' by constructing the 13-year-old Weetzie's character almost, it feels, from scratch. Yet at the same time, it's still full of the magical realism that's come to dictate Block's style all of these years later after the first book was published in 1989. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy from the author herself, and to participate in one portion of the book, making me feel apart of something larger than myself for the first time within the world of books.īias aside, 'Pink Smog' is not a long read, but it's a very tightened, almost sparely-written tale of how Louise Bat becomes the girl we know and love in the rest of the books. I might be a little biased, as the first five 'Weetzie Bat' books (when first published as the omnibus 'Dangerous Angels' in 1996) literally changed how I saw the world through writing when I was 12 years old, but this is a glorious and wonderful conclusion to the 'Weetzie' series.

Pink smog by francesca lia block