Where were the kisses? Weetzie Bat
wondered. And so begins a magical journey of discovery. As she turns
forty and the relationship with her secret-agent lover-man Max falls
apart, Weetzie packs up her lime green and bright orange bikini, orange
suede sneakers, and Pucci tunic, jumps in her '65 mint green
Thunderbird, and leaves.
Weetzie finds herself at the enchanted
pink hotel in sparkling Los Angeles, where she once shied away from a
kiss that may have led her to the love of her life. Now she returns,
perhaps in search of her lost passion, and meets an otherworldy cast of
characters, among them a blue-skinned receptionist, an invisible
cleaning lady, a seductive fawn, and a sushi-eating mermaid who gives
her a kiss that sets the wheel of self-discovery in motion.
Block
invests every scene with equal shots of magic and realism, rendering her
heroine and supporting players in vivid, poetic detail. In Necklace of Kisses
the fans that have grown up with Weetzie Bat will be able to meet her
in adulthood and find that life is still no less trying and no less full
of wonder.
About the Author
Francesca Lia Block, winner of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards
Award, is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling books, including Weetzie Bat; the book collections Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books and Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets; the illustrated novella House of Dolls; the vampire romance novel Pretty Dead; and the gothic werewolf novel The Frenzy. Her work is published around the world.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Readers who remember Weetzie Bat and My Secret
Agent Lover Man's first kiss (a "kiss about apple pie à la mode with the
vanilla creaminess melting in the pie heat") from their YA incarnation
may be crushed to learn that they've shared no kisses since September
11, 2001. My Secret Agent Lover Man, though Weetzie's long-time lover,
"was now just Max"; Weetzie, whom readers first met in 1989's
Weetzie Bat,
is now 40. As the novel opens, Weetzie packs a small bag and checks
herself into a pink hotel in L.A., "seeking the kiss she had lost."
There Weetzie embarks on a quest of sorts. She meets Shelley, whose kiss
reveals that she is a mermaid and is the first of the title's necklace
of kisses. Each kiss injects a bit more enchantment into Weetzie's life.
Block carefully construes the kisses as complete in and of themselves.
Weetzie never betrays Max; this is a novel of healing. Weetzie's many
fans will most appreciate this reunion with the heroine and her Secret
Agent Lover Man, Dirk and Duck and many more. 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.
(Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The gentle punk fairy-tale series about Weetzie Bat and her Los Angeles
friends, lovers, and family broke new YA ground, and author Block has
just received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in
YA literature. Now Weetzie Bat is 40 and facing a midlife crisis, and so
is her boyfriend, Secret Agent Lover Man, who, since 9/11, just sits
idly reading the newspaper. She leaves, hoping to find herself, but this
time, rather than meditating in the wilderness, she remains in her
beloved L.A., moving into the expensive and magical Pink Hotel, where
she luxuriates in room service, gets her nails and toenails done, kisses
a sushi-eating mermaid, chats to her father's ghost, and gets a
necklace of gifts from a diva, an angel, a faun, and more. The
self-parody is as wonderful as ever--Weetzie doesn't have to save the
world; she can just go shopping--and, as always, the magic is in the
detail: wearing her raspberry snakeskin sandals, dipping her roll in
olive oil and basil, surreal stuff happens. Sometimes things get a
little too "numinous" (Weetzie's favorite word), but the celebration of
the silly and the magical in a scary, sad world will appeal to all those
once-teen fans who remember Weetzie and, just like her, now need a
rewrite.
Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.