Necklace of Kisses

Francesca Lia Block ended the award-winning Weetzie Bat series 10 years ago, but you can still find worn, well-loved copies of these glorious urban fairy tales—set in a Los Angeles where not everyone is pretty, straight or famous, but everyone is beautiful—in the bags of misunderstood teenage girls (and grown women) everywhere. Now Weetzie returns to us at age 40, with her blond flattop and vintage clothes from Grandma Fifi’s closet, like a favorite aunt we mistakenly grieved for as dead. She’s re-evaluating life now that her daughters are grown and her Secret Agent Lover Man has stopped kissing her. The midlife-crisis plot is familiar, but the mermaids, drag queens, baby-stealing cult and sexy cloven-hoofed bellboys will make you clap your hands and cry, “I do believe in fairies!” The magic is back, and none too soon.