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A review by mrchance
Missing Angel Juan by Francesca Lia Block
5.0
Haunting, magical, romantic, and simultaneously out-of-control and calmly sane, Missing Angel Juan tells the story of Witch Baby, a young woman distraught when her boyfriend -- and love of her life -- Angel Juan leaves for New York City to explore his music and himself... alone. Witch Baby -- Niña-Bruja -- pursues Angel Juan to New York City, where she meets the ghost of her grandfather, two helpful gay men, and a soul-stealing mannequin named Cake. Along the way, she learns the truth of the cliche "if you love something, set it free" and realizes that two independent people can love each other much more powerfully than two whom are dependent on one another.
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Francesca Lia Block has ruined me. She tells a powerful story packed with numerous memorable scenes and beautifully lyrical language in 138 pages -- something I find most modern-day authors I've tried cannot do in 300+. This story is both foolishly juvenile -- as we all are as teens -- and devastatingly mature, something we (or at least I) can only hope to be.
Near the novel's climax, Witch Baby comes to the following realization about "soul-mates", which is so carefully and lovingly worded, it really affected me (edited for length by me): "Then you meet and you think, okay, now we can just get on with it. [...] They feel like you don't really love them but the idea of them, the dream you've had since you were a kid. [...] Which doesn't mean they're not the one. It just means you've got to do whatever you have to do for you alone. You've got to believe in your magic and face right up to the mean nasty part of yourself that wants to keep the one you love locked up in a place in you where no one else can touch them or even see them. Just the way when somebody you love dies you don't stop loving them but you don't lock up their souls inside you. You turn that love into something else, give it to somebody else. And sometimes in a weird way when you do that you get closer than ever to the person who died tor the one your soul married."
This is my favorite YA novel -- and maybe one of my new favorite books ever. The YA bar is a pretty low one (aside from the recent Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue), but this book will be hard to top.
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Francesca Lia Block has ruined me. She tells a powerful story packed with numerous memorable scenes and beautifully lyrical language in 138 pages -- something I find most modern-day authors I've tried cannot do in 300+. This story is both foolishly juvenile -- as we all are as teens -- and devastatingly mature, something we (or at least I) can only hope to be.
Near the novel's climax, Witch Baby comes to the following realization about "soul-mates", which is so carefully and lovingly worded, it really affected me (edited for length by me): "Then you meet and you think, okay, now we can just get on with it. [...] They feel like you don't really love them but the idea of them, the dream you've had since you were a kid. [...] Which doesn't mean they're not the one. It just means you've got to do whatever you have to do for you alone. You've got to believe in your magic and face right up to the mean nasty part of yourself that wants to keep the one you love locked up in a place in you where no one else can touch them or even see them. Just the way when somebody you love dies you don't stop loving them but you don't lock up their souls inside you. You turn that love into something else, give it to somebody else. And sometimes in a weird way when you do that you get closer than ever to the person who died tor the one your soul married."
This is my favorite YA novel -- and maybe one of my new favorite books ever. The YA bar is a pretty low one (aside from the recent Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue), but this book will be hard to top.