The all new 50 Books Challenge!
Title: Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block
Details: Copyright 2014, Harper Collins
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap): "I will stay connected to you when I go.
Julie's life has never been perfect. But she's always been able to deal with it by seeking comfort in her grandmother Miriam's sage advice. Now that Miriam is gone, Julie's entire world is beginning to unravel-- her mother loses her job and then their house, and Julie has to start over at a new school. She's desperate to discover a way to keep it all together. Desperate for a way to stay connected to her grandmother.
Then Julie meets Clark. He's clever, awkward, and slightly damaged-- just the sort of friend Julie needs right now. One night, the two use a Ouija board that Julie finds in her new house, believing it's a chance to reach out to her grandmother. But when they get a response, it isn't from Miriam. And Julie discovers that while she has been eager to regain her past, Clark is haunted by his...
Critically acclaimed author Francesca Lia Block brings this story about family, loss, and redemption to life with her signature poetic prose."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I've made much (repeatedly!) of my return to Francesca Lia Block this year. I loved her work as a kid, and was delighted to find out I still loved it as an adult.
But the "new" books I read this year are actually old, and one of them was her first published work. How would her more recent work fare?
In the second of two immensely generous gifts of books from the Matron Secular Saint of this Challenge, Claudine, I got to find out!
How I Liked It: In my previous review of Block's work, I talked about the perils of revisiting media you once loved. So what happens when you (in this case) read the author's newer books? Does it still have the same magic as the books you remember reading? We'll see!
Meet Julie, a high school senior with a great, eccentric fashion sense and a deep bond with her grandmother. She's struggled with beauty and body image issues while wanting to fit in at various schools, but her grandmother's loving guidance helped her find some self-confidence (not to mention her own aforementioned very unique sense of style).
When her grandmother suddenly dies, Julie is crushed and she's not the only one. Now alone with her mother (Julie was conceived via sperm donor and she has no other parent figure in her life), the little family faces another blow as Julie's mother loses her job (as a writer on the supernatural drama TV show Ghost in the Machine) and they must move from the only home Julie has ever known to renting a two-bedroom apartment "in the southern, not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills." (pg 20)
Julie must switch high schools, but had never seemed to make friends at her old school anyway. She's also coping with the fact that since her grandmother's death, she's suddenly got some developed occult powers (seeing auras, for one). She befriends fellow misfit Clark and in pulling out the Ouija board that she found in their new apartment when she moved in, she goads her new friend into trying to contact her grandmother, on Halloween of all nights.
Then, Clark seems different, and it turns out he's hiding a secret. Together, they must unravel both of their lives and a sort of spiritual hero's journey (of a sort) begins. When it ends, both Julie and Clark emerge changed but happy and moving forward together.
My first reaction, I must say, was some nervousness. While this book is now seven years old, it's still the most currently Block book I've ever read and I have a firm association with her work and the 1980s and 1990s, since that's the work of hers with which I'm most familiar (she has written prolifically and nonstop since the 1980s).
This Block for yet a new generation and would it be as magical?
I can't quite tell if this book in particular doesn't read as over-the-top lushly as her previous work because I know too well that it's so much more recent, or if it actually is a bit more restrained, but it's fortunately still plenty lush and full of the Block vividness. Her love of southern California and its weirdness and history is evident and like Alice Hoffman's New York City, Block's southern California feels far more authentic and far more interesting than the cartoon version you see too often. Not just places, but foods, feelings, clothing, material, smells, and more, all Block paints with her wonderfully distinct imagery.
If this isn't the first book in a series (or doesn't have a sequel coming), I'd be surprised, since there's enough suggestion here that Julie as a character has legs the way Weetzie Bat had legs. Maybe it's because literally the last book I read before this was another YA book that concerned grief, but it's hard not to compare the two and appreciate that they both have important messages about grief and loss and rebuilding. There's a few loose ends in this book that could be tied a bit better, but I suspect they might be left dangling to lure a sequel. Either way, the overall story still works and charms.
For as many people that can't wait for a new piece of work from a once-beloved artist, there are others who sometimes actively fear a new work, that it might taint their previous memories of the artist. I freely admit to sometimes falling into the latter category. Francesca Lia Block makes a hell of a good example and argument not only to revisit your past faves, but to check out their newer work, too.
Notable:
While I cut slack for some truly badly-aged passages in the books consisting of her Weetzie Bat anthology (as the newest I've read is still over a quarter century old), some of it I was willing to blame on the times: both trans issues and cultural misappropriation weren't talked about enough at the time of each book's respective publication, let alone to the widespread level they are now, and as well-intentioned-but-flawed as her trans stuff is in 2021, it was utterly revolutionary and massively groundbreaking in 1993, both for trans issues and same-gender couples and parenting.
In 2014 though, a character going as a "gypsy" for a Halloween costume is plain staggeringly racist. I'm not saying it didn't/could not have happened (for example, Julianne Hough infamously wearing Blackface for Halloween was in 2013), but I would like to think that it would've been called out by someone and given that Julie is a sympathetic character, it's absolutely not right that Block did that, when "fortune-teller" would have sufficed fine for the plot (Julie is getting messages from the Ouija board and takes it with her to a costume party, with the excuse that it's for the costume). If it's about Julie's ignorance/inexperience, why not have her be enlightened by someone?
For the record, many (but not all) Romany people see "gypsy" as a slur and going as someone's race for a Halloween costume, let alone a racist caricature is absolutely wrong and pretty disgusting to see in a sympathetic character.
Speaking of ignorance, Julie reveals what she knows about her sperm donor, that he's a tall Cherokee with a master's degree in psychology. When she and Clark are visiting a shop for sage, they encounter its Native proprietor, who is understandably guarded against White tourism.
Ed rolled his cigarette slowly. His voice was gruff. "Looking for some kicks? Some native enlightenment?"
"No, sir," I said. "With all respect, we take this seriously. And even though I don't know anything about it, I'm half Cherokee." The words surprised me when I said them and I hoped they didn't sound disrespectful.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, my father. He was full-blooded, supposedly. But I've never met him." (pg 167)
Ooof. Blood quadrant is based in White supremacy. Don't do it. Her father isn't "full-blooded Cherokee", her father "belongs to the Cherokee Nation" or "has citizenship in the Cherokee Nation." In 2014 (and well before), you could find out all of this easily.
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On a far, fortunately lighter note, Block's work has always contained signs of the times. Since this is both far more recent than the work of hers I've read previously as well as seven years old...
Signs it's the 2010s-- go!
They [two parts of her brain] faced off like rabid tweens in their designated T-shirts at a Twilight premiere, making me sick. (pg 111)
He turned slowly and looked at me with emo eyes. (pg 114)
I grabbed his hand. "Hey, I actually like this song! Finally."
We danced some more to Lady Gaga, "Born This Way." (pg 233)
Final Grade: For content outside the casual racism (PLEASE LEARN AND DO BETTER!), A
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