*Apologies as I accidentally set this and the review for Baby Be-Bop to save as draft instead of scheduling it to be posted this week.*
Missing Angel Juan is the best Weetzie book, in my opinion. First it’s the only one in first person. Second it’s another story from Witch Baby, who is my favorite character of the series. Also the thematic elements are very good, and there’s even a bad guy!
Angel Juan decides he needs to go to New York to find himself (or at least find out who he might be outside of Witch Baby’s male half). After a while Witch Baby gets (as Witch Baby does) over obsessive, and needs to go find him to try to bring him back to L.A.
Along the way she stays in the apartment where Charlie Bat (Weetzie’s dad) died of a drug overdose and stumbles on his ghost. Charlie wants to live vicariously through Witch Baby again and leads her on various adventures throughout the city.
It’s clear to readers that Charlie is clinging to the past as much as Witch Baby is clinging to Angel Juan (and is unwilling to be a person without being attached to him). But the themes are worked in with a subtly that avoids it being a MESSAGE book. The first person point of view also lends positively to the smoothness of the theme since readers get to see Witch Baby struggle with these realizations herself.
In the end, this is a great book, a great story, well told, poignant and powerful. Of all the novelettes this is the one I’m most likely to read over and over just because.