This is the sort of book I hoped to find as a teenager, but didn't. Published in1989, it is the first book in a five-part series. It deals with many of the issues that other teen books skirt around such as being gay, first love, having a baby and losing those we love. The fantasy makes it all more palatable and pretty, although in places, especially those dealing with the babies, it also skirts the issues and little mention is made of money. In this writer's hands Los Angeles and especially Hollywood are seen as fairylands where anything can happen - people surfing, making films, witchcraft, miracles - and does. Weetzie Bat and her lover and the friends they share the house with are part of this magical world although they wake up long enough to touch on the world of the reader and the lovely, dream-like pictures painted by the terse but evocative prose add up to the sort of rare novel that bridges the chasm between children's and adult's fiction.

Hard to describe and harder to forget, this one is a must for teens and a lot of other people as well. If Atom is going to produce books of this caliber then more power to their elbow!

Check out the Website at www.atombooks.co.uk