Weetzie Bat was written in 1989 by Francesca Lia Bloc. The novel takes place in L.A. and follows Weetzie and her friend Dirk as they try and make their dreams come true.
There are elements of Magical Realism, including a genie in a lamp that grants wishes.
This book was banned in Texas because of sexual content. Specifically, it is the homosexual themes that run through the novel that people at Ehrhart Charter School took issue with.
Stylistically, the novel is not the best written novel I've ever read, and contains several idioms and slang that add unique textures to the story. While the novel was published in 1989, it did not become popular until much later, earning Bloc a Phoenix award.
The themes of homosexuality are nonchalantly woven into the novel. It is understandable that parents might take issue with an author writing homosexuality as commonplace, but banning a book like this reflects a deep-seeded fear in conservative traditions of heterosexuality that homosexuality may just be a natural phenomena.
This book is recommended for high school students from suburban backgrounds. It will jive more closely to hipster sympathies than anything else. That is one of the defining aspects of this book, it is pre-hipster with its post-punk attitude, but ultimately paves the way for the hip in the way that Kerouac's On the Road brought attention to beatitude "beat" lifestyle.
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