Block's honest and sometimes graphic treatment of homosexuality, AIDS, child abuse, and skinhead culture has made her works controversial; on the flip side this openness in presenting characters who defy social norms makes the books groundbreaking. Readers' reactions are rarely neutral. In Weetzie Bat, the leading character sleeps with two gay men when she wants a baby. In The Hanged Man, a young man deals with sexual abuse, which is sometimes graphically described. In Baby Be-Bop, Dirk has fantasies about naked fathers and homosexual relationships. Block tackles very real social problems, yet she does not allow these problems to permanently overwhelm characters. Neither Dirk nor Weetzie remains scarred by their troubles. In each novel characters learn also that goodness and beauty can arise from struggle.

Paradoxically, Block has never directly targeted young adults as an audience.

She notes in an interview with Shannon Maughan that she...