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A review by susandhooks
The Girl with No Shadow by Joanne Harris
4.0
This was a tasty sequal to "Chocolat" with the same main character (Vianne) and the addition of her daughter Anouk and an interloper - Zozie. It's a tale told from 3 perspectives, which works well here. It's fun to change voices and go from weary (Vianne) to devious (Zozie) to innocent (Anouk). What fun it must have been to write as Zozie!
The smells, sights, sounds, fears and feelings of all the characters permeate this book. You can picture the chocolaterie. You can taste the truffles and smell the hot cocoa. It's as if the chocolate is another character in the book. I honestly wonder if someone who didn't like chocolate would tire quickly of the relentless descriptions, but I loved it.
I was waiting for something cataclysmic, which helped me return to this book when the plot seemed to be tiring. Without giving the ending away, Zozie's plan didn't seem to be as horrific as I had feared. I'm assuming that the author used the anticlimactic ending as a tool to reflect Vianne's empty fears about the wind and the Kindly Ones. Or perhaps not.
The smells, sights, sounds, fears and feelings of all the characters permeate this book. You can picture the chocolaterie. You can taste the truffles and smell the hot cocoa. It's as if the chocolate is another character in the book. I honestly wonder if someone who didn't like chocolate would tire quickly of the relentless descriptions, but I loved it.
I was waiting for something cataclysmic, which helped me return to this book when the plot seemed to be tiring. Without giving the ending away, Zozie's plan didn't seem to be as horrific as I had feared. I'm assuming that the author used the anticlimactic ending as a tool to reflect Vianne's empty fears about the wind and the Kindly Ones. Or perhaps not.