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Mar. 9th, 2009 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordlj2009 Books:
5. The Lollipop Shoes - Loanne Harris
This is a sequel of sorts to Chocolat. I liked the movie a lot but i never did read the book. I should, though. The movie seemed to take place in the late 1950s or early 60s. This book takes place 3.5 years later but it's current timelines, with people having mobile phones and technology so i suppose the book took place more or less current times as well. Anyway. It's about the same family, the woman named Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk and there's another daughter, Rosette. Vianne is magical and the children have inherited that though Vianne has packed all that away in an effort to present themselves as Normal to the world. Vianne has suppressed the vibrant person she used to be to try to fit in, survive. Anouk is growing up and knows she's different but tries not to be. It doesn't work, though, the other kids in school somehow know and things are difficult. Rosette, nearly 4, is almost a feral child. She doesn't speak, but is intelligent. She just seems to be in her own little world. The three of them live over a shop in Montmartre in Paris selling chocolate but not the handmade chocolat that Vianne was famous for in her former life. The woman that managed the shop has just died and the self-important owner of the building, Thierry, is enamoured of "Yanne". Enter Zozie de l'Alba who isn't really Zozie, but another woman who changes her name and identity as needed like a chameleon. She is also a witch who steals identities and people, or "hearts". She discovers that Vianne, or Yanne as she is known now, is not what she seems and she detects something special in Anouk, who goes by Annie and she is determined to steal their hearts, really, their souls, for her collection. The book follows on and depicts how Zozie changes their lives by manipulation and magic, sly and seductive, subtle and dangerous, little by little until the final confrontation.
I really liked the book, the characters, the suspense. What was Zozie going to do next? It's frustration watching everyone unknowingly succumb. I really cared about all the characters, even the ones i didn't like. I still turned the page to see what would happen to them next. Each chapter of the book alternates from the point of view of either Vianne, Zozie or Anouk and it is fairly clear within the first few sentences who is speaking. It doesn't always work but in this book i think it does because it's a book where you really do want to know what the characters are thinking to know how everything is affecting them. The only negative is that perhaps the voice of Anouk is a bit old for an 11 year old at times but perhaps she is just one of those children that people call an "old soul".
Anyway, quite good.
5. The Lollipop Shoes - Loanne Harris
This is a sequel of sorts to Chocolat. I liked the movie a lot but i never did read the book. I should, though. The movie seemed to take place in the late 1950s or early 60s. This book takes place 3.5 years later but it's current timelines, with people having mobile phones and technology so i suppose the book took place more or less current times as well. Anyway. It's about the same family, the woman named Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk and there's another daughter, Rosette. Vianne is magical and the children have inherited that though Vianne has packed all that away in an effort to present themselves as Normal to the world. Vianne has suppressed the vibrant person she used to be to try to fit in, survive. Anouk is growing up and knows she's different but tries not to be. It doesn't work, though, the other kids in school somehow know and things are difficult. Rosette, nearly 4, is almost a feral child. She doesn't speak, but is intelligent. She just seems to be in her own little world. The three of them live over a shop in Montmartre in Paris selling chocolate but not the handmade chocolat that Vianne was famous for in her former life. The woman that managed the shop has just died and the self-important owner of the building, Thierry, is enamoured of "Yanne". Enter Zozie de l'Alba who isn't really Zozie, but another woman who changes her name and identity as needed like a chameleon. She is also a witch who steals identities and people, or "hearts". She discovers that Vianne, or Yanne as she is known now, is not what she seems and she detects something special in Anouk, who goes by Annie and she is determined to steal their hearts, really, their souls, for her collection. The book follows on and depicts how Zozie changes their lives by manipulation and magic, sly and seductive, subtle and dangerous, little by little until the final confrontation.
I really liked the book, the characters, the suspense. What was Zozie going to do next? It's frustration watching everyone unknowingly succumb. I really cared about all the characters, even the ones i didn't like. I still turned the page to see what would happen to them next. Each chapter of the book alternates from the point of view of either Vianne, Zozie or Anouk and it is fairly clear within the first few sentences who is speaking. It doesn't always work but in this book i think it does because it's a book where you really do want to know what the characters are thinking to know how everything is affecting them. The only negative is that perhaps the voice of Anouk is a bit old for an 11 year old at times but perhaps she is just one of those children that people call an "old soul".
Anyway, quite good.
