Deliciously wonderful novel!

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	• The Girl with No Shadow Joanne Harris William Morrow, 2008 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Dark Chocolat

Joanne Harris's sequel to her sly, clever novel, Chocolat, finds Vianne and her two daughters living in Paris four years after the wind blew them out of the village of Lansquenet. Gone is the magic that enriched their lives and transformed the village, and that is fine by Vianne. Now calling herself Yanne, she only wants her family to be normal and safe, and on the surface, it seems to be. Anouk is now a pre-teen with an early adolescent's normal angst. Her younger sister, Rosette, appears intelligent enough even if she can't talk. And Yanne herself is soon to be engaged to her staid bourgeois landlord. Life couldn't be more ordinary, until the fateful wind blows into their lives a mysterious and exotic woman who seems to know all about "Yanne" and her family. Soon Vianne faces an adversary who threatens everything she holds dear and whose skills are as great as her own.

Although it's a sequel to Chocolat, The Girl With No Shadow is not Chocolat II. It is a darker, grittier story of mothers and daughters, love and loss. Although readers may expect the same Disneyesque charm of the first novel, this contemporary fairy-tale is more in the vein of the Brothers Grimm. My only quibble is I missed the zest of earlier Vianne during most of the story. The villain was a much more compelling creation. Nevertheless, fans who want to follow the characters from Chocolat will enjoy this book.

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Bravo!

Bravo Ms. Harris. Although not necessarily what people might agree is a "true" sequel to Chocolat, it was just as daring and on the very edge of what makes "fairy tales" real. If you have ever listened to Clarissa Pinkola Estes, you will particularly enjoy the element of "storytelling" within the pages of The Girl with No Shadow that deems this book one to be read aloud. There is wonderful cadence in the way each character narrates.
I love that Vianne and Anouk have lost themselves (as mothers and daughters do). You must reach deep inside the pages to find Vianne and Anouk, to imagine what they endured. The element of magic is different this time, dark and tempting, like bittersweet chocolate.
I could not put the book down. I could hear all of the voices within the pages as if they were speaking to me, telling the tale.

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Deliciously wonderful novel!

The Girl with No Shadow is an absolutely brilliant sequel to Chocolat.

If you also enjoyed Gentlemen and Players then you'll find this newest novel doubly delightful.

No, the novel is not Disneyesque; but then neither was "Chocolat" really.

More like the Talented Mr.Ripley takes a trip to the Twilight Zone and meets Harry Potter in Paris. :-)

What I found interesting was how the story was told from the perspective of three different characters, leaving you to guess for a few seconds at the beginning of each chapter as to who was now speaking.

The reader is also left tantalizingly guessing, even at the end, at just exactly how effective any of the "magic" really was, or was it all simply scheming and social engineering and the occasional fortutitous or not happenstance.

Joanne Harris has over the years honed and perfected her skills as a writer by producing an unbroken series of novels with an intriguing storyline and an engaging cast of characters. "The Girl with No Shadow" demonstrates convincingly that Ms. Harris continues to get better and better at her craft.

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Be careful what you wish for . . .

Hailed as an "irresistible confection" (Entertainment Weekly), "as sweet, rich and utterly satisfying as a fine truffle" (Wall Street Journal), and "an amazement of riches" (New York Times), Chocolat won the hearts of readers and critics everywhere. At last, Joanne Harris returns with The Girl with No Shadow, an exquisite treat that continues the story that began in her international bestseller.

Since she was a little girl, the wind has dictated every move Vianne Rocher has made, buffeting her from place to place, from the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a new identity, that of widow Yanne Charbonneau, she opens a chocolaterie on a small Montmartre street, determined to still the wind at last and keep her daughters, Anouk and the baby, Rosette, safe.

Her new home above the chocolate shop offers calm and quiet: no red sachets hang by the door; no sparks of magic fill the air; no Indian skirts with bells hang in her closet. Conformity brings with it anonymity—and peace. There is even Thierry, the stolid businessman who wants to take care of Yanne and the children. On the cusp of adolescence, an increasingly rebellious and restless Anouk does not understand. But soon the weathervane turns . . . and into their lives blows the charming and enigmatic Zozie de l'Alba. And everything begins to change.

Zozie offers the brightness Yanne's life needs. Anouk, too, is dazzled by this vivacious woman with the lollipop-red shoes who seems to understand her better than anyone—especially her mother. Yet this friendship is not what it seems. Ruthless, devious, and seductive, Zozie has plans that will shake their world to pieces. And with everything she loves at stake, Yanne must face a difficult choice: Run, as she has done so many times before, or stand and confront this most dangerous enemy. . . .

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