Rating  - A Sumptuous Box of Chocolates
Think of free spirit Vianne personified in the film version of "Chocolat (Miramax Collector's Series)" by the lovely Juliette Binoche blowing into a small French village on the north wind, tempering the richest, darkest bittersweet chocolate, fashioning it into truffles rolled into powdered balls infused with her special brand of domestic magic and the sole intent of changing people's lives. Remember her daughter, Anouk, with the part phantom-familiar Pantoufle trailing at her heels desiring only a permanent home like any other child. Add to the mix four-year-old Rosette, a special child who doesn't speak, but perpetrates "accidents" that cannot be explained or ignored and change the venue from Lansquenet, the Midi hill town's chocolaterie to the urban "village" chocolate shop located on the butte of Montemartre crowned by the white marbled Sacre Coeur de Paris. In "The Girl With No Shadow,"(UK edition, "The Lollipop Shoes") novelist Joanne Harris whips up another batch of pure enchantment, this time bringing her white "witch" protagonist's special skills out of the closet while pitting her against a red-shoed force much darker than the "kindly" but bothersome convention and respectability of Lansquenet's traditional religious contingency.
The questionable Zozie could pass for the old Vianne with her bohemian attitude, bon-bon colored costumes and her uncanny ability to tantalize the Parisian shoppe's clientele with their "favorite" confection. Impressed with the latent supernatural talent possessed but untried by now preteen Anouk, Zozie intends to manipulate Vianne's lapse into conformity to her own advantage by mimicking Vianne's own gentle yet paranormal methods of persuasion. In the ultimate play on identity theft, Zozie attempts to steal a few lives while interrupting the shaky existence that Vianne has molded to solidify the impression of stability established for the benefit of her two irrepressible children and buttressed by the presence of a boring but stalwart fiancé. The delicate balance tips over a confused and emotionally charged edge when the rakish redheaded Roux reappears with his riverboat and his practical but moody gypsy desires causing Vianne's past to careen into a future that oscillates with a frightening yet comfortably recognizable uncertainty.
This cunning battle of wits shines like the glossiest couverture; Harris's alternating three person narrative keeps the reader turning the pages while divining the speaker with the same delightful impetuosity and impulsiveness that nonsensically urges even the most fastidious dieter to eat one chocolate after another from a naughty beribboned gold-leafed ballontine. With an adept panache worthy of a ganache fashioned by Pierre Hermé, Harris assembles the usual cast of secondary eccentrics that adds bitter to the sweet, keeping the chocolatier cash register stuffed with euros and the atmosphere redolent with both requited and unrequited hopes and dreams. Zoxie's ample allusions to Aztec gods and goddesses as she flicks off a cantrip and Vianne's constant consultation of the tarot cards adds the necessary off-kilter authenticity that Harris utilizes in all of her culinary fairy tales.
Bottom Line? "The Girl With No Shadow" entertains as only a Joanne Harris novel can. Interjecting magic with the everyday ups and downs of an adolescent searching for self-identity, a mother seeking peace and security while sacrificing her own desires and an opportunist willing to destroy for destruction's sake alone, this "Chocolat" sequel offers a different take on the usual good versus evil fable that is built upon the foundation of Harris's other books, weaving in already explored places, characters and a magical heredity that here reaches a thoroughly enjoyable crescendo. Recommended not only as the sequel to "Chocolat", but as a good story with a moving, albeit somewhat over swollen plot line in its own right.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
Rating  - I loved this sequel!
For me this book started a little slow but it didn't take long for me to get wrapped up in it. It's a little darker than Chocolate but once I got into it I couldn't wait to find out what would finally happen to the protagonists. We find Vianne Rocher as a mother of two and with the hopes of living a normal life and creating a good and stable future for her daughters Anouk and Rosette, but when she allows a stranger into their life little by little she's starting to do things she swore she wouldn't do again and at what price?? It was another great read by Joanne Harris.
Rating - Loved it.
I read this book as "The Girl with No Shadow" and really nothing in the book led me to think about the girl with no shadow. Shoes. Now, there is something I can relate to. And, after hearing an interview on NPR with Sydney Pollack quoting Sir Alec Guinesss, the right way to build a character is from the shoes up (I'm grossly paraphrasing.) Anyway, kudos to Joanne Harris - I'd like to hear more about Vianne Rocher, Roux, Anouk, and Rosette - or whatever names these choose (like their family) based on their shoes!!
Rating - Meltingly, chocolate, delicious...
Joanne Harris's novel 'Chocolat' was a successful book-to-movie endeavor. In 'The Girl With No Shadow', Harris strikes another high note following Vianne Rocher and her two daughters Anouk and Rosette into the small village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. Taking on a new identity as Yanne Charbonneau, Vianne opens a chocolaterie on Montmartre street, renting the space as well as the apartment above it. Entering the threesome's life is 'charming and enigmatic' Zozie de l'Alba, who is at first a 'breath of fresh air'; however, as time passes the friendship becomes tainted, revealing oddities about Zozie, and the revealing on intentions to 'face another witch [Yanne] in her home ground, ... collect her life... add it to my [her] charm bracelet'. The chapters alternate with narrations by Vianne/Yanne, Anouk, and Zozie. The progress of the base staff is enhanced by scenes of Zozie's difficulties at school -- her difference from classmates, while youngster Rosette 'speaks' through a sign language all her own, drawing pictures that are crude but 'oddly alive...managing to convey facial expressions with only a couple strokes of the pen.' Wealthy Thierry le Tresser, owner of the rented building, offers romance as he falls 'head over heels' for Yanne; and shy Alice connects with Fat Nico, while the stoic Madame Luzeron comes in each day with her canine to purchase certain delicacies in the same amount each time.
An ultimate read for chocolate lovers and of the works of Joanne Harris, 'The Girl With No Shadow' is a must- not-to-be-missed read, to be savored along with the cast members, especially those who 'cast' a little magic here and there to enrich people's lives. Harris delightfully delves into the nature of the characters, providing descriptive insight to surroundings and day-to-day actions, flowing as lyrical prose, not wanting to be in a rush to read, not to miss each tasty morsel of words, phrasings, and conjuring of spells. Gentle yet compelling script keeps the reader intrigued... "The gardens are crisp and bright... pebbled with sunlight beneath a kaleidoscope of autumn leaves." Josephine A. Locke, BookLoons.com Reviewer
Rating  - Vianne and Anouk return from the ashes
Joanne Harris's Girl With No Shadow comes a decade after the original novel Chocolat, later made into a feature film (Chocolat (Miramax Collector's Series))starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Chocolat revolved around the culinary magic of Vianne Rocher, an unorthodox chocolatiere who includes a sprinkle of magic that shakes up the local conservative villagers. In Girl With No Shadow, Vianne, now renamed Yanne Charbonneau, has relocated to Paris after fleeing several other bad situations. She has shunned her magical tendencies, putting away the tarot cards and forbidding incantations by Anouk (renamed Annie), thereby trading her individuality for a stable life at the side of Thierry Le Tresset, wealthy (and stuffy) bachelor.
The novel is told from the (confusing) viewpoint of three different characters: Vianne, Anouk, and Zozie de l'Alba in a narrow timeframe ranging from October 31 to December 24. At times, the three are commenting on events happening on the same day. Vianne's past literally comes back to haunt her in the form of the mysterious Zozie, and the young Anouk is sliding into perilous teenage rebellion, hanging out in cemeteries and engaging in forbidden acts of magic.
The cast of characters is too large to be explored in detail, and even the appearance of an old friend from the original novel is lost in the fray. Having three narrators fails to solidify the action, and it took me a few chapters to clue in that different characters were narrating (the images at the top of the chapters are different for each character). Flashbacks were to actions not covered in the original novel, and the frequent time travel left me confused at the all-too-important omissions of pivotal earlier events such as the birth of Vianne's second child, Rosette, who at four is non-verbal and quite possibly autistic.
Although the descriptions of chocolates are mouthwatering, too often the action felt staged, stale, and not in the magical spirit of the original novel Chocolat. Make no mistake: this is no sweet Chocolat Part Deux; it's dark, gritty, and haunting, wrapped in dark secrets, past injustices, and the desire for revenge that consumes several characters at various points. It's definitely not a feel-good book, although if you enjoyed Vianne's character, you may enjoy The Girl With No Shadow. It's most definitely a reinvention of classic fairy tales for grown-ups.
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