The Girl with No Shadow

This is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. Once I finished it, I read it again. I love stories of magic both light and dark and this one is a superb example. To explain, it's the kind of magic you can realistically think exists in this world, not a story like Harry Potter. While it talked about Christmas celebration in a French neighborhood, it also talked about the ancient Yule rituals and how they served in the cold and darkness of the year. It is also a story of a mother trying to keep her tween/teen daughter from being lost. It was beautiful writing and had a real flavor of what it was like being French and living in France, which I really enjoyed. I relished the references to the magic of the indigenous people in Latin America which is something I know very little about. Amid the sparkly tale of everyday magic, things surface that are very creepy and scary, and it turns out to be a suspenseful saga of good versus evil that is captivating until the end.One hint: the story is told in the first person by the three main characters. At the beginning of the chapter, look at the symbol to identify which person is speaking - most people probably caught that but I didn't so it was confusing.I couldn't recommend a book more than I do this one!

"The Girl With No Shadow," also published under the title "The Lollipop Shoes," is a sequel to Joanne Harris's best-seller "Chocolat." It is a gloomy story about the double threats of bullying and identity theft against a woman and her children. "The Girl With No Shadow" involves large doses of magic, but these two problems are real. I was bullied in school at just the age of the daughter in this book, and several years ago I offered emergency housing to a mentally-ill woman who wanted to stay and take my husband. So "The Girl With No Shadow" hit home for me!I read this book very soon after reading "Chocolat," so the contrasts between the books were very clear to me. The earlier novel is set in an unfolding springtime; the sequel is set in the darkest, coldest days of early winter. The heroine, Vianne, has gone from strong and self-confident to weary and doubtful. (She also seems to have been more involved with Roux than she let on in "Chocolat," where he was a nice treat but not the main course.) The author's writing, while still quite vivid, has gone from simple and compressed to labored and drawn-out. The author's trick of looping through the same memories with increasing detail becomes tiresome before "The Girl With No Shadow" is over.Frankly, "The Girl With No Shadow" is a hundred pages too long. As the first book climaxed at Easter, this one is determined to climax at Christmas, and every half-hour of the last week seems to have its own chapter -- or rather, three chapters, as there are three narrators.Despite checking to see how many more pages there were to go for the last two hours of reading it, I enjoyed "The Girl With No Shadow" quite a bit. It has a dynamite beginning, a sweet ending, and a lot of terrific moments between them. I would have liked it better, though, if Harris had taken out her scissors and cut to the chase.

I read something every day, no matter where I am, and so sometimes think of books in terms of the season. Now while many stories are not specifically tied to a particular season, a few seem to almost demand it. Take Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman. That is a summer story, meant to be read on a cross-country vacation train ride ending in Florida, or at the beach. The Girl With No Shadow is a winter story. Not merely because the action occurs between the Days of the Dead and Christmas, but because it's absolutely perfect read curled up with a cozy blanket in a comfy chair, sipping thick chile-infused chocolate.The Girl With No Shadow is one of those books which is so engagingly timeless that when the author occasionally mentions - for example - a digital camera - it's actually a shock! I was so lost in the "further adventures" of Vianne, Anouk, & Roux that supper time crept up on me unannounced when I thought I still had hours...and though I say the "further adventures", this book could be easily read, not as a "sequel" to Chocolat, but on its own merits.Even as I read the last few pages, I felt the prevailing winds so instrumental to the story seemed to blow every which way, with outcome uncertain. The final moments of the story were quite satisfactory, yet, like real life, predictably ambiguous! What IS crystal clear is that I'll be indulging further Joanne Harris cravings in the near future.

I bought this book several years ago because my book group chose Peaches for Father Francis and I wanted to read the books in the series in order, having already read Chocolat. I ended up not reading either book because I didn't find this one compelling enough.Recently I reread Chocolat and decided to give this book another go. It took me a couple weeks and I nearly gave up a couple times, but I stuck with it. The second half is better, less confusing about which character is narrating each chapter.I felt that in Chocolat the magic was just right, but in The Girl with no Shadow it was, at least at the end, overplayed.On to Peaches for Father Frances (after a small break from Ms. Harris to read other authors).

Je n'ai pas pas pu lâcher ce livre pleins de rebondissements.Je recommande vivement et surtout après chocolat. Excellent, fascinant

I like joan harris books

Good book

Loved it! A continuation of Chocolat. The ending was terrific.

a non-story for fans of Chocolat who the author seems to believe are too stupid to see that here she is writing nothing. no story, just recipes.