Friday 16 March 2012

The Lollipop Shoes (Joanne Harris)

Title: The Lollipop Shoes (aka The Girl With No Shadow)
Author: Joanne Harris
Publication Date: 2007
Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Pages: 459
Source: Book club borrowed
Genre: Travel
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The Lollipop Shoes is the follow up novel to the very popular Chocolat, bringing us back into the lives of Vianne Rocher, her two daughters Anouk and a new addition to the family. These days they have changed their names to Yanne, Annie and Rosette and live in relative anonymity in the streets of Montmartre.

I have to admit I went into this book with some preconceived ideas as I had read and seen quite a few reviews that didn't land very favourably on this new edition in the series. So I didn't expect too much from it and was pleasantly surprised to find it, if not as good as the first, a perfectly enjoyable read.

The book centers around Zozie de l’Alba, an enigmatic character with a number of past lives herself. She blows into their lives and creates all sorts of havoc. I think Zozie was a interesting new character to bring into the mix but I didn't like the direction the writer took Vianne's character in. She became a bit of a wallflower trying to lead a more normal life and well became far more snooze worthy until later in the book. Roux does make an appearance of course which I definitely think helped move the story along. There is also a significant increase in the amount of magical references in the novel which I believe made the book less enjoyable. I understood that it may have been necessary for providing context around Zozie's character but I just couldn't relate to it.

Overall it's very different to Chocolat and I think that's why the reviews have been pretty bad. As a stand alone book it is a good read but in comparison to the first it just doesn't have that special something. Basically don't expect the same thing as Chocolat and you'll probably enjoy it.


Read It if you want to know what's happening with the characters but don't expect another Chocolat



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