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    The Girl with No Shadow
    The Girl with No Shadow
    The Girl with No Shadow
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Girl with No Shadow

    Written by Joanne Harris

    Narrated by Susanna Burney

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Since she was a little girl, the wind has dictated every move Vianne Rocher has made, buffeting her 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 baby Rosette, safe.

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

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 8, 2008
    ISBN9780061672729
    The Girl with No Shadow
    Author

    Joanne Harris

    Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include twenty novels, three cookbooks, and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology, and fantasy. In 2000, her 1999 novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is an honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabet II. Her novels A Narrow Door and Broken Light are also available from Pegasus Books.

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    Reviews for The Girl with No Shadow

    4/5

    63 ratings54 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Well that's confusing. In the US, this book is called The Girl with No Shadow. Apparently they don't have it listed as such on Goodreads!

      I liked this book, I did. I thought it tied in well to Harris' recent young adult novel, Runemarks. Much of the same magic is used in No Shadow.

      At times I get a little tired of the narrator coyly addressing the reader, you know what that's like, right? You feel like the narrator thinks she can read your mind? I know you do.

      Luckily, she only does this with one character, and it suits the character.

      So. It's a sequel to Chocolat, and what's quite jarring is that I was never sure when the first book was supposed to take place. Since I've watched the film several times (mainly to see Johnny Depp say, "I'll come over later and take that squeak out of your door.") I've imagined the 1950's as the setting. No Shadow quite obviously takes place in the present, cell phones and all.
    • 4/5
      The Girl With No Shadow is the sequel to Joanne Harris' Chocolat. It's been four years and Vianne, Anouk, and little Rosette run a chocolaterie in Paris. Only Vianne has decided to deny her magic and is trying to live a normal, safe life. She has a very proper and staid boyfriend who offers safety and normalacy, while encouraging Vianne's dependence and undermining her confidence. Instead of making her own fabulous chocolate, Vianne sells the factory-made kind with very limited financial success. Then flamboyant Zozie de l'Alba blows into their lives, befriending Vianne and enchanting Anouk. She brings with her the winds of change that Vianne fears so much. Using her own charms and cantrips, Zozie brings new life to the Chocolaterie and encourages Vianne to begin making her own chocolate again. But Zozie, like a wolf dressed in sheeps clothing, is not who she seems...and she has mischief in mind.I really liked Chocolat, and The Girl With No Shadow, a darker and more serious book, is an even richer and more satisfying read. The story is told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of Vianne, Anouk and Zozie. It has a more modern feel to it and the magic is more blatant and even threatening. If you love Chocolat, you'll love this more gratifying sequel. Recommended.
    • 1/5
      The Girl With No Shadow, by Joanne Harris

      I'm not very far along, but I find this very disturbing....and it frightens me as well.....That Zozie woman I do not like, I know too many women like her and have had those bad experiences with them (I call it Bad Magic: Malice Aforethought)....and I am not sure that I will continue to read this book.

      I'll just say, I skimmed most of the middle and it just didn't have that romance or fell good quality that "Chocolat" had.

      This just had too much unveiled evil....I Loved "Chocolat" but truly it wasn't as creepy or disquieting as this book.
    • 4/5
      Another complex web of chocolate, French magical realism, inane chatter about imaginary animals, and the return of Roux, as played by Johnny Depp in the film version of Chocolat. What’s not to love? My only real criticism is that it feels a bit like Joanne Harris has changed the cover of her mega-mammoth-massive bestseller, added a couple more chapters, replaced every instance of the word “Lasquenet” with “Paris”, and let this one out into the world. My recommendation is simple – if you liked Chocolat, you’ll like this. If you didn’t, you won’t. I did. Joanne Harris still does something wonderful, and her books invariably make me a bit hungry.
    • 4/5
      WOW! I just finished this book and it was almost as good as the first. I love that we get to hear the story from different points of view. The story takes place 4 years after Chocolat, Vianne and Anouk have moved on and are now living in Paris. Vianne has vowed to ignore the winds of change and is determined to stay in one place, however there is a new character who has something new in mind for the pair.Like all of Joanne Harris' other books, the images are vivid and the story sucks you in. I could barely put the book down and can't wait to go back and re-read Chocolat so I can get a bit more to feed my Joanne Harris fix.
    • 2/5
      It didn't need almost 600 pages to tell this story - it's about 450 pages too long, in my opinion. Somewhat slow; utterly predictable; unsophisticated and in parts repetitive.
    • 3/5
      Sequel to Chocolat, published as The Lollipop Shoes outside of U.S.Chocolat was full of colors and enchantment that we never really knew the source of. The Girl with No Shadow reveals these right away. This story starts with none of the enchantment and mystery of Chocolat. We are introduced to Zozie who is leaving her previous life. Each chapter comes from the point of view of either Zozie, Vianne, or Anouk. This threw me at first until I realized we had switched characters. Roux returns but is not the same character he was in Chocolat. Vianne’s life before Chocolat and between that story and this one is explained where Chocolat never really addressed this. For some reason I always got the impression that Chocolat took place in the 1950s or so, but according to this story it took place in the present. Vianne and Anouk seem out of place in the present day, and it was hard to wrap my mind around.It was a good story, but kind of flat for me. I prefer Chocolat.
    • 2/5
      I was pretty frustrated with this book. I enjoyed the writing and I thought the writing was good but the plot and the story just felt really drawn-out.

      Usually Harris' writing has a really lovely slowness, like the gradual unwinding of a ball of yarn, but I didn't feel that way with this book. I really like her characters, particularly her female characters and how they were written but parts of the novel just felt totally forced in there for plot purposes.

      Without spoiling it, I relished the big 'plot twist' in the book where someone returns, but the work I had to put in to get there was just too much in my opinion.

      I just found it difficult to read and that's so unlike me with Harris' books. I've just discovered there's a third book in the series so let's hope that one is an improvement. <3
    • 5/5
      Great great book! It's actually a thriller, a paranormal thriller if you like. The magic atmosphere of "Chocolat" was back for me. I thought the mother, who was the main character in "Chocolat", was not quite so prominent here, which was a pity. She almost married the wrong man, irritanting type, that man! I somehow thought "Chocolat" was set in the 60s/70s but in this book, the story continues 4 years later, and is quite contemporary, with mobile phones etc. If you liked "Chocolat" (the book) you will love this too!
    • 4/5
      This is a fabulous book, but it's not until the end, that you realise just how good it is. 4.5 stars, but since it stalls a bit in the middle, I can't quite give 5 stars. Much more magic and much darker than Chocolat, but excellent.
    • 3/5
      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 somehow seems to know all about “Yanne” and her family, and soon Vianne must face an adversary that threatens all she holds dear.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, and readers expecting the same Disneyesque charm of the first novel will find this contemporary fairy-tale more in the vein of the Brothers Grimm. My only quibble is I missed the zest of Vianne during most of the story. The villain was a much more compelling creation. Nevertheless, fans who loved Chocolat and want to continue the story will enjoy this book.
    • 4/5
      Good, but with a darker element than Chocolat. Think chocolat that has grown up and taken some responsibility for its actions. The ending, while satisfying is a bit too saccharine for me. The bad character is also just a little too self satisfied and has got away (until the end) with more than you'd think actually possible. Also not sure about the denouement re 'Vianne's mum.
    • 5/5
      Another very winning novel from Joanne Harris, well in the spirit - as well as the world - of "Chocolat." Indeed, the only way I felt significantly removed from the experience of reading "Chocolat" - that is to say, a conscious awareness that I was reading a different story - was in the added complexity of "The Girl with No Shadow." "Chocolat" was beautiful, even poetic in its simplicity, like a little fable. It moved effortlessly and concluded in a pleasingly open-ended manner. "The Girl with No Shadow" has much of the same richness of prose, but we as readers aren't being treated to a fairy tale any longer. This is a darker, stronger chocolate: both literally as a longer, more melancholic novel, and structurally, as Harris moves from fable to a more complex form of storytelling.In fact, my one complaint might be that this time around, Harris has cemented her story just a little too strongly. "Chocolat" seemed to take place in a "no-time" France, with only the rare fleeting mention of technology (making it quite easy to adapt into a film set in 1959). "Shadow" is filled with credit cards, mobile phones and other indicators of the present day that seemed to slightly counteract the magical element of the story, which of course becomes more and more prevalent (and important) as the tale goes on. Furthermore, I was secretly a little pleased to have Vianne and her daughter, Anouk left to their changing wind at the end of the original novel; in the sequel, everything wraps up just a little too tidy. I realize that Vianne's need for stability is a constant theme of the book; it just made it feel the *tiniest* bit less special, that's all.Still, though, there's a great deal to delight in here. Vianne and Anouk - now going by Yanne and Annie - find themselves faced with a new and far more terrifying adversary, Zozie, who (both realistically and magically) steals identities. The conceit of gaining trust through magical chocolates, so much a part of "Chocolat," is turned on its head here as Zozie manipulates Vianne's new chocolaterie to serve her own purpose. There are both thematic and literal links to the earlier novel - including one or two questions answered - and we are introduced to Vianne's curious new daughter, Rosette, along with her own special "spirit animal." This is a novel to enjoy over many long, savored cups of hot chocolate.A few more words about the American edition of the novel. Although I appreciate the title of "The Girl with No Shadow," I'm a little sorry that the original title, "The Lollipop Shoes," was not kept for the American market. It just seems to fit better, especially as the eponymous shoes are such a constant through the story. Furthermore, while I enjoyed the stylistic touch of introducing the different narrated sections with a little illustration - Cat Moon for Vianne, Rabbit Moon for Anouk, and a New Moon for Zozie - these were not always consistent in my Advanced Reader's Edition, which left me occasionally confused. I hope they were corrected for the final, printed edition as they very gently telegraph the flow of the story without interrupting the ease of reading.Overall, a very fine book. I will be recommending this to friends who have read the earlier novel or seen the film.
    • 5/5
      Hmm, I'm still debating about giving this book 4 or 5 stars. I loved The lollipop shoes. It continues the story of Vianne Rocher and her children from Chocolat. The atmosphere is great. Again, there is a chocolate shop in France, this time in Paris. Vianne, unfortunately, has lost herself, but her daughters Anouk and Rosette are delightful, and so is Zozie in the beginning. Zozie brings all the charm and magic that Vianne did in Chocolat. However, it becomes more and more clear as the book progresses that Zozie is not particularly scrupulous. And in order for Vianne to hold out against her, she needs to find herself again... Even though it becomes clear after a while that Zozie is not a good Samaritan, she is still intriguing to read about. I liked reading her bits as much as I did Vianne's and Anouk's. When Zozie's intentions come out in the open, the book even becomes exciting. The only reason I'm debating about the stars is that I put it away halfway through the book and didn't start it up again until I had a long train journey ahead of me. I think this was more my mood than it was the book, though...
    • 5/5
      I started this book with a lot of expectations and i am happy to report that I enjoyed it thoroughly. Joanne Harris's Lollipop shoes is like dark,creamy chocolate with a hint of spice-totally heady and difficult to resist. Narrated from three POVs(Yanne, Anouk and Zozie), the narrative flows seamlessly. I loved how Joanne let a huge chunk of the narrative be told from Zozie's perspective- I don't really think i have read too many novels that have been narrated from the Villain's point of view.Also,even the minor characters seemed etched out and the writing exceptionally vivid.Despite being a sequel to Chocolat, this one reads like a stand-alone book.I don't think not reading the first book before tackling his one matters much.The spells,totems,fables and stories about faeries and witches that Zozie and Yanne mention make the book more exotic and fascinating.It's no secret that I am a huge fan of magic realism-Joanne's book is a fine specimen of that genre.The writing is measured,yet intimate and warm,just like the characters in the book. There is something dangerously appealing about a slinky,chameleon-like villain and I loved Zozie's character the most(even more than Anouk and Yanne.). The bullying and name-calling that goes on in schools also forms a huge part of the story -atleast when the narration is done from the perspective of the eleven year-old Anouk.Joanne's writing is breathtaking and flows beautifully.This has to be one of the best books I have read in a long, long time and I don't think I can rave enough about it. People who are fascinated with the art of chocolate-making will love the details that Joanne shares with us and the book is about good food as much as it is about anything else.Sample some of her writing .."That red-orange flare as the fire spread ,leaping and tumbling and somersaulting like an evil acrobat from a rail of scarves to a trapeze of dreamcatchers and finally to a stack of books.""The problem is me.I just don't match.I'm the wrong shape,somehow the wrong colour.I like the wrong books.I watch the wrong films in secret.I'm different whether they like it or not and I don't see why i should pretend otherwise."Overall,an awesome book I'll recommend to lovers of good fiction.A full 5 on 5 from me.I am going to hunt down and read every single book written by this incredibly talented lady.
    • 4/5
      This f/u to "Chocolat" is more complicated than its predecessor and deals much more with magic than the first book. There were a couple of gaps between the first book and this one (the relationship between Josephine and Roux seems to have been forgotten entirely)and I felt like Roux was a much weaker character in this book. But this one does compel you to keep reading even more than "Chocolat" because of the story line and I enjoyed the new characters.
    • 5/5
      The follow-up to Chocolat is excellent! More seductive than enchanting, The Girl With No Shadow is a darker story, at its heart the conflict between good and evil, magical and real, and lightness and darkness that the book's characters struggle with as they try to maintain a semblance of a normal life in the new chocolaterie in Montmartre, where Vianne (now called Yanne) has settled with her young daughters. Like the hot chocolate on the stove, their truer, more magical, selves continue to bubble up under the surface appearance of "normalcy" that Vianne has struggled to present to the world, in hopes of avoiding having to run again. However, the wind of change blows in a new influence, the carefree and fabulous Zozie, whose hidden magic helps the chocolate shop flourish, but at what price? A story filled with magic (for good and evil), mysteries, and characters whose lives are woven together through Harris' masterful storytelling, this book asks - and answers - the question, what's the harm in a little magic? Although I have a love/hate relationship with the multiple narratives used to tell this story, this allows us to truly get to know the three main characters - and the others - in a more in-depth manner that we might have otherwise. An intricate and magical book that captured my attention and imagination from the first page to the last.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful! Vianne Rocher and Anouk are back, The wind, and something else, compelled them to leave Lasquenet for Paris. It is now 4 years later. Vianne is still running a shop, but no longer making all of her special chocolates. Her landlord has proposed to her. Will she accept? Zozie d'Alba, who has stolen identities, comes into their lives. Zozie thinks she recognizes Vianne, and sees opportunity. Anouk, at an impressionable age, is totally under Zozie's spell. I kept thinking that Vianne is worldly enough to see what is going on. I received my copy yesterday and finished it tonight. This book is written in the same style as Chocolat with each chapter written from one of the main characters' perspective. If you enjoyed Chocolat (even if you only saw the movie), you will enjoy this sequel.
    • 4/5
      This is the follow on from Chocolat and set 4 years later. When reading C, I hadnt realised how modern the setting was - it was only in this book and the talk of Euros, that I realised it was an early 21st century story, rather than set mid 20th.Lots more magic in this book, both of European and South American. It is the story (in part) of Vianne and Zozie, and what Vianne is prepared to lose in order to gain what she believes is a normal life for her and her two daughters. Zozie starts taking over Vianne's life, building up the chocolate shop just as Vianne had done in Chocolate, and winning over Vianne's older daughter. Finally Vianne has to decide on what she wants in this world Agree that it's perhaps a little long, and the main disadvantage when reading Harris' books - I have a near overriding urge to Bake! (I've even hunted out the cookery book and may inflict the results on people!).
    • 2/5
      I borrowed this from a friend who I had bought it for as a Birthday present. I re-read Chocolat before reading this and I am so glad that I did. I think however that overall I enjoyed this sequel more than Chocolat,
    • 3/5
      A pleasant enough read.While I have read another Joanne Harris novel, it was not Chocolat. That one I saw as a movie. I mean who can pass up a movie adaptation with Johnny Depp? Usually, if I hadn't already read the book, I would read it as a follow up to the movie but with this one did not do so.So, while I picked up this book because of my familiarity with its characters, I'm unsure as to whether the book version and the movie version of the characters are all that similar, although it does occur to me that since Harris wrote this sequel after the movie, she could very well have smoothed out any discrepancies.I was never enthralled but the book kept my interest well enough. Because Harris makes no bones about Zozie's amorality, a sense of impending doom hangs over the entire novel which frustrated me but also kept me invested enough to see how it all played out.The novel is rife with identity issues and morals about the perils of not being true to one's self.
    • 4/5
      "The Girl With No Shadow" is not as lyrical, purely enjoyable, or lighthearted as "Chocolat," also by Joanne Harris. The book makes a lot more sense if the reader has read "Chocolat" before attempting to get into this, the sequel. The beloved main character from "Chocolat", Vianne Rocher, has hidden herself in a new chocolaterie in the streets of Montmarte, for reasons that gradually unfold over the course of the sequel. However, Vianne is almost too effectively hidden; the reader finds it hard to see her as the same character that was so delightful and full of life in "Chocolat". Luckily, Anouk, Vianne's daughter, is there and familiar even as she is growing up and changing in the ways that pre-teens do--and in other ways that are quite unique. Other characters from "Chocolat" appear at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. But most of the action is taken up by a cast of new characters, none of them as endearing as those that frequented Vianne's chocolaterie in the previous tale. At the same time that "The Girl With No Shadow" is darker, it is also much deeper than its predecessor. With numerous complications and three narratives telling the story, the reader is definitely kept entertained and interested until the somewhat surprising but satisfying conclusion.
    • 3/5
      I like books about magic and chocolate. Mainly chocolate.
    • 4/5
      This was very good, and very readable, but sadly not up to Joanne Harris's usual standard. It kept me turning the pages, but only to find out if I had guessed correctly what was going to happen, and disappointingly, most of the time I had. I used to love her books because they all had something new and different about them, but this just felt like a rehash of Chocolat and Gentlemen and Players rolled into one. Given that I was also disappointed by Runemarks, I can't help but wonder whether Joanne Harrris's spark is fading along with Vianne Rocher's. And if so, let's hope that Vianne's rebirth at the end will be echoed by a return to form in Harris's next book.
    • 5/5
      I have to say when I read this book it was called 'The Lollipop Shoes' and I much prefer that title. Sounds yummier. The book was great though, no matter the title. Loved it!
    • 3/5
      Ahhhhhhhh.........Chocolat! That is what I kept thinking about as I read this novel by Joanne Harris. She rings forward her wonderful characters from "Chocolat" and adds a couple of new folks. I was interested in how the ending would work, and I like the characters. However, this is one of those sequels which begs the comment, "I hope she does not try to continue this story." A fun story, full of magic and charm, just not in the same amounts as in "Chocolat"!
    • 5/5
      The wind blows a new Chameleon Witch into the life of Vianne Rocher thus, the sequel to Chocolat does not disappoint. The characters are all fully developed enticing you to stay up all night savoring this story!
    • 4/5
      I read this straight after Chocolat, but it still took several chapters to work out who was who and what was going on. The feel is quite different. It is a sequel, but I think it could be read as a standalone, and maybe better not read immediately after the first. An intriguing and mysterious tale.
    • 4/5
      Chocolat is one of my all-time favourite books, so I was delighted to receive a copy of its sequel to review as part of LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.The Girl with No Shadow focuses less on Vianne’s story—instead it is told in the alternating voices of Vianne, her daughter Anouk and the mysterious Zozie. Joanne Harris writes each character with a distinctive voice, which was a good thing since the images identifying each section were not always the correct ones in my Early Reviewers’ copy.While Chocolat could (almost) have taken place in the Middle Ages, this book has a much more modern feel, which contrasts more sharply with the book's magical elements. It is also darker in tone but as engaging and as full of memorable quirky secondary characters as Chocolat was. Harris writes with her usual flair; however, I felt it took Vianne too long to clue into what was really going on and the ending stretched the limits of my credulity.Harris has also neatly sidestepped the issue of the different endings in the book and movie versions of Chocolat, so this book works as a sequel to either. And although I generally don’t like it when publishers change the title of a novel to suit a different market, this time I think the American title better captures the darker edge of this book.
    • 4/5
      Not quite what I expected -- this, the sequel to "Chocolat," is both more muddled and more obvious than the first, almost as if Harris wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do or wanted to hit the reader over the head with it.That being said, I had to keep reading it. Vianne may be less intriguing than in "Chocolat," but Anouk is a wonder, and her character (and her chapters) illuminate the novel.