Violet & Claire

I love this.
Francesca Lia Block builds beautiful imagery, and I love the characters.
Violet and Claire are opposites, but their personalities complement each other. Violet wears a lot of black and wants to be a screenwriter. Claire writes poetry and dreams of faeries.

I've become rather disenchanted with Ms. Block ever since I was older than the average age of her main characters (16-17). I know when I was that age I found the glittering adjective laden descriptions of southern California and the otherworldly characters magical and wondrous. But after 20 I really thought _enough already_. That being said, I found Violet and Claire a nice change. It drew me back in to an appreciation of Ms. Block despite my cynicism. It still has all those things, which is good, because she has her own unique style and it would be a Francesca Lia Block book without those things. But she keeps the adjectives to a more reasonable level and actually gets some storytelling done rather than the extended neon dioramas most show more of her books seem to be. And I liked how much the book focused on friendship - love interests came and went, it was essentially about the friendship between the two very different girls. The book still has faults, but I liked it more than I thought I would when I bought it. show less

While the central conflict was a tad unrealistic, the relationship dynamics between the high school sis-mance that is Violet and Claire is dead on.

Violet and Claire is the story of 2 girls who are very different but best friends. Here is a
quote from the book that captures them perfectly and gives you a great taste of Block's
writing: "…like shadow and light; her rants my raves; her dark hair, my blond; black
dresses, white. She a purple-black African-violet-dark butterfly and I a white moth." "…we
were photo negatives of each other, together making the perfect image of a girl."
Violet dreams of making movies and Claire believes she is a descendant of faeries who
were killed off and sent to hiding underground by the patriarchy. Violet is power and
ambition and Claire is beauty and innocence. Together things start looking up for them as
they have found someone that they make show more sense to in a world where they are outsiders.
Once they loose touch, things spiral out of control through a strange circus like climax.
Not to give anything away, but you do get a happy Hollywood ending, which seems so
fitting given that the book is written like a movie. The book is also written from alternating
perspectives, which gives you a glimpse into the light and the dark of each of their worlds. show less

Just a titch naive about some things. And even though Claire is not Stargirl, I could not get [a:Jerry Spinelli|12696|Jerry Spinelli|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1201118632p2/12696.jpg]'s character out of my mind... which made me unable to see Claire clearly. Good thing it's short - I'm not, personally, thrilled to read about 17 year-old girls getting into so many unhealthy* situations.

Otoh, brilliant, poetic, enchanting, adorable, etc. etc. For the right audience, a true treasure.

*I won't call them 'mature' situations. Imo, anyone who does such stuff is immature - no matter how old or experienced.

I just got through my second read of this, but it had been several years so it was like reading it anew. It was very easy to get through and is a good quick read for someone who enjoys "young adult" lit. There's not too much to say about it plot-wise, and I don't think this is a book one reads for the plot. Or dialogue. Or imagery or symbolism, or ... I don't know. I like the way Francesca Lia Block writes, the way things are a sorta fairytale (yes, that's a Tori Amos song) but also real and something one can identify with. I suppose this book is best for teeenage/college-age girls who are that point in their lives when they feel alienated and like no one understands them, but I think a girl (maybe a guy, too, I don't know) of any age show more can identify with having been there at some point, or having gone through the other stuff that Violet & Claire go through.
Overall, I enjoyed it. show less

This book in three words is "irritating, soullessly depressing." Pick it up if you want to be disappointed by the characters' decline in sense and likability, read about the shallow drug-and-sex-driven life of Los Angeles, and find no plot or development whatsoever.