Charlotte Sometimes

Rating:
Summary: ThAnk YOu RObERt SmIth!!!!!!
Review: alright, like some others here, this book was brought to my attention by robert smith of the cure... and i can't thank him enough!!! this is truly one of the best books i've ever read...charlotte's time travel through her bed in a boarding school is one of the most unique ideas i've seen in literature, and farmer's adding of the shared diary is pure genius... charlotte and every other character in the book were more alive to me than most any character in books i've read... a very emotional book built from a wonderful imagination!!!i couldn't put the book down and have passed it on to numerous friends to read since finishing it (anyone who is looking for a copy, i got mine from truprice books: [e-mail]... don't know that they've got another copy lying around, but it's worth a try!)read this book!!! you will not be sorry you did!

Rating:
Summary: Charlotte Always
Review: I actually read this book when I was a young teen and I have to admit I was only reading it because there was nothing else to read in the house and the telly was on the blink. I absolutely loved it from beginning to end. This is a time-travel story with a bit of a twist.

Charlotte Makepeace is a new girl at an old boarding school. On her first night she goes to sleep in her bed and in the morning she wakes up as Clare Moby, a schoolgirl from over forty years ago. Of course Charlotte is confused, even more so when people don't realise that she is not Clare, not even Clare's younger sister Emily. Somehow she struggles through her first day as Clare but to add to her confusion she finds herself back in her own time the following day and no one has missed her! Charlotte soon realises that Clare is taking her place in her time and she is taking Clare's. The two girls muddle through by communicating through Clare's diary, leaving each other notes and messages in order for them to survive in their swap-over worlds.

However it's not long before Clare's younger sister Emily realises that something is wrong and Charlotte is forced to tell her the truth. With Emily as an ally, Charlotte's time in the past is a little easier but there is a dark cloud on the horizon. Clare and Emily are going into lodgings outside the school and the children have worked out that the time travelling that they are experiencing has something to do with the bed they sleep in and the tree outside the window which exists only in Clare's time.

This is an exciting story that moves at a fair pace, even more so when Charlotte is trapped in the past, forced to become a day pupil and temporarily forfeit her real life in the future. Charlotte's identity is soon in question even to herself. Is she Charlotte or is she Clare? Only Emily constant nagging about trying to get the real Clare back keeps the young girl aware of whom she really is.

Charlotte experiences life in England during the First World War. What once was history for her becomes the present, and she suffers with her new friends, as they loose loved ones to foreign battlefields, and face the terror of air raids in the middle of the night.

Charlotte's eventual permanent return to the future is not without its own problems but luckily Clare had her own ally in the form of Elizabeth, a dorm mate who like Emily realised that Clare was not Charlotte and helped her as best she could.

Charlotte's return to the future is not with out a tragic price. Clare, Charlotte finds out died not long after her return to the past, from flu and for a while Charlotte is grief stricken. However redemption comes in the form of a parcel of memories from a now grown up Emily who has waited many years to contact her sister's fellow time traveller in the future.

"Charlotte Sometimes" is a surprisingly dark children's novel with flashes colour and inspiration as two young girls live lives that are not their own. It is a poignant story about the loss of those we love and how we have to carry on no matter what. A surprisingly mature book that can be read by both older children and young adults alike.

Rating:
Summary: A book you can read year after year
Review: I read this book years ago, but it still stays in the forefront of my mind. Recently its been stronger than ever thanks to a friend of mine who loves The Cure. Charlotte goes back and forth through time. living her life, and someone elses. She's only Charlotte sometimes, as the title dictates. The story is eerie, but fascinating, Charlotte makes friend with her 'sister" who is not her sister, but the sister of the girl whose life she sometimes lives. She has to keep this fact a secret, and the plot gets deeper and deeper. The end of the book shocked me with the emotion I felt, especially the revelations that comes at the end. It's sad, bittersweet and lovely all at once, this is the kind of book I would keep forever.

Rating:
Summary: why did they change the ending?
Review: I read this in the hardback edition when I was a teenager. I loved it so much that when I saw immediately bought it when I saw it on sale as a paperback. What a disappointment! The last chapter was altered so the ending was different. I even got out the original hardcover from the library to check that I wasn't remembering incorrectly - but sadly it was true.

While the new version is very good, it just isn't the same as the original.

Rating:
Summary: why did they change the ending?
Review: I read this in the hardback edition when I was a teenager. I loved it so much that when I saw immediately bought it when I saw it on sale as a paperback. What a disappointment! The last chapter was altered so the ending was different. I even got out the original hardcover from the library to check that I wasn't remembering incorrectly - but sadly it was true.

While the new version is very good, it just isn't the same as the original.

Rating:
Summary: A great fantasy book for all ages
Review: I was nine years old when I found a copy of Charlotte Sometimes in the local library. I was in boarding school in England at the time, and the impact that Charlotte made on me was "close to home"! In the past 14 years since I first shared Charlotte's world, I have never forgotten this book. Now to find it on Amazon.com is wonderful, I thought that I'd never find a copy! And to find out there are sequels! I am so greatful to Amazon. Now I plan to share this book with my future children some day. And yes, I too was sure that "The Cure" did write the song for this book.

Rating:
Summary: Charlotte Sometimes: a reflection.
Review: I was nine years old when I found a copy of Charlotte Sometimes in the local library. I was in boarding school in England at the time, and the impact that Charlotte made on me was "close to home"! In the past 14 years since I first shared Charlotte's world, I have never forgotten this book. Now to find it on Amazon.com is wonderful, I thought that I'd never find a copy! And to find out there are sequels! I am so greatful to Amazon. Now I plan to share this book with my future children some day. And yes, I too was sure that "The Cure" did write the song for this book.

Rating:
Summary: Sequels to Charlotte Sometimes
Review: If you enjoyed Charlotte Sometimes, you may want to read Emma in Winter, which is about Charlotte's younger sister. There is another book about the two girls, written before Charlotte leaves for boarding school, but I have forgotten the name. It may have been called the Summer Birds. At any rate, check it out!

Rating:
Summary: ThAnk YOu RObERt SmIth!!!!!!
Review: Okay, yeah, I'm glad to find out that I'm not the only person out there who reads books becos some rock star tells her to! But I was just wandering around some Cure sites, and found out that both the songs "Charlotte Sometimes" and "A Letter to Elise" (my favorites, but that's another story) were based on this book. I vaguely rememberd having a copy from when I was wee, so I freed it from the attic and read it, and damn was it great! You don't know quite where it's going until the very end...read it, you'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: fairy tale for adults
Review: this book is wonderful. a mythologization of stubborn bits of reality. charlotte, a very alive child, begins to disassociate from reality when sent away to boarding school. soon she begins to switch places with her saintly doppleganger claire, of a different day and age. virtually no one notices the frequent replacements, which initially lead to major identity issues. eventually, however, charlotte's brief entry into the world of claire, causes her world to take on existential value, and everything becomes meaningful.