Violet & Claire

Rating:
Summary: the most beautifle, discriptive book ever!
Review: This is a masterpiece! i have read alot of F. L. Bloc's books, and this is one of the best ones! I reccomend it as one of the most wonderful, powerful books of the 20th century.

Rating:
Summary: This is a terrible book (but it gets 2 stars for Tori Amos)
Review: I saw this book displayed at my school library. Immediately, Ithought it would be interesting. I read the little description and itsounded perfect for me. Contrasts of dark and light, movies, poetry, etc. The basic plot outline had so much promise. The author's problem though, is that she never really delves into any of it. She just mentions it, never truly describing it. The book overall lacks feeling and personality. In the end, you don't really feel like you got to know the characters or sympathize with them. They seem somewhat annoying. The way she writes the book, it almost seems claustrophobic. She piles on meaningless words. It's all words and no imagery. What I did liked was the poetry and Claire's descriptions but that's not enough to save this book. Overall I do not think that you should read it but if you still want to, at least borrow it-don't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: lays
Review: flb's writing is addictive like caffeine. it's shimmery sweet and glossy like strawberry syrup. v&c is the first book i read by flb and after reading it, i was hooked forever! the contrast from violet's dark world, laced with the silver threads of love, and claire's pink glossed world, stretched under a web of dark netting, made me feel like i had dreamed my feelings into flb's mind and into her books. i went on to read dangerous angels and girl goddess #9, and was just as happy with them. recommended for those of you whos inner faerie has already escaped or is on the verge of it...

Rating:
Summary: flb's typically beautiful prose in an un-typically bad book
Review: i rushed to the bookstore to buy v&c just days after it came out because i generally adore anything written by flb, but i was sort of disappointed with this book. the story has alot of gaps in it and the portion of the book that violet narrarates seem particularily rushed. the claire part reads alot more comfortably. her beautiful poetic descriptions are still there, but even they seem forced. i would recommend this book to a fan of francesca's, but not to a firt time reader. she's done much better in the past.

Rating:
Summary: Oowww....
Review: I loved her previous books, although I thought with "I was a Teenage Fairy" she was moving onto thin ice. Alas, with "Violet & Clare" I think the ice is cracking beneath her feet. I was barely able to finish the book, despite its shortness. The plot was boiled, the characters leaden and while Violet and Clare certainly represented the banality of the angst ridden teenager, I don't think that is exactly what Miss Block had in mind. I was so disappointed that I considered returning the book half-read, first time I've ever contemplated such. : < I managed to muster on to the end, but most of the plot has already flown from my mind. All that remains is a sense of disappointment and the feeling that perhaps she needs to write, for once, about girls who are not thin. Also, it might have have just been me, but the Lolita-like cover photo didn't do much for me either.

Rating:
Summary: ummm...definatly not her best
Review: I love Francesca Lia Block, but, I have to say that I found this book rather boring. It was just really slow and, just, I don't know I just didnt like it very much

Rating:
Summary: beautiful
Review: This book is wonderful. i take it as a story about the friendship of these two girls, though it does have other messages. Block has the most unique and intriguing style of writing i have ever encoutered. i have heard critics call it lyrical, and it is the best way to describe it. i would like to say, though, that this book is meant for and should be read by a much older age group than 4 - 8, which is the level amazon.com set it at for the paperback version.

Rating:
Summary: Poetic Rapture and Heartbreak
Review: "Violet and Claire" is a novel of poetic rapture, convincingly portraying the ecstasy and agony of the creative temperament as embodied in two young women, who serve to represent relative extremes of brooding ambition and irridescent idealism. It is an emotionally twisting journey the novel takes, however, often throwing the reader for a loop. Throughout the first forty or so pages, I often reminded myself of Goethe's famous remark about his novel "Elective Affinities", that (to paraphrase) 'Every line in this book embodies the essence of my life, while not a single line reflects anything that has ever happened to me.' Anybody who loves the cinema will be ecstatic over Violet's 1st-person narrative. However, by the end of the novel, one may feel confused about the treatment of Claire. She loses the confidence of her lover, Brookman, who connects with Violet because the two of them share difficult lives, particularly some drug problems. Claire, devastated by their apparent intimacy, indulges in some drug debauchery of her own and retreats into self-loathing. I am not sure whether to regard this as a "learning experience"or not; on the one hand, one is pained to see her so down on herself, but on the other, she seems spiritually violated, and at the end, I am not certain whether she has managed to keep her faierie (spl! ) dreams of a perfect world. Both Violet and Claire are, I think, beautiful souls, but the novel's retreat into 3rd person narrative at the end leaves me feeling emotionally detached and distant from the characters one has come to know and love.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste!
Review: Buying this book is like throwing away your money. It has no plot and the characters are not likable. they are stupid persons. It's as if Block tries to hard to write about "cool" stuff, like Tori Amos songs and it all ends up sounding false. I hated both Violet and Claire. Don't buy this book please!

Rating:
Summary: after finishing this book, i don't know if i like it
Review: i like to step away after completing a book having learned something about myself or felt something i hadn't before. this book was certainly interesting but i did not find it riveting or something worth reading again. i didn't step away with something new inside of me. it was a bit cryptic, and i like deep meanings, but i just couldn't grasp what on earth the author was trying to convey. the book is full of interesting insight and references to the supernatural...but, being a skeptic, i don't relate to this. however, i finished the book, which surprised me. it is short and decidedly artsy.