The Girl With No Shadow is Joanne Harris' sequel to her novel Chocolat. I had found the movie Chocolat much better than the book version, probably because I saw the movie first and it was so wonderfully told and so different from the book, that I found the book less satisfying. But The Girl With No Shadow delivered fabulously.
Joanne Harris knits a creepy world of maybe-magic and power-responsibility. I loved it, but it did scare me to death. The insidious way evil pulls the daughter away from the mother spoke too closely to my heart. My own daughter is seventeen and nearly leaving home. She's not being collected by a black-hearted witch named the Queen of Hearts, but kids pull away to be independent. It's a good thing, a healthy thing, but the process is at times painful. Especially knowing the way the world can manipulate.
Here are some quotes to feast on:
Page 120: "There's no such thing as magic," I said.
"Then call it something else." She shrugged. "Call it attitude, if you like. Call it charisma, or chutzpah, or glamour, or charm. Because basically it's just about standing straight, looking people in the eye, shooting them a killer smile, and saying, fuck off, I'm fabulous."
Page 185: The moment he walked into the shop, I knew he was going to be my kind of trouble.
Page 265: He seemed a calm and kindly man, but too like so many of his kind, with his well-worn words of comfort and his eyes that saw all of the next world, but none of this one.
Page 281: But before I could call out his name, he was gone, slipping away among the tombs, quick as a cat and quiet as a ghost.
Page 360-1: Outside the wind is riding high. A killer wind, charged with snow. Sleepers in doorways will die tonight. Dogs will howl; doors slam. Young lovers will look into each other's eyes and for the first time will silently question their vows. Eternity is such a long time -- and here, at the dead end of the year, Death seems suddenly very close.
Page 386: Outside, the snow has settled thickly, and although the light has begun to fade, the ground is weirdly luminous, as if the street and sky had exchanged places.
