| Title | : | Violet Claire |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0064472531 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780064472531 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 169 |
| Publication | : | First published September 22, 1999 |
Violet Claire Reviews
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This is the book that started it all for me. A friend recommended I read it, and Francesca Lia Block made an immediate move to the top slot in my favorite authors list, where she's stayed ever since.
Violet sees life as a movie. There's always a scene, a mood, something unfolding. Though her own life, sadly, is lacking in some of the necessities for a great script. Conflict. Her parents, who seem to be from a completely different bloodline than she, give her none. And what little she does have isn't juicy enough. Love interest. Sorely lacking. Anyone who can understand what she wants and where she's coming from.
Enter Claire. Innocence emboddied, wearing a Tinker Bell shirt with faerie wings, surrounded by taunting peers. Violet decides she's perfect. Claire, never having fit in, is happy to have a friend. And one who defended her.
Their early adventures are innocent enough. A visit to a transvestite bar. A trip to an underground concert, where Violet finds her love interest in the form of the godly Flint Cassidy. But her unwilling slip into humanity leaves her wounded, when she realizes she fell for an act like any other girl. Determined, she makes the most of it, and takes her script to his agent, who gives her a receptionist job in exchange for helping her with it.
Claire is first excited, soon after worried. Violet comes to school less and less, eventually isn't there at all. The poetry class they signed up for together also becomes Claire's alone. As she gets deeper into her relationship with the teacher, Violet isn't there to listen, or warn her. Claire too finds herself injured and lost.
But even the darkness can't keep them apart. After all the misunderstandings and apologies gone awry, their friendship prevails. Life in the desert, away from the cruelties of the big city, awaits.
Violet's portion of the story should appeal to any movie buff. Claire's to anyone who's ever felt alien, finding solace mostly in paper and pen. A very quick read, which might or might not keep you up at night to get to see how it turns out, and one of my all time favorites, I highly recommend Violet and Claire to any and all. -
Yeah... I went through this really weird phase where I kept accidentally reading young adult fiction, it was very odd. This book was about two friends and... I don't remember. I think they have some problems or something. If I was a teenage girl I probably would've been pretty into it.
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This book is like a dream.
There's a very mystical quality when reading it. The scenes meld into one another, which can be quite disjointing when reading it initially. Pages need to be re-read and at points, nothing is quite clear. The book is very short, however, (easily read in under an hour), and so it isn't quite difficult.
The love between Violet and Claire transcends sexuality, and Violet never makes any attempt to clarify their relationship. Claire relies more on Violet, that much is true, but in many ways, she opens Violet up and makes her recognise her innocence, her youth, her vulnerability. In many ways, Violet makes Claire stronger, but Claire doesn't quite reach it.
The Hollywood side to it baffled me a little, admittedly, and it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the novel. I think it would have been easier if Violet had fallen in with a bad crowd (such as at the club she visits) than going straight to Hollywood. -
Read many years ago when I was going through a distinct Francesca Lia Block phase and devoured everything she wrote. I remember taking these books out from the library. They were so racy - there are definitely very mature scenes and themes and characters - and how magical and illicit it all felt, because these were books with fantastic writing about growing up in a way that called so clearly to young adults in the 90s.
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“but you weren’t there when we made love, this girl might respond…you probably aren’t a girl who keeps trying to make life a movie either”
“i haven’t written in my journal for an eternity… i either have to be deliriously upset or deliriously in love…”
“but i’m afraid if i become real, i’ll be like my mother…”
“because what if i let him inside me and i thought the emptiness was gone and then he left? what kind of terrible emptiness would tear open then?”
“…and because they both loved the same girl…”
“this was not the movies. this was life. it hurt more. it was excruciating. it was excruciatingly beautiful…” -
I'm a fan of Block's and even though I'm out of her intended age market, I and many others like me, still love her work. I really WANTED to like this book more than I did. It was good, that's not at issue and it was a very well written meditation on female friendship and how sometimes society really pits girls/women against each other. So as a book on the intricacies of female friendship during the teen years and what appeared to be their very early 20's, I recommend this highly.
However: Many times it feels like this book is heading into F/F land and it was a pretty huge let down when it never did. The author routinely writes about M/M relatiosnhips in a way that is really second to none. Unlike almost ALL M/M relatiosnhips written by straight women, Block gets the queer community right... and we love her for it. But she has never, as far as I know written a book that delves into F/F territory. So when it looked like she had I was so excited I barely knew what to do with myself. When it never happened, my disappointment overshadowed a lot of my enjoyment of a truly good book. -
I have been a fan of Ms. Block’s for years since many moons ago when The Rose and the Beast was recommended to me and I fell in love. I read as much as I could get my hands on and in time have read the vast majority of her books, but it’s been years since I’ve really even looked at any of her classic stuff and thought it would be fun to re-visit an old favorite. I found that I am still very much enchanted by the author’s beautiful use of language and lush descriptions that paint crazy vivid pictures in your head, even though the story line didn’t hold my attention as much this time around. Block always writes with an effortless understanding of what it’s like to be a square peg and an embracing of that different shape and the beauty in it.
Also, just for good measure, one of my favorite quotes: “This was not a faerie tale. This was not the movies. This was life. It hurt more. It was excruciating. It was excruciatingly beautiful.” -
The brevity bothered me a bit, and a bit of the predictability, but it was engaging in the difference of the way it was written. Based on two girls, the first section is written by Violet, in first person, but with camera cues. The second section is written by Claire, in the form of a journal, again in first person, while the story concludes with a third-person look at Violet & Claire. It explores friendship, ambitions, attaining dreams and falling from them and relationships, though I suppose I would have wished a bit more development. Claire's fascination with the faerie and how she relates to them (ostracized from the developing human world) is a nice touch of fantasy and ethereal thinking, whereas Violet sees the world as a story.
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"It was excruciating. It was excruciatingly beautiful.". its a fast paced story. As troubled and dark Violet and Claire were, they exude innocence and pure love. This story seems to be all over the place yet also all together. I may not be able to grasp the story as a whole, but it touches me somehow, somewhere. After finished reading, the first thing that came to my mind was 'wouldnt it be nice to have someone there for you, protecting you like that?'
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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.
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The problem with FLB is that she gets teenagers so well that it's hard to read her books as an adult. This is a case of exactly that. I remember reading this book as a senior in highschool and totally relating. Now, the characters annoy the crap out of me.
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Pretty much how I usually feel about FLB's writing - I love the whimsy, I love the lush descriptors, but the stories are sometimes too underdeveloped to mean as much as they could.
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I thought that this book would be gay, but it was just some weird girls being friends. Not interesting at all and not worth the read to me.
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this book was incredible. the most impressive piece of literature i have ever read!! i am in the target demographic for this book and i must say that i love the story, characters, everything about it! it was so incredible it brought tears to my eyes!! it was gifted to me by a friend and until i finished it it was unable to put it down!!! so good!
that was sarcasm. i absolutely hate violet. shes dense, lacks a singe ounce of common sense, and overall is just SUCH an unlikable character in every way. she romanticizes self harm and acts like it’s a personality trait, shes so “haha edgy not like the other girls”, and her so called life goals and aspirations were essentially abandoned bc she fucked some gerard way rip off once. shes underage too, which is basically never addressed throughout her drinking, drugs, smoking, and sexual encounters w someone who is most likely at least 5ish years her senior. but that’s a whole different issue! if i met anyone like her irl i’d punch her in the face! she is violently unselfaware and i just. I HATE HER AAAHSHSHSHDHDHHFHFJFJFJFN she’s so fucking annoying to read about and i only finished this book so i could write more whiny annotations ab how much i hate everything she does.
the only positives i could find were the following:
- claire. love her. mwah.
- relatively civil trans rep in a book from 99???
- the writing which was 7/10 times pretty mediocre but at those other 3 times i could b quite funky and fun to read imo. -
This one breaks away from Block's typical flowery and kaleidoscopic prose, developing a distinct voice for each character. The characters themselves are very much in line with Block's typical style, being unique to the point of being almost fanastical -- something highschool me identified with strongly, in different ways for each character. This novel has a different overal tone and feel than Block's other books, taking on an almost noir tone without fully leaning in to noir or pulling away from Block's usual angles. The result is that I wouldn't be sure how to classify or even necessarily describe the storyline, and in the end there's a certain lack of resolution which is somewhat unsatisfying if only because there's a lack of development in the character established as the antagonist.
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The book "Violet & Claire" by Francesca Lia Block is about two completely opposite girls who meet unexpectedly and in the oddest way become really good and very close/best friends they both wanted different things but they ended up becoming angry at each other because of an issue they faced, one left the other and dropped out of school for drugs and partying. the other got bullied more too, so eventually one of the girls apologized to the other girl who dropped out and etc. The theme for this book in my opinion would be no matter what challenges you face with your best friend, dont let that stop you from being close to them, because their one of the most important people in your life.
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I read this one a few years ago when I was on a Francesca Lia Block kick, but really, I think I should have read it back in high school. I might have enjoyed it more then.
As it was, the first half of the book seemed kind of surface level. I was more of a fan of the last half. It seemed to get to the heart of things and blur the lines of reality in that typical style that I've come to love from this author. -
I wanted to see what all the hoopla about Francesca Lia Block was about, so this was the first Francesca Lia Block book I have read. I must say, she is definitely a good writer! I loved references to all things modern in this book, especially the Tori Amos lyrics! Tori Amos is a genius. Anyway, I think I might have enjoyed this book even more if I had read it when I was younger.
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Been reading this author since I was about 15 or 16. Block can be a bit of a hit-or-miss but I immensely enjoyed this. Very mystical and faerie like, reads like a poem or a dream.
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After having it sit on my nightstand for a month I finally DNF'd this book. I was bored throughout the book and couldn't connect to the characters. Maybe I'll pick it up later, though I doubt it.
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Very bizarre, but short and quick read.
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I used to be a Block completeist. I don't think one was that memorable.
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such a mood
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It was pretty dry and boring throughout. Nothing too gripping.
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Any book I read in less than 24 hours gets 5 stars. (Er, the ones that are at least novella length.) This was beautiful. Like, half poetry, half prose. I want more.
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For a while, I’ve been thinking of doing a feature or something where I could showcase older books that I loved but haven’t read in a few years. I realized, though, that I don’t really have that much time for rereading, so I sort of just tossed that idea to the side and moved on. But recently I’ve been itching to read some older Francesca Lia Block – she was my favorite author as a teen, and this reading slump I’ve been is has been begging me to get to a comfort read. So at random, I pulled Violet and Claire from my shelf, and man, am I glad I did.
It has been a seriously long time since I read Violet and Claire. It wasn’t my favorite book by FLB when I read it the first time, and honestly it still isn’t. But I think I got more out of it this time around. I was able to see the thing hidden under the surface text and I understood better the emotions the author was trying to convey. I felt much more connected to the characters, reading as an adult.
Violet is not very likable. Like, at all. But that doesn’t stop her from being a great character to read about. She’s a control freak. She’s kind of pretentious. She doesn’t know how to read the social cues of others, though she very much believes she understands the human condition. She’s a survivor; she suffers from depression and even overcame thoughts of suicide and self-harming. Movies and film-making are her passions and her obsession and dedication are endearing. Violet is writing a screen play loosely based on her own life, but because she is just 17, because she hasn’t really experienced the world yet, she is still searching for that elusive conflict. She puts herself in dangerous positions to find a Love Interest, a Meet Cute, a Conflict. And when it finally comes together for her, things turn sour, and fast.
It isn’t until the second half of the book, when the POV switches, that we get to understand Claire more. Violet kind of put her up on a pedestal and was more interested in what Claire could be instead of who Claire really is. It’s hard not to let your heart break for Claire, a girl so thirsty for love that she will look in every wrong place to find it, will soak up any attention she can get. She has been through so much, with her father leaving her family, and bullying – and way, way worse – at school. You want so badly for things to go her way. The reader will fall in love with the lyrical poetry of her voice.
Violet and Claire though a quick read, is not an easy one. These girls go through so much pain, both together and apart. But the end is magical anyway. Their love for one another is stronger than the conflict that tore them apart. If you’re a fan of Francesca Lia Block and haven’t read this one yet, I urge you to. It’s not as poetic and lush as, say, I Was A Teenage Fairy, and it’s definitely more grounded in reality than Weetzie Bat so I do believe that Violet and Claire can widen the audience for FLB’s books, especially for those who love contemporary books with LGBT themes.
