Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Chocolat

This book was beautiful, as I have come to expect from Joanne Harris. It had everything I loved about Five Quarters of The Orange; incredible, rich descriptions with gorgeous metaphors throughout that gradually pull--and then drag you in. Her focus, like in Five Quarters, on describing food in the most luscious manner possible is the thread that weaves everything together; illustrating how important sharing meals and culture with each other bring even the most fractured communities together. This is a short read, but worth it. The main character is not without flaws, and her development through the book of being able to finally separate herself from the paranoid influence her mother had on her helped to flesh her out as truly human and capable of growth past the end of the novel, not just a simple hero. The stories from each of the diverse cast of characters are emotional and reflective, but don't take you on too long of a journey away from the plot. Really enjoyed this! (Though Five Quarters is still my favorite :) ). I will warn about the continuous use of the word "gyp*y" to describe the Roma(I'm assuming) transients/travelers in the book, and the hate that is thrown towards them from some of the characters/antagonists.

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octopus_farmer's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was a sensory book, bittersweet. I didn’t see the ending coming, though I should have. I drank hot chocolate with almond as I read.

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Chocolat seems the perfect book to review before the Easter weekend. Not only will Joanne Harris's delicious descriptions of the wares of La Celeste Praline whet one’s appetite for Sunday's chocolate eggs, but the main plot of the book concerns Vianne's Easter chocolate festival, and Father Reynaud's outrage that it might diminish the religious significance of the holiday.

In the years since I last read Chocolat, I'd managed to forget almost everything except the two extremes of this story. From the beginning, Vianne's story of the bells being blessed and carrying chocolate home to their bell towers, and, from the end, Father Reynaud's temptation in the window of Vianne's shop.

What I'd forgotten was Vianne's magical abilities, which came as a pleasant surprise this time around. I find stories of genuine witchcraft in the real world appropriately spell-binding, perhaps because they allow me to believe in magic, even if only in the context of the book's world. Vianne scrying in molten chocolate is just one example of Joanna Harris’s inventiveness in bringing together fortune-telling and cooking.

The characters in Chocolat are lovingly captured. Though my favourites are all among Vianne's friends, rather than her enemies, I can't help but notice that Joanne Harris gives even the antagonists a complexity which, sometimes, makes them sympathetic. I love Joséphine, Roux, Vianne and Armande best, but Father Reynaud is fascinating, and I was never annoyed to be given a new chapter from his perspective.

I hadn't realised that Chocolat had sequels, but I will eagerly add them to my to-read-list, along with everything else Joanne Harris has written.

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