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.
The last time I read this I was probably 15. My best friend and I read it together, and we decided that she was a Violet-Claire and I a Claire-Violet, because I was a Violet that wanted badly to be a Claire and she the opposite. This book, our talks of it, my feelings for it...have stayed with me for a long time. I'm 24 now and I think often of the time when I was Violet-Claire and we made the ordinary pain and ugliness of our homelives into something beautiful, magical and useful. We romanticized it all, and got through it all, very much in debt to books like this. When I first started reading this book again a few days ago, I did not think it could possibly resonate in a similar manner. Immediately, I picked up on grammatical errors and editing issues I had never noticed as a teen. I was disappointed at 5 pages or so in...but then I kept reading. And somewhere along the line, the magic crept back into me. This book is a spell, a charm, against evil for me. It may not be for everyone, but it reminds me of happiness and of my own strength and of the purest and most perfect sense of camaraderie that I have ever known. It is so gorgeous. Favorite quotes (of many, many more):“I wish I wasn’t a girl who needed so much but a little free creature that slept in deserts and ran on clouds and lived on lilies.” - Claire “This was not a faerie tale. This was not the movies. This was life. It hurt more. It was excruciating. It was excruciatingly beautiful.”
What do You think about Violet & Claire (2000)?
This book catched my attention actually. Mrs.mann recommendeed it to me and i'm thankful she did! I would have to say this book is usually meant for teenagers around the age of high school. This book may have some very specific words not meant for ki8ds under the age of 13! If you know what I mean. Besides the bad words you can really relate to this book because it has a point of view of a teenage girl and her best friendgoing through .... you know girl stuff. I had my laughs and curious momments when reading this book. I would like to direct my own movie the way I visualize it.The reason why I wuold express my opinion was because in the story of "violet and claire" Violet wanted to produce her own movie with claire's help.The way these girls visualized a movie makes a reader wonder what there movie would be like.I totally recommend this book!
—Daisy
Violet wants nothing more than to direct movies. Dressing in black she's angry and intense, imagining camera sweeps and images she dreams of bringing to the big screen. Claire is a fairy come to life--complete with wings made of gauze and glitter. She radiates love and wishes to be a poet. And though these girls seem like complete opposites, they are the best of friends. Until the realities of life threaten to split them apart. Told in alternating narrative between Violet and Claire, their differences become even more pronounced. Where violet is dark and intense, Claire is light and fluffy (sometimes it's hard to believe anyone could be that sweet). This was my first Francesca Lia Block book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Since my best friend and I are similarly opposite, I completely related to their difficulties in remaining together and took hope in the fact that they finally made things work out. Because of the sex and drugs aspects, I would recommend this for mid- to late-teens.
—Rebecca Owen
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.
—Izlinda
