Despite the group reading this back in November, I am only just getting round to posting the club’s review. Is Christmas a valid excuse for getting so behind on these?

I think the main reason it has taken me so long to put this review together, is that I actually missed the last book club due to a train journey from hell! So I have very little insight into the group’s opinions of this month’s reads.

So apologies! This review will be mostly based on my own opinions. So not a very balanced, well-rounded debate like what we aim to do in each session.

Anyway! On to the review!

Chocolat: a 1999 best-selling novel by Joanne Harris, tells the story of Vianne Rocher and her six year old daughter Anouk. It begins as they arrive in a small French town and cause a bit of a stir almost immediately. When Vianne opens a chocolatier shop in the town, locals have mixed reactions from outrage to intrige. She then quickly makes an enemy of the priest, who dislikes her modern-living and begins to unravel as he tries to keep his control over the community.

This story is about fitting in, outsiders, community and belonging. It is these themes that made this a profound read that I found incredibly emotional at times. I was surprised by how attached I became to the characters, particularly Vianne and her daughter Anouk. They were written with such warmth and care that I dare any reader not to fall in love with them and route for the small, little chocolate shop to succeed.

Magic is another theme that runs throughout, however it was this element that I found jarring as a reader. It’s hard to know if the magical element was jarring for me personally because I am an avid fantasy reader, so therefore used to incredibly elaborate magical systems and elements in the stories I read. The issue I had in Chocolat was that the magic was never confirmed, it was at most hinted at, which I guess left a lot of the story up to the reader.

Was Vianne really a witch, casting spells into her chocolates to heal her customers?

Or did she simply have an empathetic mind, and found comfort in providing sweet treats for the townsfolk?

Was her mother really cursed?

There are many questions that are left up to the reader’s imagination throughout, and ultimately it was these unanswered questions and ambiguous magical workings that I struggled most with in this story.

Another interesting thing to note, is that there was a popular film-adaptation made of Chocolat, just a year after the book was first published.

I’m sorry I can’t provide more insight, as I am yet to watch the film-adaption. However, it would be interesting to see how close to the text the film follows or if it addresses any of the unanswered questions left in the novel.

Most of the novel remains fairly unambiguous to the time period it is set. This is why it is easy to assume the story is set further back than the 90s. With the setting being a small French village, still following the traditional way of life, I know many of our group misinterpreted the time period as being more historic. I personally found it a bit jarring but perhaps this wasn’t as common when the book was originally released, making this more of a book of its time.

The themes discussed throughout this book make this a heartfelt story of community and acceptance. So despite any issues raised, I think overall we enjoyed this selection.

The group gave Chocolat an average rating of three stars which I think is a fair evaluation.