Flingo
15th October 2008, 07:42 PM
The first novel from Jenny Valentine, Finding Violet Park was shortlisted for the 2007 Carnegie Medal and the Branford Boase award.
When 16 year old Lucas see's an urn of ashes in a taxi waiting room, he decides he needs to rescue them as no one wishes to stay for their after-life eternity in a cab office.
The mini cab office was up a cobbled mews with little flat houses either side. That's where I first met Violet Park, what was left of her. There was a healing centre next door, a pretty smart name for a place with a battered brown door and no proper door handle and stuck-on wooden numbers in the shape of clowns. The 3 of number 13 was aw stuck on sideways and I thought it was kind of sad and I liked it at the same time.
The book tells of Lucas voyage to learn about Violet Park, and along the way he learns a lot about himself and his own personal history.
I expected this to be a very light-weight chick-lit style novel, but it actually has much more depth to it and addresses many more issues than I expected. And where multiple storylines can come across as forced or clumsy, Jenny Valentine weaves them together with ease and style.
This is an easy read in terms of effort needed to read it, but it is much more rewarding from what you can get out of it. A great first novel.
When 16 year old Lucas see's an urn of ashes in a taxi waiting room, he decides he needs to rescue them as no one wishes to stay for their after-life eternity in a cab office.
The mini cab office was up a cobbled mews with little flat houses either side. That's where I first met Violet Park, what was left of her. There was a healing centre next door, a pretty smart name for a place with a battered brown door and no proper door handle and stuck-on wooden numbers in the shape of clowns. The 3 of number 13 was aw stuck on sideways and I thought it was kind of sad and I liked it at the same time.
The book tells of Lucas voyage to learn about Violet Park, and along the way he learns a lot about himself and his own personal history.
I expected this to be a very light-weight chick-lit style novel, but it actually has much more depth to it and addresses many more issues than I expected. And where multiple storylines can come across as forced or clumsy, Jenny Valentine weaves them together with ease and style.
This is an easy read in terms of effort needed to read it, but it is much more rewarding from what you can get out of it. A great first novel.