This was my first time reading this book. I had seen the movie first and hadn’t even known that there was a book until a couple of months ago. I found the book on the website Thrift Books and ordered it. I was very excited to read it to see how the movie and the book compared. Honestly, it was very different from what I was expecting. It’s a good book, not saying that, but it was very different from what the movie portrayed. There are still similarities between the book and movie, but the order of scenes is different and outcomes of relationships are different also. It has all the same characters, plus more, but some names are different and their occupations are different as well. For example, in the movie Serge Muscat is the owner of a cafe in the town, in the book he’s still the owner, but his name is Paul-Marie (but he’s still the abusive, spit-fire that he is in the movie). And in the book the building that Vianne builds her chocolaterie in isn’t owned by Armande (she’s still the sassy, do-what-I-want woman that we love, perhaps even more so). Reynaud is the priest in the book instead of the mayor figure, but he still acts as Vianne’s enemy and tries to take her down. Out of all of the book-to-movie adaptations I’ve seen so far, this one has definitely been the one with the most changes. But I would also put it on my list of book/movie adaptations where each one is good on it’s own.
Aside from the changes from the book/movie adaptation, it is a very good book. The way it’s written is interesting because it goes back and forth between the point-of-view of Vianne and Reynaud. I’ve read books that are in a style similar to this, but it’s still hard sometimes to remember whose side you’re reading. It’s interesting to read the back stories of the main characters and how they came to be like they are and if/how they’re trying to change because of their past experiences. I would write more about the characters and story, but I don’t want to give anything away for those who either haven’t read the book or haven’t seen the movie. I will say, that I think the actor choices for the movie based on the characters in the book were really good.
Keep an eye out for my next review!
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