The timelines were confusing, and it was hard to keep track of who knew who in real life or just online.

Malbry ("pronounced " Mawbry") is the fictional village that serves as the setting for Joanne Harris' Yorkshire-based thrillers, notably Blueeyedboy [1], Gentlemen and Players [2] and Different Class [3]. Com uma história diferente das que estou habituada desta escritora, este livro tem um conjunto de ingredientes explosivos que o tornam um dos que tem o rumo mais surpreendente.Suburban witches, defiant old ladies, ageing monsters, suicidal Lottery winners, wolf men, dolphin women and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear all feature in this collection of 22 short stories from the author of 'Chocolat'. The Evil Seed was the only one which failed to impress but I think that was just a case of the publisher reissuing her very first writing for a quick buck. While working as a freelance illustrator and designer she wrote the bestselling Black Magician Trilogy, which was published in 2001-3 and was named an ‘Evergreen’ by The Bookseller in 2010. That made it very convenient to read a chapter here and there -- even two chapters while I waited for Delta Maid to get off the stage so Seth Lakeman would come on!

B., or whether he is simply using his vulnerability as another means to an end, is ultimately hard to say. When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. This book is an absolutely riveting tale about a boy and his Mum, about life lived online, about truth, lies, cruelty, bravery, love, murder . PS if you are interested in reading more about synaesthesia I would highly recommend Astonishing Splashes of Colour, an excellent novel by Clare Morall and in non-fiction, Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet – both fascinating and highly enlightening reads.

Both feature snobbish, influential village leaders and outsiders who are made to suffer for the crime of not fitting in.

B., a loner who spends most of his time on the internet either writing his own personal diary and telling the story of his life as he sees it and also writing fic (stories) on his badguysrock. If you’re studying this book as part of a readers’ group, here are a few resources to help you get started. Dark, twisted, clever and somewhat confusing - one of those books where I had to keep flipping back to previous pages to check if I'd got it straight - but ultimately satisfying. Plus I wanted to explore the idea that what one person feels when faced with a series of stimuli may sometimes differ completely from what someone else may experience in identical circumstances.BLUEEYEDBOY is a difficult book to describe, mainly because it doesn't fit neatly into any usual crime fiction pigeonhole, as with all of Joanne Harris's books. What is the lie she told when she was young, and how did it influence her life and that of those around her? Who is who, are the atrocious things described real, is the mother the only evil and abusive person in this story? Even so, Harris admits to sharing some of her anti-hero’s darker sensibilities – and that extends to thoughts or murder. Like her earlier Gentlemen and Players, this is a multiple-perspective narrative which toys with the many assumptions readers make about identity, reality and truth in fiction.

Joanne Harris’s Ten Tweets have been tiny islands of sensibleness and wisdom in the sea of lunacy that is Twitter for a long time now, dispensing advice and distilled observation to those who follow her. An intricate thriller with multiple twists and teasers, Joanne describes the novel as a Rubik’s cube. I am quite glad to have finished the book, and yet I would like to know more - the ending was left open.I’m delighted they are going to be collected in one place and, selfishly, am looking forward to catching up with all the ones I’ve missed. You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold on you, and the right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in that information. Perhaps it is deliberate - the book is the more menacing to be completed in the same tone - perhaps Joanne wants us to be on edge not quite knowing who is hiding behind which identity.