Violet   Claire starts out like a movie script: EXT:HIGH SCHOOL QUAD - DAY and INT: LIMO - NIGHT. It pulls you into a world ofcamellias and "hard-candy colored cars."

The maincharacters are total opposites. Claire has platinum blond hair and wears lightblue shirts with fairy wings glued to her back; she's a living Tinkerbell. Violethas black hair (dyed, of course), all-black clothing and disdain for the world.Her only friend before Claire was her Powerbook. The girls are outcasts at theirLos Angeles high school, with no friends except each other.

Violet &Claire conveys the grittiness of L.A. while making it sound like a wonderland offlower blossoms and glitter. The story takes readers on a wild ride throughbroken hearts and broken friendships.

The girls' friendship dissolves whenViolet sells her screenplay and is pulled into a world of drugs, wild parties andsmooth-talking studio men (or, as Violet calls them, "suits") lookingfor fresh blood. Claire is left to her own devices, but in the end she and Violetrealize they are "two halves of the perfect girl" and go back to beingbest friends.

This is a tale that is modern yet has a certainold-fashioned style. Block's writing is unlike any other. She puts her charactersin situations that are unbelievable yet somehow seem realistic. Violet &Claire is excellent and more than I had expected. In Block's other books I hadbeen put on a road of fairies, feathers and missing fathers. This book isdifferent and should not be taken lightly.