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    Finding Violet Park
    Unavailable
    Finding Violet Park
    Unavailable
    Finding Violet Park
    Audiobook3 hours

    Finding Violet Park

    Written by Jenny Valentine

    Narrated by Gareth Cassidy

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    Narrated by the most compelling voice since Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, this is a quirky and original voyage of self-discovery triggered by a lost urn of ashes.

    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 a w stuck on sideways and I thought it was kind of sad and I liked it at the same time.

    Sixteen-year-old Lucas Swain becomes intrigued by the urn of ashes left in a cab office. Convinced that its occupant – Violet Park – is communicating with him, he contrives to gain possession of the urn, little realising that his quest will take him on a voyage of self-discovery and identity, forcing him to finally confront what happened to his absent (and possibly dead) father…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateSep 2, 2010
    ISBN9780007398812
    Unavailable
    Finding Violet Park
    Author

    Jenny Valentine

    Jenny Valentine worked in a food shop for fifteen years, where she met many extraordinary people and sold more organic bread than there are words in her first book. She studied English literature at Goldsmith's College, which almost made her stop reading but not quite. Her debut novel, Me, the Missing, and the Dead, won the prestigious Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in the UK under the title Finding Violet Park. Jenny is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children. She lives in Hay on Wye, England.

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    Reviews for Finding Violet Park

    4/5

    143 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Lucas's dad has been missing for years, and nobody talks about him much. Then Lucas meets a woman named Violet in a taxicab office, who seems to know all about his dad. But Violet is dead, nothing more than ashes in an urn, abandoned in a cab.
    • 4/5
      My favorite thing about this book is that it’s written from a guy’s point of view
    • 4/5
      A teenage boy is troubled by the absence of his father who went missing when he was 10. Whilst in a taxi office in the middle of the night he discovers an intriguing urn of ashes that were left behind in a taxi and sit almost forgotten upon a shelf. The ashes of Violet Park seem to haunt him and as he starts investigating her life he stumbles upon information about his father and how they are all connected. A refreshing storyline and an interesting and well told tale. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      A London teen whose father left years ago decides to rescue an urn (with the ashes of an old lady) from a cab company shelf. The more he learns about who she was, then more he learns that his missing father maybe isn't worthy of the hero worship he's been giving him.The plot is fun and interesting, but I never warmed to the main character. *shrug*
    • 4/5
      This was really good. I thought at first that it's a ghost story, being there's the word 'dead' in the title. But it turns out to be a family story, of coping up with the loss of a family member. Lucas's father may not be dead, but he may as well be for the ones he left behind.

      I don't think Lucas finding Violet's urn was a coincidence. For me, it was divine intervention. It was like life's way of letting Lucas know what kind of person his father was. And in the process, it also helped him come to terms with himself, with his mother and with everything he believed in about his father. He may not get his father back but he learned to move on.
    • 4/5
      A teenage boy is troubled by the absence of his father who went missing when he was 10. Whilst in a taxi office in the middle of the night he discovers an intriguing urn of ashes that were left behind in a taxi and sit almost forgotten upon a shelf. The ashes of Violet Park seem to haunt him and as he starts investigating her life he stumbles upon information about his father and how they are all connected. A refreshing storyline and an interesting and well told tale. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I was expecting more action and not as much thoughtful thinking and miserable lives, but definite points for an excellent ending.
    • 4/5
      Me, the Missing, and the Dead was a cute and funny tale of a teenaged boy who, in his soul-search for his absentee father accidentally stumbles upon an urn with the ashes of a mysterious old lady. He is haunted by the old lady and begins to delve into her past. In doing so, he finds out more about himself, his family, and his missing family. Valentine did an excellent job of mixing an emotionally charged story with teen humor and a hint of the supernatural. I loved it, and definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about teenaged angst, or who just likes a good laugh.
    • 3/5
      Valentine’s Me, the Missing, and the Dead starts out promisingly enough: Lucas takes a cab home one evening (well, early morning, technically), and becomes drawn to an urn left in the smoke-filled, gritty rooms of the cab company. Someone left behind the ashes of a “loved one,” Violet, and Lucas feels she is communicating with him from the other side. He finagles a way to get Violet in his possession, and thus begins the tie-in to his missing father, a mystery that has been unsolved for years.Valentine’s writing style is certainly not high or thought-provoking, but she paints a thorough picture of Lucas. My favorite characteristic of Lucas is that he is witty, and that provides a fast pace for most of the novel. I will admit it does lapse in pace in some parts. Overall, it was a quick, fun, witty read, but not a novel to highly recommend. Also, this novel is a William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist. 3Q 4P M SHere are some favorite quotes:“I saw a film once about an alien who landed on Earth in a human body in a mental hospital. He had all this amazing stuff to teach everyone and he kept telling the doctors who he was, where he was from, and what he had to offer in the way of secrets of the universe and stuff; but they just thought he was crazy and pumped him full of drugs and he stayed there until he died. Maybe something like that happened to my dad. He wants more than anything to call us and it’s been five years, and wherever he’s locked up he’s not allowed to phone and he’s just waiting for us to find him. This sort of thought, and other variations, occur to me at least once every day. Like I said, it’s the not knowing that’s hard.” (9)“To stay calm on the way out I made a list in my head of all the good reasons to make friends with a dead lady in an urn.1.A dead old lady would never be judgmental or lecture me like every other female on the planet.2.If I decided to find out about her, she might turn out to be the collest, most talented, bravest person I’d ever heard of, and I might sort of get to know her without the hassle of her actually existing.3.I would get to rescue her, and I never did that for anything before. It sort of makes you need them, too, in your own way.4.A dead old lady would be easy to like because she couldn’t’ leave any more than she had already.” (27)
    • 3/5
      I think I was expecting this book to be more of a physical search for answers. In some ways it is, but it’s mostly about Lucas coming to terms with his dad’s absence, and learning more about him in the process. And while it was different from what I thought it would be, I found it to be a good read, but for different reasons than I expected. In many ways Lucas has a maturity that is beyond his years, but when it comes to his dad he’s perpetually ten years old. Typical ten year olds still look at their parents as mostly faultless. Sure, they might be embarrassing from time to time, or maybe aren’t around as much as you’d like, but at that age there’s still vestiges of the belief that your parents are heroes. So it was with Lucas and his dad, and his mom must bear the brunt of the reality that comes as those feelings fade. His dad remains a saint while she looks like the angry bad guy. Much of the book deals with Lucas slowly realizing that his father wasn’t a superhero, and dealing with the reality of who he really was. Violet’s appearance into Lucas’s life results in his desire to get to know his (paternal) grandparents better. These interactions were particularly enjoyable for me as it reminded me of my own visits with my grandparents. There’s also a burgeoning relationship between Lucas and a girl he meets, and their ability to help each other through pain is beautifully written. This is a relatively short book and a quick read. The journey Lucas takes in order to see the truths of his world and the strange coincidences along the way create a great character-driven story.
    • 5/5
      I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this, but it turns out to be one of the best YA books I've read in a long time. Valentine's short book about Lucas's adventures with an urn full of ashes is far more than just some sort of creepy ghost story. Instead, Me, the Missing and the Dead is really about love and family. It's about seeking the truth and what happens when you find it. I definitely loved this book.
    • 5/5
      Lucas's dad has been missing for years, and nobody talks about him much. Then Lucas meets a woman named Violet in a taxicab office, who seems to know all about his dad. But Violet is dead, nothing more than ashes in an urn, abandoned in a cab.
    • 4/5
      Digging into his father's past via an urn containing a stranger's ashes leads sixteen year old Lucas to discover and face the truth about his father's disappearance. It's a nifty idea and the plot holds together well. Lucas's growth as he begins to face what he has long denied rings true for a character coming of age. The book is a bit slow-moving and some of the British language may make it harder to access for some American readers. A decent read.
    • 3/5
      This one was a reverse sandwich for me - with the meat at the beginning and end, the low carb bread in the middle. I found it's casual approach to drug use and drinking interesting - and the entire plot strong in it's originality.
    • 5/5
      Check the next issue of The Alan Review for a review of this book!
    • 5/5
      "If you think about it, a person being dead isn't any barrier to finding out what they are like. Half the people we learn about in school have been dead for ages. I met Violet after she died but it didn't stop me from getting to know her. " (28)"Through the headphones I could hear them moving and breathing as well as talking. I heard birds outside the window where they were sitting, and cars. Someone was pouring tea; I heard the clink of a spoon against the inside of a cup. I closed my eyes - and I'm sitting right there with them, like I've traveled in time. All of us in one room, me and the missing and the dead." (153)