Reviews

Oct 2, 2019
This review contains no spoiler.

Violet Evergarden is Kana Akatsuki's first novel, and she toiled incessantly creating this beautiful and melancholic novel. By reading her afterwords, one can tells that she really channels her everything into the book, and I can sometimes see the author's own reflections in her writing, which further concretes the proof that she put her soul along with a huge amount of effort into the novel.

The story follows the eponymously named Violet Evergarden; a travelling Auto-Memories doll (an amanuensis. In short, clients call upon her services to transcribe their thoughts and words into letters, books, documents, etc), and her journey throughout the country of Leidenschaftlich. As the story progresses, Violet learns more about her clients - their stories and emotions, which also enrich Violet's personality and experience as well, and it doesn't end there.

The structure of the novel is quite unusual, and in a good way. The first chapters are told from different places and settings, and the main story of these chapters revolves around Violet's clients and while Violet is involved, she is not the center focus. But during these opening chapters, through the clients' stories and interactions with Violet as she helps them carrying their tasks and wishes, it reveals little by little about Violet's character and personality in an indirect way. As the story progresses, Violet's involvement gradually grows more significant; the focus is now shifting towards her; aside of Violet's current traits and personality, her backstory and her past are partially unveiled, and when the readers have an overall picture of Violet's past and present, the story shifts a gear, focusing fully on Violet's backstory, unfolding her whole past and it's aftermath. During these chapters, we will finally get a grasp of what kind of person Violet was which explains her unusual 'doll-like' behaviours and her circumstances, her struggles and sufferings. We will also understand her drive to become an Auto-Memories Doll, and most importantly her ardent, almost hopeless yearning towards that one entity along with the key value that she does not yet possess and understand. And in the end, when we piece all of it together, the result is an arduous but beautiful transformation of Violet Evergarden - sorrowful, bittersweet, melancholic, sometimes straight up tragic; but ultimately, a poignant ending.

The writing is well executed for a fantasy setting - the world is described vividly, which helps readers visualize and imagine with ease. The characters' thoughts and emotions are described with precision, and also very emotion-based, told through both first and third person, while effectively goes along with the dialogues that are refined, minimal with no excessive lines, devoid of drama, yet very intense at times, to the point of gouging the reader's heart as much as it gouged the character's. All formed together, creating a reading experience that exudes a very melancholic atmosphere but strangely not heavy. This, along with the carefully laid-out story structure makes reading this novel very engaging until the end. All the main characters are well fleshed out, their development is satisfying to see from beginning to end. The supporting characters all fulfilled their roles as well, each directly or indirectly influence Violet's actions and her emotions; and some of them even though appear in only one chapter but their story and developement is quite enjoyable and memorable.

While there are a lot of things to praise about this novel, there is also a thing or two that fall short. Since this novel is heavily character-based, it should be point out that while Violet's backstory is fully explained, her origins remained a mystery. There were attempts to cover it up but personally I think it is clumsily executed. But given the context and circumstance of Violet, it is not a big problem and can be turned a blind eye. There is also one side character whose purpose is to help uncovering Violet's past but comparing to the rest of the cast, this character falls short in terms of depth and their ending came in all of the sudden but poorly explained.

Overall Violet Evergarden is a magical fantasy novel; a very emotional story of self discovery through insurmountable pain and sorrow. While the depiction isn't something everybody can relate to because of the immense melancholy along with bizzare characters and circumstances, I'm sure everybody can feel, sympathize, endear and embrace the characters throughout their journey.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice Nice0
Love it Love it0
Funny Funny0
Show all
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login