Summary from GoodReads:

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

(Read the rest of the summary on GoodReads here.)

My Review:

I’m a little torn on this book.  I’ve been hearing how fantastic it is, and to be honest, that’s one of the worst things that could happen for me.  If a book/movie is over-hyped, then I tend to expect way too much from it and, as a result, end up disappointed.

So finally my curiosity overcame my hesitation and I picked up Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.  It’s a hefty book, 472 pages of depression, historical background, French Revolution, musical terms and history, all adding up to a commitment on the behalf of the reader to get through it all, despite the heavy subject matter.  Get through it, I did – although I do admit to having less-than-liked some of the more historical parts.

I loved Andi’s voice, and I ached with pain for her as she dealt with some impossibly harsh blows that life had given her.  I am, however, totally over the rich kids school/boarding school thing.  It almost feels like a cop-out when it comes to books – you want your main character to have the ease of traveling or have whatever he or she would like, so you make them rich.  It takes away some from the authenticity of the book for me… but it was a necessary evil for Donnelly to accomplish what she set out to do with Revolution.

Alexandrine’s voice I had a bit of a harder time with.  She sounded so.. modern, much more modern than someone straight out of the French Revolution should have sounded.  Yes, this makes it easier to read, but it also made my mind hurt a little bit when I’d remember what context I was reading her words in.

I do have to give Jennifer Donnelly credit though for not taking the easiest of paths when it comes to a story of this nature.  I was cringing, waiting for a “happily ever after” or a sudden twist that appeared to be on the horizon but never managed to show it’s predicable, ugly face. While there was an ending, it was a realistic one, and while there was a twist, it was not the cringe-worthy one I had been expecting and, as a reader, I was grateful for that.  I felt as if I’d been treated as a reader with intelligence, rather than being treated as if i was a mindless person expecting to be entertained.

So in closing, there were parts of this book I loved, I think it’s a fantastic look on mental illness, depression and handling these serious issues.  I think it was an okay look back to the French Revolution, and I think there were definitely parts that could have used a bit of tweaking (one part in particular seemed a little … too convenient in the story).  For those teens that are historical fiction fans, and who enjoy novels about Paris, this is a definite must-read.  The descriptions and much of the information about the Revolution would be a great springing board for further historical reading.

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21 Pages

Garden of Books