Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Published: October 12. 2010
472 pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
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.
Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.
Kim’s Review:
I love this book so much! This was the first book that kept me up until 3:00 in the morning and then I had to give study halls to all my classes so I could finish it. Yeah, yeah, I was occasionally a bad teacher.
Revolution is the perfect combination of history and fantasy. No, none of us can really step back in time to live out the life of an obscure historical criminal just to see how the story ends. But Andi did, and we can all live vicariously through her. Donnelly does a great job of showing the other side of the French Revolution. It seems like in every portrayal, the royals are the bad guys and the revolutionaries are the good guys. That is not the case at all. As with most history, the Revolution was not black and white. There were no good guys or bad guys, there were people who fell on one side or the other. Both sides were guilty of horrible things and both sides did good things. Donnelly gives us a look into some of the true innocents in the Revolution, the royal children. Louis XVI and Marie Antionette had several children, but only their daughter survived the Revolution. What is truly sad is that their son, Louis-Charles, suffered in ways that no child should ever have to. He was imprisoned, sealed into a room and reduced to starvation and madness.
Andi was an ok character. I felt sorry for her because of the death of her brother and her mother’s downward spiral into a mental breakdown. Her father certainly didn’t help matters by ignoring everything, including Andi. But, at times, she turned into a whiny teenager and I lost patience with that attitude really fast! Alexandrine, the girl in Paris during the Revolution, was a much more likable character. She was faced with tough situation after tough situation and yet she kept fighting and trying and I found her fascinating! Overall, this is just an awesome book that held my attention from the first page to the last page. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction and to any teen whether they like to read or not.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
These Shallow Graves
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
488 Pages
Published: October 27, 2015
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 5 Stars
Description from Amazon:
Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter.
Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. The story is that Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his revolver, but the more Jo hears about her father’s death, the more something feels wrong. And then she meets Eddie—a young, smart, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. But now it might be too late to stop. The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and this time the truth is the dirtiest part of all.
Kim’s Review:
I loved this book! A good female protagonist that I actually like! I’ll admit that for some reason, I usually don’t like female leads. I wish I could tell you why, but I can’t put my finger on that reason. But Jo Montfort is pretty fantastic. I wouldn’t call her a badass, but she’s well on her way. Most spoiled brats don’t admit that they are spoiled. But Jo gains a self-awareness in this book that is refreshing. She starts out as a privileged, rich socialite but throughout the story, starts questioning her place in life. Does she really want to marry a guy that she doesn’t love? Just to sit on her ass for the rest of her life doing nothing but entertaining and birthing babies? That may be the future for some women, and it’s a noble one, but not for Jo. She wants to be a reporter, to see the world outside her small Gramercy neighborhood. Her father ends up dead, and though she is grieving, she refuses to accept the status quo of the story that the police and newspapers are selling. Then she meets Eddie Gallagher. My new book boyfriend!!!!! She crushes on him the same way that I crush on my husband. Hearing that other women are also attracted to those little parts of a man like the back of his neck, or his forearms, or that little bit of chest hair that peaks out of his open collar, makes me feel not so weird for doing so. Watching their relationship grow became one of the biggest pleasures of my life! And we haven’t even gotten to the mystery yet! But I have the tendency to spoil key details, so I’ll just say that it’s an awesome mystery that kept me going all the way to the end. But without making me feel stupid when everything is revealed. Some things I totally called earlier in the story, other things shocked me when they came to light. I recommend this book to everybody! Especially to those who love mysteries or historical fiction. I think y’all are gonna love it!
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