Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Although written
for the young adult/teen crowd, this fantastic book is a must read for
ALL ages! This book, literally, left me awestruck. The way this
wonderful author combined contemporary Brooklyn, New York with the eerie
brutality and pain that was felt during the Revolution in Paris, kept
me so unbelievably engrossed that I simply could not put this book down until I came to the conclusion.
We
begin our story with Andi. Andi is a young woman in her senior year of
high school. She attends the most prestigious school in NYC, and among
her friends are movie star's children as well as trust fund babes.
When we first meet Andi, she's in a large apartment of one of these
friends getting a "buzz" before going to school. No…it isn’t one of
those books. Andi needs that “substance-fueled force field” in order to
make it through the real world. Why? Because not too long ago Andi
was a straight-A student who played the guitar like Mozart played the
piano; she was looking forward to what the rest of her life had to
offer. But in one split second of time – the minute her young brother
passed away on a city street – everything in her world fell apart.
After her brother died a tragic death, her mother went insane, as most
mothers would. Unfortunately, Andi's father was off in his own world,
as well. He’s a well-known scientist who'd just come upon a major
breakthrough in the field of DNA and genome work. He had such a
breakthrough that he took home the Nobel Prize and then disappeared into
the bright limelight leaving his wife and children at home. One day he
reappears and sees what has happened to his wife's mind. Checking her
into a psychiatric hospital, he takes his daughter by the arm and leads
her to Paris, where a friend of his has asked for help. Andi doesn’t
want to go…but has no choice.
When they reach
Paris, they stay with one of her father's old college friends; a man who
is starting a museum dedicated to the Revolution. He has everything in
his warehouse from guillotines to the well-known coats of arms of
various families from the 15th century. What he also has is a strange
box that seems to call out to Andi to open it. Much to her surprise,
the small silver key that her brother had found before he died, and the
key that Andi had been wearing as a sort of testament of her love for
her lost brother, opens this mysterious treasure box, and inside is an
old leather-bound diary that'd been kept by Alexandrine Paradis during
the Revolution.
Here's the funny part: Andi's
father has come to Paris to run DNA tests on a heart that was found in a
glass jar that people truly believe belongs to Louis-Charles, who was
the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. This young man was the one
who was kept in a cell - a dark and lonely place - after his parents had
lost their heads. Little Louis also appears in the diary of
Alexandrine who, it turns out, was a young lady who cared for Louis with
all her heart. Soon, as Andi reads the words, she becomes embroiled in
a mystery of mammoth proportions. Not only does she learn about the
Revolution and Alexandrine's life, but she also solves the riddle of The Green Man.
It
would take thousands of review words to tell you the story that is told
within the pages of this remarkable novel, and there’s nothing I hate
more than ruining a perfect story by giving too much away. What I can
tell you is that the points of this story are endless. The way the
author describes music and how it has evolved from people like Bach to
genres such as jazz and rock n' roll, is laid out so wonderfully that
the author's point really hits home. Not only that, but the horrific
feelings that poor Andi and her family have to go through to deal with
the death of someone they've loved so much, leads readers into a world
of honesty, brutality, and a look at how suicidal thoughts and fears can
be squashed under the soles of love and fate. And, above all, the
historical facts and creativity make the Revolution practically jump off
the page and pulls the reader into a world where people did anything
they could to survive and stand up for the ones they loved.
Between Andi and Alexandrine, I was so immersed in this novel that I most assuredly have to add this book to my Top Ten of 2010.
This book’s first printing is going to be 250,000 copies; I have to
say, they’ll probably need to go back to press more than a few times
with this one. I offer a huge "Bravo!" to this fantastic author, and
can honestly say I can’t wait for her to reveal her next creative
journey.
Click Here To Purchase Revolution