Revolution

I originally bought this book at a book fair in Highschool, but didn’t read it until after I graduated. Ever since it has been one of my favorite novels of all time and one that I re-read at least every couple years. Donnelly paints a world so vivid I can’t put this novel down whenever I read it over again, despite knowing what comes next. It’s a gripping tale of two different girls, centuries and worlds apart, yet their maturity, their bravery, and their courage despite trials, grief, and loss, continue to enthrall me. Their story is one I recommend to every one interested in a great, immersive, and adventurous read! Truly Jennifer Donnelly’s greatest novel to date.

Andi Alpers is on the verge of being expelled from her Brooklyn prep school when her father intervenes. His price is that Andi spend winter break with him in Paris, where she is expected to work on her senior thesis, a study of famous French composer Amade Mahlerbeau. Any other girl would be thrilled at spending Christmas in Paris, but Andi resents her father for being absent throughout her life, and knows that he blames her for the death of her younger brother Truman. But while staying at a family friend's, Andi discovers a hidden diary dating back to the eighteenth century and in it the story of Alexandrine Paradis, a young woman caught in the cross fires of the French Revolution. Alex's story grabs hold of Andi and takes her through the years, all over Paris, and finally into the catacombs, where both girls' fates intertwine. Revolution is a most excellent novel--complicated, brutal, heartbreaking, and striking. While the majority of the book is told from Andi's point of view, Revolution is as much about Alex's story as well. Donnelly brings Alex and the French Revolution alive in her diary, and shows us not only the struggles of the people and their fight for a better life, but also the suffering of the royal family, especially the lost prince Louis-Charles, who didn't deserve the injustices that he had to endure before his death. There are so many elements of Revolution that come together perfectly: Andi's grief and pain over the loss of her brother and her strained relationship with her parents, her research into Mahlerbeau. his mysterious past, and why he named his most famous work The Fireworks Concerto, Alex's own life, the time she spent in the catacombs, her devotion to the prince Louis-Charles, and finally the twenty-first century investigation into the genetics of his lost heart. Everything is stunningly played out until Andi and Alex come to the same powerful realization, hundreds of years apart--that life and the world will be brutal and terrible, and no one can ever change that, but they can change themselves, and this revelation is the most affecting revolution both girls experience. Revolution is a beautiful, meticulously researched, and realistic novel full of music and words that have the power to heal, and the ability to transcend centuries of time. It goes beyond all description, and it will resonate deeply with you. You simply must read it.

I like Jennifer Donnelly's new novel REVOLUTION so much I'm giving it five stars which from me is a rare rating. The book is not perfect but it is a very enjoyable read with great characters, several timely universal themes and two very well realized major settings (contemporary upscale Brooklyn and Paris during both the French Revolution and the present time). The three sections of Dante's THE DIVINE COMEDY are the inspiration for dividing this novel into parts entitled "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise". But the reader needs no knowledge of 14th century Italian literature to enjoy this book as the writing is clear, quick, and aimed at young adult readers though many book lovers quite a bit over age eighteen will enjoy the book as much as I did. The book begins with Andi a talented high school senior from a very affluent family. She is suffering from depression, prescription drug abuse and suicide ideation. Andi's world had fallen apart two years earlier when her ten year old brother died tragically while he was supposed to be under her watch. Her parent's marriage broke up as in the aftermath her French born, artist mother descended into mental illness while her famous geneticist father found a new life and family with a twenty-five year old girlfriend. Andi has tried to quell her own suffering with promiscuity, self medication and her great musical talent with her preferred instrument the guitar. During a winter school vacation Andi's father returns, commits her mother to a mental hospital and forces Andi to accompany him to Paris where he is working on a project designed to discover if a two hundred plus year old preserved heart came from Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's tragic son. Andi is supposed to finish her senior thesis during this Paris trip. She does accomplish this and also discovers firsthand the horrors of the French Revolution through a supernatural connection with a diary she discovers. In present day Paris she meets a handsome fellow musician who seems to be the nice guy of her dreams and begins to come to terms with the guilt and tragedy in her past. Author Donnelly skillfully weaves both real and fictional people together particularly in the French Revolution sequences. I found myself doing some research to find out which characters and situations were historically accurate and which sprung from the author's imagination. Donnelly also knows her guitar music - both classic and contemporary which adds a lot of credibility to the story. Aimed at older teens REVOLUTION is not "squeaky clean". There are sexual references and Andi and her friends abuse both legal and illegal substances. A lot of the Paris action takes place in the catacombs under the city and very realistic descriptions of these tombs as well as some depictions of the horrors that took place during the French Revolution are included that may not be for the very easily disturbed. I read Ms. Donnelly's first young adult book A NORTHERN LIGHT a few ye

I enjoyed Jennifer Donnelly's most recent work of fiction 'Revolution'. While it's cleary written for the young adult reader I found the story and characters engaging, the history interesting and the sense of loss suffered by the main character moving. Donnelly threads together the past and the present with the story of two girls who are struggling to survive. Andi Alpers has suffered the loss of her brother and the after-effects his death has had on her family. Alexandrine Paradis is scrambling to stay alive, during the chaos in Paris, during the French Revolution. I enjoyed the pace of the story, it kept me curiously turning the pages. I liked the two protagonists and found myself emotionally moved by the aftermath of the death of, Andi's brother, Truman. Donnelly cleverly builds the story up and then weaves the worlds of the past and the present together, which was my favorite part of this novel. I also enjoyed the way Donnelly tied the history together with music and images that repeat themselves and eventually unravel "unknown" history. There were a few flat notes of timely coincidences, clumsy comments and overly inattentive adults but overall I enjoyed the story and the characters very much. While this novel isn't going to be for everyone I think the audience it's intended for will eat it up. I really enjoyed it, it was a fun and satisfying read.

Jennifer Donnelly's newest novel weaves a spell on its readers with its riveting genre-busting blend of realistic contemporary young adult fiction, historical fiction, and even some paranormal fiction tossed in the mix. It's the story of two fascinating young women, Andi and Alex, who live more than two centuries apart, but whose lives intersect at the close of this compelling tale. We start out meeting Andi, a brilliant but very troubled high school senior who attends a ritzy prep school in Brooklyn; an incredibly gifted guitarist who lives for music, she is in a deep depression, tottering on the edge of suicide despite psychiatrists and pills, since the death of her younger brother, Truman, a death she feels responsible for. Her parents' marriage has fallen apart; her father's a Nobel-prize winning geneticist responsible for unraveling the mysteries of the human genome, while her mother is a talented French artist who paints non-stop to cope with her young son's death. When her father says she's going with him to Paris over Christmas break, she's not happy about it, but goes along to start researching her senior thesis about an 18th century French composer and guitarist. Her father is called to Paris to analyze the DNA of an old heart believed to belong to Louis Charles, Dauphin of France and son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who was believed to have died in the Tower during the French Revolution. Some believed the young boy might have escaped, and Andi's father and his historian friends intend to put the mystery to rest with 21st century technology. This all seems to have little to do with Andi and her problems, until, hidden in an old guitar case, Andi finds a portrait--one that looks much like her brother, but was clearly painted long ago. In the case is also an old diary, dated April 1795. This is the diary of Alex, who talks about a prisoner in a tower...sure enough, the portrait is of Louis-Charles, the Dauphin. Reading the diary, Andi discovers the life of Alex, a young actress who dreams of a career on the stage, but through a twist of fate, becomes a companion to Louis-Charles at Versailles and later in Paris. Through her diary, we experience the progression of the French Revolution, the hope and then the despair as Robespierre and the Jacobins launch the Terror. Alex's love for the Dauphin, taken forcibly from his mother to be educated as a "good Revolutionary," causes her to endanger her own life to try to free Louis Charles, and finally, to provide the abandoned prince with some hope and light. Andi's contemporary voice is interrupted with excerpts from Alex's diary, which we read along with Andi as she becomes more and more drawn in to the diary. Donnelly skillfully creates distinct voices for both characters which suit their personalities and time periods. All teen novels seem to need at least a bit of romance, and in this novel we have a relationship between Andi and a handsome young French guitarist and rappe