Book Review!

You may not know this, but you're lucky you have this post to read.  I'd opened up my computer to write something, sat for a bit with no inspiration, fiddled about with Facebook...the usual process.  But then I started to feel sick (most likely a result of eating alfalfa sprouts of questionable quality in my dinner), and felt a great need to go lay down and never move again, and shut off the computer in favor of going to bed.  As it turns out, I wasn't actually tired, and instead read roughly 80 pages of Jennifer Donnelly's book Revolution, finished it, felt somewhat better, and hauled myself out of bed to write my mandated daily blog post.

My friend Miranda lent me Revolution after she read it over spring break and realized that the book had my name written all over it.  The general plot is that this girl goes to Paris (not under happy circumstances), and finds a diary written during the French revolution revealing the horrifying truth behind the death of Louis-Charles, "The Lost King of France", who was Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's son and who (obviously, if you know your history at all), never became king, but was imprisoned and died at the age of 10.  Anyway, this book is full of French history, musical references, and general scheming intrigue.  As a young adult novel, it has its share of melodrama, but most of that gets rolled out by chapter 6, and by the time Andi (the lead character) gets to Paris and finds the diary, it becomes insanely difficult to put the book down.  It's one of those stories that sucks you in completely.  The fact that I read this 400+ page book in under 2 weeks, when I have enormous qualities of school reading as well, testifies to the fact that it's a page-turner.

Another thing I liked about the book is that it immersed me in an era of French history that, comparatively, I don't know all that much about.  You would think that I would know a ton about the French Revolution, but in reality my bank of French history knowledge is hugely tilted in favor of Louis XIV's court - about 100 years earlier (thanks, senior seminar).  And, of course Napoleon came after the French Revolution...and while rioting citizens and overthrowing the monarchy and the Reign of Terror are a big deal, the Revolution manages to be overshadowed by the colossal figures of Louis XIV and Napoleon which bookend it.  Odd, but true.  And even though it's historical fiction, Revolution is quite accurate in its portrayal of the time period.  It makes me want to go and read more about the French Revolution.  It's amazing to me how the world that Louis XIV built dissolved into complete chaos within 100 years.  It makes you think about how unstable things really can be, you know?

If you're at all into French history, you should definitely give this book a go...or, even if you're not and you just want a good story to escape into, this is a good one.  It's really fantastic.  And, it helped me continue in that "Read for Fun" goal :)