Revolution

Just finished reading Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.  This book was given to me for Christmas by a student in my first period class. A student who has uncanny similarities to myself. She wrote a sweet message to me in the front.

I would've read the book simply because a student gave it to me. I mean, if they have taken the time to select a book for me, the least I can do is read it. I'm usually leery about reading books people buy for me, unless it's something specific I have requested, so I was a bit leery going into this as well. I am so glad I read it though, as this is one of the best young adult books I have ever read.

This book starts out in modern day Brooklyn, and our heroine is Andi. Andi is damaged. She goes to a swanky school, but hangs out with the wrong crowd. She's isolated everyone around her because she doesn't feel like she deserves to live. Why?  Because two years before, her brother, Truman, was killed, and Andi feels responsible for his death.

Andi lives with her mother, who has coping issues of her own. Andi is a musician. It's Christmas break of her senior year, and she is facing being kicked out of school because she has not written her senior thesis. When Andi's absent father finds out, he goes ballistic. He has Andi's mother put in a mental hospital to cope with her grief, and drags Andi to Paris with him.

The purpose of the Paris trip is for Andi's father, a Nobel proze winning geneticist, to determine whether a heart in a jar belongs to the lost king of France, Louis-Charles, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. While in Paris, Andi is supposed to be working on her senior thesis about a composer who, apparently, had a huge influence on artists like Led Zepplin and Radiohead.

While staying with her father's friend, G, an historian of the French Revolution, Andi comes across a guitar case-a very old guitar case, with a defective lock. I should mention that Andi wears a key around her neck that belonged to her brother. One day, Andi is messing with the lock, and on a lark, tries her key-it works. They key opens a secret pocket within the guitar case. In the secret pocket is a diary, the diary of a young girl, recounting events from the French Revolution.

Throughout all of this, Andi is spiralling downward. She pops antidepressants like m&m's, and thinks often of killing herself. Only music seems to save her. One day, she is playing her guitar, and meets Virgil, with whom Andi feels an immediate connection.  Andi and Virgil become fast friends, singing each other to sleep over the telephone while she is in Paris.

Andi gets wrapped up in the diary of the young girl, Alexandrine, or Alex, who was the companion to young Louis-Charles, the dauphin.  Andi feels a kinship to Alex, and reads the diary to its end.

After planning to commit suicide one night, Andi runs in to Virgil, who literally saves her life. He invites her to play a party with him in the catacombs. Andi goes. She hits her head, and ends up in 18th century Paris, taking on the persona of Alex, based on what she has learned from the diary.

This book takes you on an exciting ride through the modern day and revolutionary France. Your heart bleeds for Andi and Alex when you read, and you just want them to be ok. I enjoyed this book for those reasons.