Revolution in Mock Printz 2026

Oct 15, 2010 Ralph rated it it was amazing

This book is staggeringly good. It is literary and lyrical like "A Northern Light," but edgier. I think Donnelly takes more risks here: in characterization (Andi is a handful, to say the least), subject matter (the horrors of the French Revolution are at times excruciating to read) and structure (contemporary and historical plot lines are mashed together -- which, of course, is the point: the world goes on stupid and brutal, just like it always has).

What I'm most struck by is how nuanced and la This book is staggeringly good. It is literary and lyrical like "A Northern Light," but edgier. I think Donnelly takes more risks here: in characterization (Andi is a handful, to say the least), subject matter (the horrors of the French Revolution are at times excruciating to read) and structure (contemporary and historical plot lines are mashed together -- which, of course, is the point: the world goes on stupid and brutal, just like it always has).

What I'm most struck by is how nuanced and layered this book is. It is chock-full of weighty little references and associations and foreshadowings that -- at least for me -- don't always fully reveal themselves on the first read. Take Max R. Peters, the madman in Brooklyn raving about revolution. He's obviously Max Robespierre, which means ... well, let's see: The spoiled kids in Andi's school are the pre-Rev French aristocracy? (I think so.) Modern-day Bklyn is Revolutionary Paris? (Maybe.) Truman is Louis Charles? (Of course!)

And the Inferno parallels: The three sections of the book. The guide Virgil (driving a cab labeled "EPIC RIDE," naturally!). Alex's last name. The catacombs. Seeing the stars. I'm sure many more exist; I haven't found them yet.

And of course the anagram: Diandra Xenia Alpers = Alexandrine Paradis. They aren't two girls with striking similarities, they're the same character! Their story is one story and it exists throughout time and independent of time. Which, I think, is why Donnelly allows time to run in both directions in this book; it is irrelevant to the tale.

Donnelly cites James Joyce as her all-time favorite author. He was the master of these little loaded references (Ulysses overflows with them), and his influence on Donnelly can be felt in Revolution's little gems. (Hmm: he also took big literary risks ... created challenging characters ... and dispensed with the constraints of physical and temporal reality from time to time. But that's a subject for another essay!)

What a book. Five stars aren't enough. ...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Jan rated it it was ok

Shelves: teenbooks, historical-fiction

This novel combines two plot lines. The first is contemporary, about a girl named Andi who has lost her beloved younger brother in an accident and is barely holding herself together. She attends an exclusive private school in Brooklyn, but her grief is causing her to fail her last year of high school. In addition, her mother is so far gone in grief that she cannot provide any support for Andi. Andi’s father, a prominent geneticist, intervenes and takes Andi to Paris, where she will do research o This novel combines two plot lines. The first is contemporary, about a girl named Andi who has lost her beloved younger brother in an accident and is barely holding herself together. She attends an exclusive private school in Brooklyn, but her grief is causing her to fail her last year of high school. In addition, her mother is so far gone in grief that she cannot provide any support for Andi. Andi’s father, a prominent geneticist, intervenes and takes Andi to Paris, where she will do research on the subject of her senior paper, an 18th century musician, and her father is slated to do genetic tests on the heart of the Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI, who was guillotined during the French Revolution. While in Paris, Andi discovers a journal that was written by a young girl named Alexandrine Paradis, who lived in Paris during the Revolution, and cared for the Dauphin. The two stories spin out and converge, as Andi and Alexandrine stories merge into one story.

Alexandrine’s story is fascinating, alive with vivid historical detail. The character of Andi, struggling with grief and guilt, is affecting and well done until the author develops a love interest for her. The story then devolves into a Nicholas Sparks style sappy romance. To make matters worse, the author concocts a far fetched time travel excursion (a bump on the head, no less) that takes Andi back into 18th century France, where she meets the subject of her senior paper and finds that she has now become Alexandrine. That isn’t the only plot malfunction. When Andi meets her new boyfriend, she discovers him hanging out with another girl and assumes that she has been two-timed. It turns out that the girl is—get this—his sister. A somewhat moth-eaten plot device, to be sure.

Although there were certainly many enjoyable elements to this novel—the historical details about the French Revolution are fascinating and Andi’s grief is heartfelt and well portrayed—the time travel plot/character convergence is unoriginal, hackneyed and just plain doesn’t fly. That ultimately brings the novel down.

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Apr 22, 2010 Liz rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, 4-star, historical-fiction

I was eager to read Revolution after loving Jennifer Donnelly’s A Northern Light, so when I saw this tour go up on Star Book Tours I jumped on board right away. Donnelly does not disappoint! I had some small issues that stopped this novel from making it into my pile of absolute favorites, but not big enough to stop me from feeling satisfied by this powerful story.

I don’t know about you guys, but I know of very few young adult novels set around the era of the French Revolution, so it was awesome I was eager to read Revolution after loving Jennifer Donnelly’s A Northern Light, so when I saw this tour go up on Star Book Tours I jumped on board right away. Donnelly does not disappoint! I had some small issues that stopped this novel from making it into my pile of absolute favorites, but not big enough to stop me from feeling satisfied by this powerful story.

I don’t know about you guys, but I know of very few young adult novels set around the era of the French Revolution, so it was awesome to see such a unique premise here. The plot was really well executed and that it had a beautiful message behind it. The stories which Donnelly creates are intricately research, planned and tied together. I can see where some people would say that the ending feels infeasible and contrived, but as I was thinking back about the earlier details of the story it felt logical to me. I will say that at times, reading Alex’s diary got confusing in terms of the lack of punctuation, particularly where dialogue is considered. I’m more than willing to let this slide since I have no idea when the quotation mark was invented, and perhaps many diary writers are not as meticulous as I am in mine. At any rate, by the time the story was done, I wanted to go to modern day Paris, eat a baguette and fall in love.

Donnelly’s characterization is fabulous as well. I think she writes fantastic male characters. I particularly enjoyed Vijay and his mother Mrs. Gupta, because they kept me laughing throughout the story. I think Andi and her family could have easily been unrealistic, but somehow this wasn’t the case. At times Andi’s personality annoyed me, because it seemed like she got spastic really easily, or would sometimes do something that seemed like kind of an obvious social faux pas to me. I will say that while I have experienced grief, I’m not sure that I’ve ever grieved as deeply as Alex has, or known what’s it like to be on extreme drugs, which could be why I struggled with her character. However, I loved reading about her connections with music, and loved that Donnelly tied some smaller humorous moments into this aspect of the story.

This story does such a fantastic job of tying together the past and present that I would happily shove it at any reader who felt a bit wary about historical fiction. However, I think readers who are particularly interested France, have experienced grief or who have crazy parents might also enjoy this novel. Give this story a chance, or I may have to come after you with the force of Mrs. Gupta.
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Nov 21, 2010 elissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: my_10s_reads, historicalfiction, magicalrealism, youngadult, mental_illnesses

This all worked well for me, and I've been missing it today. I was so involved in the ending last night that I keep thinking today that I'll be able to read more, and then remembering that it's finished. This happens to me occasionally, but not often. I think I just found Andi and her sad story very compelling, and the music part of it also fascinated me. I already knew the basics of the French Revolution, but now I know more. Knocked off of my 2010favorites list by HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER. ...more

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Dec 15, 2010 Bethany Miller rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks-on-cd

3.5 stars

Revolution

By Jennifer Donnelly

3.5 stars

Ever since her younger brother Truman’s death, life has been difficult for Andi. She has given up on school, her relationship with her father – a Nobel Prize winning scientist - is almost non-existent, and she has to take care of her deeply depressed mother, an artist who spends her days painting portrait after portrait of her dead son. Playing the guitar is the only thing that still has meaning for Andi, everything else in life just seems pointles ...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Kristy rated it really liked it

Wow, did I enjoy this book. Really, really couldn't put it down.
High school senior Andi is on edge of a breakdown, having witnessed the tragic death of her younger brother two years ago. Failing out of her classes at a prestigious Brooklyn prep school, she barrels through her days in a haze of antidepressants and a bad attitude, fending off the increasingly more intense urge to kill herself. The only thing that keeps her going is her love for music. She plays the guitar and has an interest in a Wow, did I enjoy this book. Really, really couldn't put it down.
High school senior Andi is on edge of a breakdown, having witnessed the tragic death of her younger brother two years ago. Failing out of her classes at a prestigious Brooklyn prep school, she barrels through her days in a haze of antidepressants and a bad attitude, fending off the increasingly more intense urge to kill herself. The only thing that keeps her going is her love for music. She plays the guitar and has an interest in a particular 18th century musician named Amade Mahlerbeau. Following a contentious interaction with her distracted genius of a father (a renowned genetics expert), she finds herself in Paris, staying with family friends. There, while fiddling with an antique guitar, she finds a hidden compartment containing an old diary and a tiny portrait of Prince Louis Charles, the "lost king of France." Hence forth, the story weaves back and forth between modern day Andi's struggles and an incredible first hand account of the French Revolution, written in the diary by another 17 year old girl musician.

There are many other details of this story that are too complicated to explain. But wow. What a fun, interesting, informed read. What a great way to bring the French Revolution to life for a younger crowd (or anyone, really). I am far from being an expert on 18th century Paris, but I did think that the story seemed meticulously researched and I appreciated how Donnelly didn't flinch from the horribly bloody reality of that time period. Many descriptions of the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of that period had me cringing and wretching. I'd be curious to know what any of my more well-informed historian friends would think of this book. (I'm looking at you, Laura Prieto!).

Also, it's worth mentioning that I didn't mind the tortured teen narrator's voice. As a big reader of YA, I am often turned off by the whiny, maudlin, or overly flippant voice of many young narrators. But Andi, while sometimes all of those things, still seemed true to me. I believed her pain, and I was rooting for her all along.

Great great read. I highly recommend it to anyone, but especially someone who enjoys historical fiction and/or young adult fiction.

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Jun 02, 2010 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-ya, realistic, historical-fiction, compulsively-readable

At times I felt like maybe this giant sprawling novel would turn into an uneven mess, but it didn't at all. Keywords Musicmusicmusic, art, Paris, mental illness, French Revolution, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, catacomb exploration, teenagers, love, familial love, romantic love - add all these themes, characters and places and you get a book that you won't want to climb out of. ...more

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Dec 19, 2010 Mokamonkey rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen-books

The main character was hard to like in the beginning, but she became a little more likeable as the plot advanced. I enjoyed the historical story line even more and was really hoping that the French main character would make it.

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May 26, 2010 Jess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, young-adult, french-revolution

Oh, wow. Jam-packed with musical references, old and new, details of Paris now and Paris during the French Revolution, visits to the catacombs, artifacts,writing and hearts (literally), with a main character who's so broken it hurts, yet whose story you can't put down. Gripping. Totally gripping, and the kind of big YA novel I love to find, and completely different in scope from Donnelly's other novels. ...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Whitney rated it really liked it

Good book. I liked weaving the French Revolution with the modern. The narrator was a little too filled with teenage angst, but you tend to see a lot of that in YA novels. The drug induced dream was a little much, but in the end, I did like how it all worked out. It kept me reading and anxious to get back to reading it.

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Nov 08, 2010 Renee rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-realistic, ya-historical

Took me a bit to get into the book, but once Andi started reading the diary and connecting her experience to Alexandrine I was hooked. And yes, there were tears shed as I felt Andi's pain. ...more

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May 28, 2010 Tiff rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, tiffs-favorites, advance-copy, read-in-2010

A fascinating mix of history and modern-day fiction. Beautifully written and incredibly well-researched, this upcoming novel kept me captivated from start to finish.

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