Revolution [Paperback]

Revolution is the highly anticipated second novel for young adults by Jennifer Donnelly. I read and adored Jennifer's first novel A Gathering Light when it very first came out at the young age of 14 now 6 years later after a long, painful wait I got the chance to read and review Revolution early much to my delight!

At the beginning of Revolution we're introduced to cool, incredibly talented Andi a teenage girl living in present day New York. Andi goes to a prestigious private school for talented students and Andi's talent is music. It would seem that Andi has the world at her feet with endless opportunities available to her, it seems like she has it all, and she did but that was before her younger brother Truman died in an accident that Andi believes is her fault. Since Truman's death Andi's family has been slowly falling apart with her mother going insane and her father leaving the family for a younger woman who's pregnant with his child. Drowning in guilt and depression Andi turns to her music to express the thoughts and feelings she cannot say. Andi loses all interest in anything else but her music and risks flunking out of school because of it. Her father - oblivious as to what's going on in his old life - doesn't realise anything's wrong until he gets a call from Andi's school saying that if she fails her thesis she won't graduate. With her mother in a mental health unit and her father flying out to France to work on the mystery of the Lost Dauphin Louis-Charles, Andi has no choice but to go with him. It's in Paris that Andi stumbles upon a lost diary belonging to a girl of her age Alex who worked in the palace looking after Louis-Charles during the French revolution. Captivated by Alex's story and confessions instead of turning the diary in Andi reads on intrigued by the similarities between herself and Alex, Louis-Charles and her brother Truman, and what follows is a page turning historical mystery merging both girls' fates together.

When I started this book I thought it was good but not brilliant. It took a while for the story to really get going for me. It wasn't slow exactly but it just took a good chunk of the book for Jennifer Donnelly to set the story up. However when you get further into the story you see that the book needed that set up so if you're struggling with it I urge you to continue reading because it really is vital to the story and when Andi goes to Paris that's when the book really starts to get going. It was from that point on that I simply could not put this book down. I think that I expected the historical part of the book to start straight away and the first 50 or so pages read very much like a contemporary young adult novel rather than historical fiction so I think that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of the book. If you expect that from the beginning though then I don't think you'll have a problem.

I don't think main character Andi's the most likeable character out there but she definitely grew on me as I carried on reading. She may not be kind and perfect but she's real and that's why I liked her. She loves, she hates, she's definitely one of the most realistic characters out there for young adults at the moment and I loved her passion for music. Throughout the book you get to read little snippets of Andi's favourite songs and her own music and they really give a gateway into how Andi's feeling. Jennifer Donnelly's characters all have so many layers to them both good and bad. They have depth. Their human, and because of that Revolution felt very real to me like this was really happening which I think is an aspect you really need when re-telling a part of history.

As with Jennifer's first novel A Gathering Light, Revolution is flawlessly written. You can tell that Jennifer's a born storyteller and a beautiful writer - you so easily get wrapped up in her words. I lost track of time on so many occasions because I was so engrossed in this book. It's powerful, beautiful, mesmerising and fascinating. I went into this book not knowing that much about the French revolution and I admit that I was a little wary that I wouldn't enjoy it or understand what was going on but I was so wrong. You don't have to go into this book knowing all of the facts because it explains everything you need to know along the way without it reading like a history text book - in fact quite the contrary. I was so fascinated by the French revolution Jennifer tells its story so well and I'm going to definitely be looking out for more books on the subject in the future.

This book made me feel so many things; the book itself is so many things. It's love and grief, life and death, good and bad and I became so emotionally attached to it that I lost count of how many times I got teary eyed whilst reading. Sometimes because I was sad sometimes because I was happy sometimes because of the sheer beauty of Jennifer Donnelly's writing. You definitely get taken on a journey whilst reading Revolution. Jennifer really brings the French revolution to life. Not only did it feel like I could see and smell everything that was going on around me but I could feel what the characters were going through I could feel their pain and their bloodlust their need for revenge and change. This book has everything love, passion, hate and lessons that are just as current now as they were during the revolution. There are so many important things that this book has to say. It will change the way you think and feel without even trying to. Revolution is the kind of book that will be read and loved by everybody because it has so many things to offer but above all Revolution is a story about doing the right thing, the good thing, forgiveness and moving on. It's about the revolution that we all have inside ourselves over some thing or another. The revolution that's still going on. After finishing this book yesterday afternoon I'm still thinking about it, it's still all going through my mind. It's haunting like the ghost of the revolution itself. Revolution is one of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of reading and I think it's my favourite book that I've read so far in 2010, it's definitely been worth the wait for all these years! Start reading this with the highest of expectations and you still won't be disappointed - not one bit. Highly, highly recommended to everyone. 5 stars.

At the beginning of the book, Andi's story is one seen often in YA books - a teenage girl dealing with the death of someone close to her, in this case her younger brother. Trueman's death has deeply effected the family. Her parents have split up; her father remarried; her mother not coping at all well, spending most of her time painting. Andi herself only gets through each day with the help of medication and her music. She's failing miserably at school and because of this her father decides to take her on his business trip to Paris.There she finds a diary. The diary takes us back to the French Revolution and the life of Alexandrine and from this point the book switches back and forth between the two stories.

Donnelly's writing is amazing, with so much detail that I really felt like I was right there in Paris with both of the girls. The amount of historical detail and musical knowledge included is pretty awesome and, I'm sure, extremely well researched. The characters themselves were brilliant as well and I felt really invested in them, caring what happened to each and every one of them.

A highly recommended read for lovers of both Historical and Young Adult fiction.

Jennifer Donnelly's first novel A Gathering Light , (US title A Northern Light), is one of my favourite YA/crossover novels so I was relishing the thought of getting my teeth into "Revolution" - 7 years is a long time to wait!

"Revolution" is a busy novel given that it encompasses so many ideas and themes - love, loss, family relationships, music (lots of music) and science including complex DNA testing. To complicate matters there's a dual time frame narrative with Andi, our 21st century Brooklyn girl and Alex(andrine) in 1790s Paris. Andi is a troubled teen, struggling to maintain an interest in anything including her demanding timetable at St Anselm's, an expensive private school with a cast of students who wouldn't look out of place in Gossip Girl or Beverley Hills 90210 for those old enough to remember! She and her parents are still traumatised by the death of Andi's younger brother Truman. Andi is removed to Paris by her father in an effort to encourage her to complete an outline for her senior thesis. The discovery of Alexandrine's diary, written in the 1790s, sets in motion a series of events which push present-day Andi to the brink.

Revolution is well written, it's very ambitious, the scenes from revolution-torn Paris are extremely vivid and the author has clearly done her research but...for me, it just didn't come together as a coherent story. Andi is teenage angst personified and has very few endearing qualities - yes, I know likeable characters aren't compulsory but somehow she didn't ring true for me. I loved Alexandrine and her account of the travails she and her family faced, her friendship with the young dauphin, her encounters with the intimidating Duc d'Orleans and all the sights and sounds of revolutionary Paris are there for the reader to savour. However, I found the section where Andi and Alexandrine's worlds collide a step too far on the suspension bridge of disbelief and things went progressively downhill thereafter.

Revolution will appeal to teenagers with its pop culture references but it didn't hit the spot for me as an adult reader. I also suspect that teen readers don't need plot devices and gimmicks in order to tie up narratives in neat little packages.