Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release date: October 12 2010
Pages: 496
Source: Bought
Age Group: Young Adult

Andi Alpers is a high school senior, living in modern day Brooklyn, New York with her mother. Her mother is in a bad pshychological state after the sudden accidental death of Truman, Andi's ten year old brother. To cope with this loss, Andi's mother is painting all day, mostly portraits of Truman.

Andi is also having trouble dealing with Truman's death. She misses him terribly and her depression and sadness only seem to be cured with pills. This depression is also the reason she flunks her school grades at her posh Brooklyn prep school, and when her father, who divorced from her mother years ago is noticed about Andi's grades, he puts her mother in to a mental hospital and forces Andi to go to Paris with him to work on the outline for her thesis on music. Andi still doesn't know which college she will choose, but because she is a talented musician (guitar)she hopes it will be Juilliard.

The only thing Andi has left of Truman is an antique looking key that Truman once found at one of Brooklyn's flea markets, which Andi now wears as a necklace. Her time in Paris takes an odd turn when, at the house of a friend where she and her dad are staying, she is shown an antique guitar. But the case is locked, but when she tries to open it with Truman's key, it opens. In the case she finds also a few coins in a sachet and a diary. The diary is of Alexandrine Paradis,who lived over two centuries ago.She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn't want--and couldn't escape. Andi discovers many resemblances between her and Alexandrine,she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There's comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal's antique pages--until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine's words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present..

This book was just amazing, it completely blew me off m feet and I simply couldn't put it down.
Jennifer Donnelly created a young adult masterpiece with Revolution.
Andi is a tragic in many ways, but I loved her as the main character of the book, as she is the best narrator you can imagine. The diary parts of Alexandrine Paradise just takes the reader back in a whim to the Paris of 1795 during the revolution. It was really sad to read about the tragic fate of the young Louis- Charles and the cruel fate he had to undergo.
The stories of Andi and Alexandrine where perfectly woven together in the end, I loved how Andi suddenly was dropped into the eighteenth century and tried to understand (and maybe change)the fate of Alexandrine and Louis-Charles.
This was by far the most imaginative young adult novel I have read this year, and I already dare to say it is in the top of my few most favorite books of 2010. Exquisite book!