Pages: 472
Date: 12/03/2011
Grade: 4
Details: Young Adult
Library
Andi is 17 years old, lives in New York where she goes to a very priviledged school and is a very angry young woman.
She's angry with her father for leaving, angry with her mother for being crazy, angry with herself for allowing her brother to die and angry with the world around her for not taking her pain away.
With her mother completely breaking down and Andi herself on the verge of failing her school's final year her father sets her an ultimatum and brings her to Paris with him where she can work on her assignment in a different environment.
In Paris Andy finds the diary of Alexandrine, a young girl who lived at the time of the French Revolution and finds herself becoming completely rapped up in the French girl's attempts to save a young royal prince from death.
When Andi and Alexandrine's worlds literally colide, it might well be the end of Andi, or it could be her (re)making.
I'm glad I took two days out before reviewing this book. When I finished it I wasn't at all sure how I felt about the story. I really couldn't like Andi and couldn't believe the apparent indifference on the part of the adults around her. Alexandrine wasn't much easier to like, especially at the start of her story. Virgil, the boy Andi meets in Paris is perhaps a bit too good to be true, and the ending of Andi's story a bit too polished.
But there were also parts of the story I really did love, especially everything to do with Andi's love for music and her guitar.
But, after two days of living with my memories of the story and of the reading experience I have come to the conclusion that I loved this book far more than I disliked it.
The writing is beautiful, the historical parts of the story are fascinating and the losses endured heartbreaking. This story isn't quite as good as A Gathering Light by Donnelly, but overall a satisfying read.
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