REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly
The death of Andi’s little brother Truman has torn her family apart. With her father in Paris with his new girlfriend and her mother slowly losing her grip on reality, all Andi has to comfort her is her music. But when her father unexpectedly returns and discovers the state of his ex-wife’s mental health and Andi’s grades, he checks Andi’s mom into a mental hospital and whisks Andi away to Paris where she can work on her senior thesis “without distraction.”
Andi does not want to go to Paris, but once she arrives, she discovers new distractions she didn’t anticipate. First she stumbles upon the diary of a young girl from the French Revolution who had a personal connection with the lost prince Louis-Charles. She also meets another musician, an attractive man named Virgil who quickly becomes a friend–or perhaps something more. As Andi gets deeper into the diary and deeper into Paris’ underground music scene, her life begins to become intertwined with the girl from the diary and the subject of her thesis, almost to the point that they become one.
This story is written for teenagers and would be of interest to anyone who enjoys books about dysfunctional families, overcoming grief, or the French Revolution.
Susan the Librarian 