revolution

I finished Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution just before settling onto the couch for three hours of cookie-eating and Oscar-watching last Sunday. It was recommended to me by my cousin (okay, so I was over her house, stole it and read the first chapter before she stole it back and locked me out of her room) who, if such a thing is possible, is an even bigger bookworm than I am.

The protagonist is an emotionally scarred and semi-suicidal seventeen-year-old musician named Andi, living in Brooklyn with her mother and the torturing ghost of her little brother. She's an outsider at her prep school, St. Anslem's, and hates her father, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. Her Holocaust-surviving guitar teacher, Nathan, is the only reason she's not totally insane yet. After receiving a letter about Andi's failing grades, her father drags her to Paris over winter break, determined that she finish her thesis paper on a guitarist who lived during the French Revolution. While staying at a family friend's house, Andi discovers an antique guitar and a diary, written by a French girl named Alexandrine struggling to grow up during the Revolution and attempting to free the "lost prince" of France, Louis-Charles, from captivity. Andi is simultaneously researching her paper and obsessing over the diary when she meets Virgil, a gorgeous cab driver with a knack for rapping. Virgil leads her to a party in the catacombs, which eventually turns into an experience Andi will never forget.

This book is beautifully written. The words are fat and rich and fall off the tongue so nicely I just had to read some aloud. I highlighted and sticky noted the hell out of it and I'd share a picture, but for some reason my webcam keeps showing this creepily animated picture of a white kitten (I bet my life it has something to do with my sister.) Anyhow, here are some of my favorite passages...

"Beautiful people don't need coats. They've got their auras to keep them warm."

"I play until my fingertips are raw. Until I rip a nail and bleed on the strings. Until my hands hurt so bad I forget my heart does."

"I wish I could stop messing up but I don't know how. What is it that mends broken people? Jesus? Chocolate? New shoes? I wish someone would tell me."

"Stand on a stage and hold the hearts of men in your hands. Make them laugh with a gesture, cry with a word. Make them love you. And you will know what power is."

"He's always saying that he loves me. And that I love him. When the truth is, we've never even gone out. He's a lizard, I think. Bernie."

"I don't like hope very much. In fact, I hate it. It's the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. It's bad news. The worst. It's sharp sticks and cherry bombs. When hope shows up, it's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt."

"I will rain down silver and gold for you. I will shatter the black night, break it open, and pour out a million stars. Turn away from the darkness, the madness, the pain. Open your eyes. And know that I am here. That I remember and hope. Open your eyes and look at the light."

I probably bored you. Apologies. Please go read it :) KaythanksbyeMWAH