Reviews

Mademoiselle Revolution by Zoe Sivak

gracieterry's review

dark informative tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ve only taken off some points simply because I felt the book was written in a way that was rather slow and difficult to get through in parts.  I think this story is an asset to its genre, shining a light on a different and less often shared perspective of the French Revolution. The main character was  uniquely situated in the context of both the Haitian and French Revolution as a mixed race, bisexual woman. At times I found myself disliking her attitude and decisions, and then asking myself why and how I had come to that conclusion without fully understanding her situation? I appreciated that this story made me think critically about Black suffering at the hands of elite and powerful whites. Despite its historical setting, this story is applicable to todays fraught political climate. 

laileanah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This had a slow start for me. 
I also don't like the way The Haitian Revolution is covered, sparsely and loosely. 
Yet the action in France was well handled, interesting and engrossing.

porridge_1's review

adventurous emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

ebbie_casuallereading's review

2.0

I should have DNF this book at the midway point when I felt it wasn't improving. But I finished it, and got no satisfaction from that... Welp.

Basically, the book is too long for its own good. It seems the whole French Revolution thing was what made it such a mess. Even though we skip quickly over some events, other take sooooo much time to pass. I guess it might be because the story is so closely tied to Robespierre. And for what?

Somehow, I guess when I saw that Robespierre was one of the main focus of the book, I should have yeeted myself away from it. I'm not French, but I'm a French Canadian, and I know enough about the Revolution and its actors to absolutely hate Robespierre with a passion. So how his whole fuckery is explained/excused by

Spoiler

his illness LOL seriously wtf, as if he wasn't a monster before that? U G H

Now, Sylvie for her part has a tendency to act and think like she's "not like other girls", which is really annoying from the very first chapter. Yet she does things that she calls out about other. Her infatuation over Robespierre is also incredibly insufferable. And I feel like the link between the Haitian Revolution and the French one is very thin even though she's the thread that hold them together in the book. Yet some of the consequences of the Haitian Revolution regarding the trauma the main character faced are mentioned now and then, but it seems the aftermath of said trauma, which could be a rich thing to have the characters talk about and try to deal with is never explored super deeply. It's used to explained Sylvie's fears and reactions here and there, and her main motivation with Robespierre (the whole survival focus of it all), but other than that? Not so much.

For a (long) while, the book is just a mess. The chronology of historical facts keeps it going forward, but it's hard to understand its direction at times. But then the ending... sigh. There things, many things, that really make no sense. All these pages and yet there's nothing in there to explain that

Spoiler

Sylvie is not arrested with the others, like how? it just makes no sense

.

I still gave it 2 stars, because it was very readable and the first part was good, until about the second/third meeting with Robespierre. I did like when she met his 2 sisters while she was with the Duplays. I also did like Augustin as a character, and I guess partially the whole "arc" with Marat, though the execution of it all towards the end of it was very bleh. But yeah, overall, I was expecting more and was disappointed to say the least.

bookworm87's review

sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

madsfaye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

cakt1991's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Mademoiselle Revolution was recommended to me at some point last year as a readalike for one of Vanessa Riley’s historicals.While the French Revolution and its impact has been discussed ad nauseum, I was impressed that this book talked about the connection between those events and the Haitian Revolution, with the author further discussing how the Haitian Revolution, like the French, had ripple effects across the Western world, particularly in terms of its impact on pushing the issue of slavery and abolition to the forefront (and making the American Civil War inevitable). 

But while in some ways this is an “issue” book, I respect that Sivak approaches this with nuance, and chose to center a very complex protagonist. Sylvie, as the biracial daughter of a wealthy white planter and enslaved woman, exists in between: she’s insulated from the worst horrors of slavery and generally lives in comfort, but she’s not fully accepted in white society either. Given the former, she’s not exactly the most active in terms of fighting for liberation, however, she still has a reason to resonate with a cause that topples the power of the elites that reject her, explaining why she’d see the allure of people like Robespierre. She starts out very naive and complicit, with a desire only for self-preservation, but I both respect and marvel at how she grows to become more radical and reckless.

It was also interesting to learn a bit about the abolitionist side of the French Revolution, even if it did sometimes lean into white saviorism and exploitation, especially on Robespierre’s part. 

The domestic relationships were also quite interesting. While I didn’t know a ton about Robespierre prior, beyond his role in escalating the Terror, I was intrigued to read about his relationship with Cornelie, as well as the juxtaposition with Cornelie’s sapphic relationship with Sylvie. 

The story was pretty engaging overall, but I definitely wish there had been a bit more about Haiti. I get why, from a storytelling perspective, but those were definitely the richest chapters, even if they are also the bleakest. I felt that at some point, the chapters with the French Revolution lost some steam along the way. The story does still wrap up fairly poignantly, however. 

I really enjoyed this book, and it makes a great readalike for the Haiti books from Vanessa Riley, or other historical novels about the French Revolution. 

 

akacya's review

4.0

2023 reads: 254/350

2023 tbr: 52/100

biracial heiress sylvie de rosiers escapes to paris when the haitian revolution burns across her island. she soon realizes that revolutions can cross oceans as she works her way into the inner circle of robespierre and his mistress.

honestly, i don’t know much about the haitian revolution. so, it was interesting to read about it in this book, especially from the perspective of a young woman whose mother was enslaved. sylvie is in kind of an awkward position because, while the slave owners do not fully accept her, neither do the enslaved people. when she escapes to france in self-preservation, she’s not fully expecting another revolution. again, in self-preservation, she gets close to both robespierre and his mistress, cornelie. sylvie sees robespierre as an important figure, but later realizes that he’s not so great, either. i loved how in-depth each character relationship as well as the historical context were. i can’t wait to read whatever zoe sivak releases next!

hannahreanie's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ladyheather10's review

tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5