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A review by ebbie_casuallereading
Mademoiselle Revolution by Zoe Sivak
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
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.
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.
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 HNow, 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 senseI 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.