Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer in Books
Jan 23, 2020
This book is a fantastic break for me – it's <b>not a fluffy book set in Paris with a Paris romance</b> (though there <i>is</i> a sort-of Paris romance I'm totally peachy with), despite the fact Alender starts things off with a gruesome murder involving a head being chopped off by a ghost.
No, I did not actually enjoy reading a person getting her head chopped off by a flying broken mirror shard caused by a ghost. I might be a ninja and secretly evil, but I don't actually enjoy those kinds of things.
France's history in the late 18th century is quite intriguing – from helping the US with the American Revolution against the British and then entering their own Revolution against the monarchy a little over a decade later. Alender's book is <b>full of rich details involving French history and culture circulating the Revolution</b> (despite the fact some facts were liberated by Alender to fit the overall plot of the story) as Colette tours France with her classmates, questions her roots and her friendship with Hannah, and tries to figure out why she's seeing a Marie Antoinette lookalike everywhere.
<b>The amount of French the author uses throughout the book isn't overwhelming</b> – it's enough to keep the intrigue, but not enough where it'll be overly confusing and categorizing the book as a piece of French literature. Then again, it's probably helpful when 1) the main character isn't entirely proficient at French, and 2) the romance languages are so similar, I pretty much understand the basis of the conversations with my sliver understanding of Spanish and Italian.
On the overall basis of the book being well written, I had mixed feelings for Colette for awhile – she's both likable and not likable at the same time. She's not likable because <b>she just seems to have a very snobby attitude of sorts, tries too hard to fit in with the rich and wealthy at her private school, and spends her time being a doormat in the beginning of the book for fear of facing Hannah's wrath</b>. As the book goes on and everyone makes Colette questions her friendship with Hannah, Colette slowly becomes likable – someone who isn't snobby after all, and her ending with Hannah is quite fantastic. Of course, it does become a little obvious there's some sort of gap between their friendship (and growing) since Colette secretly rebels at times without Hannah's knowledge.
All in all, <i>Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer</i> is <b>a book about deception, loyalty, and how even the dead can come back for revenge to complete unfinished business before they can finally rest in peace.</b>
<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-marie-antoinette-serial-killer-by-katie-alender/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
Translate Me - Live Translator
Productivity and Reference
App
Translate Me is a simple yet powerful tool to translate text, speech and even to have real-time...
ClareR (6256 KP) rated Coming Up For Air in Books
Apr 17, 2020
We also meet the Norwegian toy maker who designs Resusci Anne, and the things that happened in his life that brought him to that point. His is an equally sad story, and although he has been fictionalised, he has been based om the real man who made the doll.
The third story is that of a Canadian girl with cystic fibrosis, and her journey from childhood up until she becomes a journalist as an adult.
This is a book about transformations: the French maid is transformed in to a mask that will be recognised around the world over a hundred years after her death; a toy maker is transformed after the death of his beloved son, into someone who tries to ensure that everyone has the ability for such things not to happen again; and a woman with cystic fibrosis has a literal transformation with the promise of renewed, transplanted lungs.
This novel sucked me in to all three lives and times. Both the French girls and the child’s death devastated me, and the Canadian woman’s story was one of hope (although I was pretty much dreading the idea that something bad would happen to her).
I loved this book, and I feel lucky to have read it. I would most definitely recommend it.
Henrietta Maria
Book
At the heart of the English Civil War stands the wife of Charles I, Henrietta Maria. She came to...
The Zodiac of Paris: How an Improbable Controversy Over an Ancient Egyptian Artifact Provoked a Modern Debate Between Religion and Science
Jed Z. Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz
Book
The Dendera zodiac--an ancient bas-relief temple ceiling adorned with mysterious symbols of the...
Bistronomy: Recipes from the Best New Paris Bistros
Book
Finalist for the IACP Cookbook Award, Chefs and Restaurants French food reimagined by a new...
Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945-1955
Book
Despite an outpouring of scholarship on the Holocaust, little work has focused on what happened to...
Men and Cats
Book
Based on the chic French Tumblr Des Hommes et des Chatons, created by Marie-Eva Gatuingt and Alice...
Wind & Sea HR
Weather and Navigation
App
Wind & Sea HR is the APP that allows you to always have the famous LAMMA weather forecasts for sea...
Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals
Book
Characterized as ""the African Voltaire,"" Ahmadou Kourouma garnered enormous critical and popular...