Faces of the Dead

20578956

Faces of the Dead
Suzanne Weyn
Scholastic

When Marie-Therese, daughter of Marie Antoinette, slips into the streets of Paris at the height of the French Revolution, she finds a world much darker than what she's ever known.

When Marie-Thérèse Charlotte of France learns of the powerful rebellion sweeping her country, the sheltered princess is determined to see the revolution for herself. Switching places with a chambermaid, the princess sneaks out of the safety of the royal palace and into the heart of a city in strife.

Soon the princess is brushing shoulders with revolutionaries and activists. One boy in particular, Henri, befriends her and has her questioning the only life she's known. When the princess returns to the palace one night to find an angry mob storming its walls, she's forced into hiding in Paris. Henri brings her to the workshop of one Mademoiselle Grosholtz, whose wax figures seem to bring the famous back from the dead, and who looks at Marie-Thérèse as if she can see all of her secrets. There, the princess quickly discovers there's much more to the outside world - and to the mysterious woman's wax figures - than meets the eye

I was interested in this book for two reasons: 1) because ever since reading The Scarlet Pimpernel I've been more curious about the French revolution and 2) because wax figures simultaneously freak me out and intrigue me.

However, not after I began, I could easily tell that this book was not really one for me. The beginning wasn't bad- although perhaps over simplified and a bit unrealistic historically- but as the Reign of Terror went into full swing it began to get a little graphic for me. Given the subject matter, I was expecting a bit of gore, but not to this extent in what is considered a middle-grade book. Also, it started to hint at voodoo and magic and not only do I take issue with that from a moral standpoint, but it also didn't fit a story I thought was at least going to try to be historically accurate. Then looking at some other reviews, I quickly decided that this book really wasn't worth any more of my time, so it's one of the few only books I've gotten for review that I haven't finished.

I really hate not finishing books, but I have a growing TBR pile- all for review -and I just really couldn't get into this one. The writing style itself was pleasurable, but the content didn't match. The plot seemed almost sloppy in comparison. Anyway, I'm not going to totally rip it up- after all, technically I didn't finish and it could have gotten better. But quite frankly, I didn't care enough to find out.

Rating: 3

I received this book from netgalley.com in exchange for my honest review.

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