author: Katie Alender
published by: Scholastic
released: September 24th 2013
pages: 296
my rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Colette Iselin is excited to go to Paris on a class trip. She’ll get to soak up the beauty and culture, and maybe even learn something about her family’s French roots.
But a series of gruesome murders are taking place across the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours museums and palaces, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks suspiciously like Marie Antoinette.
Colette knows her popular, status-obsessed friends won’t believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they uncover a shocking secret involving a dark, hidden history. When Colette realizes she herself may hold the key to the mystery, her own life is suddenly in danger...
When I first finished reading this book I immediately gave it 5 stars. But for some reason I put off writing a review for it and since then my opinion of this book has changed.
I think the summary is a little misleading, because it makes it seem as it's this big, creepy mystery when really it isn't.
Colette tries really hard to fit in with her "perfect" and rich friend, one of whom is a typical mean girl, who bosses everyone around and gets everything she wants. Colette is aware that her friends don't really care about her the way real friends should but is to obsessed with trying to be perfect to change anything about it. When they visit France she starts to realize that maybe they aren't the best people to be around and slowly understands that popularity isn't everything. It was frustrating sometimes how long it took her to realize that, but still enjoyable to read about. She also stars to fall for a French boy, which again was a bit clishee but nice to read about.
In all this drama the actual mystery felt secondary and only started to get serious in the last part of the book.
Sure there are murders happening but they don't really affect the plot for a majority of the book and every time she sees "Marie Antoniette" she gets freaked out for a bit but then tries to dismiss everything. Some chapters are written from the murder victims point of view which I thought was great but it also took away from the mystery part, since I (the reader) knew lots of things before Colette did. The actual action only takes place in the last few chapters but those last chapters were definitely the best. What disappointed my a little was that it wasn't really scary or creepy at all. I know the cover and title might already give it away a little but I already read "Bad Girls don't Die" by Katie Alender and that was way more creepy so I guess I expected this to be more like that too.
I think if you don't take it to seriously this is a really good and entertaining book and it was exactly what I needed when I picked it up. I am planning to pick up more of Katie Alenders books in the future, although I do hope they will be a little more creepy.
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