Author: Katie Alender
Publication Date: September 24th 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Press
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 . . .
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 . . .
With her French class on their way to France, Colette Iselin
knows somehow that this trip will change her. After going from being secure to
a small cramped apartment and shopping for clothes in thrift stores, she just
wants to go away and forget about all of that, with her friends by her side. What
she didn't bargain was getting tangled within a gruesome string of murders of
prestigious kids with rich blood, with more than their decapitated heads in
common.
And Colette being next on the list.
Right, now I wouldn't call this paranormal. I mean, it is. But apart from the quick flashes of
ghosts, and gruesome murders by said ghost...there's nothing paranormal about
it. I'd say it's more of a sketchy contemporary/murder with characters you wish
would just die already.
I did enjoy Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer, and with a title like that, it's what drew me in, and though it had a sketchy background plot and the fact that I wanted to slap main character more than...eh, I'd say 50 times, give or take, I'm glad that I finished it. It was a fun read, and I've never actually been outside of my country (only in my head.), so it was fun being in France for a while. Here's the big but...but, as I've mentioned probably a million times, characters a huge thing for me to carry on with a book, and though I didn't like them, I was still interested...even if it was to see who got "Off with her head!" first.
I did enjoy Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer, and with a title like that, it's what drew me in, and though it had a sketchy background plot and the fact that I wanted to slap main character more than...eh, I'd say 50 times, give or take, I'm glad that I finished it. It was a fun read, and I've never actually been outside of my country (only in my head.), so it was fun being in France for a while. Here's the big but...but, as I've mentioned probably a million times, characters a huge thing for me to carry on with a book, and though I didn't like them, I was still interested...even if it was to see who got "Off with her head!" first.
Why I didn't like the characters? Because well, one was
Queen bitch, Hannah who thinks the whole world orbits around on its axes just
for her. Who subsequently has also never heard the word no in her life unless
she was saying it, and an overall terrible person that you really wanted Marie
Antoinette to decapitate the bitch first. The cling on accessory Pilar who
needed a reality check to discover that she did, in fact, have a spine and
needed directions on how to use it. Then our main character, dear, dear
Colette, was actually kind of worse than Pilar
in the fact that she did, indeed, know she had a spine, and just didn't,
in fact, want to use the damn thing. Eventually, she does, but it was right at
the end and a little bit late for character development.
If you like your characters shallow and spineless, then flop
around in the ocean.
Okay, I'm done.
I know it doesn't seem like I actually liked this book, but
I did, and I guess that's what's making me extra snarky this time around
because despite the awful characters, was the setting of Paris, like Amy Plum's
If I Die series, it's kind of cultural, but not too much, you know?
I also kind of actually wanted to see how things turned out,
the plot as I mentioned, was a little wish-washy. There wasn't enough
information, kind of a scratched surface, and some things a little too
coincidental to make it believable in that short amount of time. It was like it was flirting with something
good, but never got to finish what it started, and the way things ended and the
way Colette supposedly made it right...'kay.
Marie Antoinette, Serial killer, was an enjoyable killer twist on history within a rich
and velvet atmosphere that'll leave you wanting to wander the streets of
France.
Rating: 3.5/5
