Book: Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender

Published September 2013 by Scholastic|225 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: None

Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller

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…

Acclaimed author Katie Alender brings heart-stopping suspense to this story of revenge, betrayal, intrigue- and one killer queen.

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer was just okay for me.  I was really intrigued by the title, but I was ultimately not too interested in this book.

I like the idea, but the mystery and revenge and everything…I was expecting more Marie Antoinette in the book.  I was also expecting something more creepy, but it was more…shallow…then I expected it to be.  Then again, maybe I had higher expectations than I thought I did.

Still, you’d expect a book titled Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer to be more fun and campy, and instead, I think it tried to be more serious than maybe it should have been.  I don’t know enough about Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution or Paris as a setting to comment on the historical accuracy of the book, and I’m fairly certain there are going to be inaccuracies as far as the history goes…but like I said before, I was really expecting there to be more of a historical mystery.  And it felt like I was reading someone’s impression of Paris, instead of actually feeling like I was in Paris.  Randomly, Anna And The French Kiss and Isla And The Happily Ever After did a much better job at making me feel like I was in Paris.

The murder scenes were interesting at first, but after the first 1-2, there wasn’t much change in that part of the story.  I really wish they had been varied a little bit.

Colette was pretty whiny and selfish, and for someone who was supposed to be smart, she was fairly dumb at times.  Her brother drops out of his private school and goes to a public school so that Colette can stay at her school with friends…her one friend is a horrible human being, and her other one…just goes along with the mean one.  I just wanted Colette to actually stand up to the mean one and care less about the money and social status…she did, I guess, but by then I didn’t actually care, and it was way too late.

And an apology is the thing that saves Colette from a queen who was hellbent on revenge?  And Marie Antoinette just forgives her because Colette apologizes for what her ancestor did?  That’s it?  Really?  It wasn’t creepy like I thought, and we don’t really get a lot of Marie Antoinette.  If you want a book about a girl trying to solve a mystery (that’s also a fast read and pretty predictable), this might be something you’re interested in reading.  I just thought the book would be different, for some reason.

2 stars.  MA, SK was okay.  I sort of don’t care enough to actively dislike it.