Review: Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer

Summary from Amazon:

Heads will roll!

Paris, France: a city of fashion, chocolate croissants, and cute boys. Colette Iselin is thrilled be there for the first time, on her spring break class trip. 

But a series of gruesome murders are taking place around the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours the sights, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks like Marie Antoinette. 

Colette knows her status-obsessed friends won’t believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they discover that the murder victims are all descendants of people who ultimately brought about Marie Antoinette’s beheading. The queen’s ghost has been awakened, and now she’s wreaking her bloodthirsty revenge. 

And Colette may just be one of those descendants . . . which means she might not make it out of this trip alive.

Acclaimed author Katie Alender brings heart-stopping suspense to this story of betrayal, glamour, mystery, history–and one killer queen.

 

My Review:

Get this book. Point blank.

This is a new middle grade book that releases on September 24. I got it from NetGalley because it is a featured pick for Scholastic’s Book Fair this fall. As librarian, I like to stay up-to-date on current books so that I can give my students great recommendations. Several of my girls are always asking about mysteries or scary books. I don’t necessarily want to point them towards Goosebumps because…they’re girls. That said, this seemed like the perfect choice. The book starts right into the excitement and gives us a glimpse of Antoinette. It then jumps to our main character, Collete. She goes on a school trip to Paris and is excited to hopefully learn about her French ancestry. LIttle does she know- she will learn more than she ever anticipated! 

MASK is full of excitement and has a great pacing that middle school girls will love. I can’t wait for my school’s book fair so I can share this one with my kids. I’m already planning to purchase a copy for the library! Also- look how awesome the cover is!