Nocturnal Book Reviews

This book made me cry, that's how good it was.

“I will go out again this very night with my rockets and fuses. I will blow them straight out of their comfortable beds. Blow the rooftops off their houses. Blow the black, wretched night to bits. I will not stop. For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient.”


This is very much a book about human nature, our pain, our love, our ability to sacrifice ourselves for the idea, for hope and for those you love.

Two girls. One is stuck in present world, suffering from depression and wanting to commit suicide because she blames herself for the death of her younger brother.

Another is a little actress secretly blowing up the fireworks in revolutionary Paris so the little prince locked in the tower can see them and smile. She is The Green Man and Robespierre wants her head.

Andi's life and Alexandrine's bare existence are interconnected in mysterious ways. Both are artists, one is a musician, another is a street performer, both feel too deeply and too strong for their own good.

One speaks up in the present, another reaches to her through her diary hidden in a guitar.

There is no point in describing the plot and the synopsis doesn't do it justice at all. I only kick myself that I haven't read this book sooner. Undoubtedly this is one of the best, most heartfelt novels I've read this year and I'll be chasing down the rest of Jennifer Donnelly's books. A must read.