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A review by jessica42980
Marie Antoinette's Darkest Days: Prisoner No. 280 in the Conciergerie by Will Bashor
4.0
All my reviews are on my site: www.jessicasreadingroom.com
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I will admit I do not know much at all about Marie Antoinette. I read a fiction book with an alternate history about her that piqued my curiosity in regard to her life(Insatiable: A Macabre History of France
by Ginger Myrick). Darkest Days does not deal with her whole life, it focuses on the last few months of her life, specifically her 76 days of life in the Conciergerie.
Will Bashor obviously did his homework! He researched this topic very well and was able to provide specific details of Marie Antoinette’s “life” in the Conciergerie. It wasn’t much of a life. Her husband was executed, her children taken away from her, and subpar living quarters with no privacy. Her health went downhill during her time in the Conciergerie. Regardless of your opinion of Marie Antoinette, her last days her horrible. As she left the Conciergerie for the guillotine, she was mistreated even then. It was a horrible way to end a life. I felt sorry and sad for her. You also learn about plans to rescue her that failed.
Will Bashor writes the book in form of a novel which made it easy to read. Some historical books can be dry and flat, but at times this book was hard to put down. I also enjoyed seeing the pictures and maps provided in the book: that made some things in the book seem more real as the book was being read.
Reasons the book could not be given 5 stars:
The book doesn’t seem meant to be read in e-reader form:
-It was hard to read on a kindle as I wasn’t easily able to go back and forth to look at the map then read the description of places in the map.
-Footnotes in the book were in the middle of paragraphs which broke the flow of reading.
-There were several paragraphs where the paragraph was one sentence. The sentences were not necessarily run on sentences, but those long sentences make it hard to read the book. I had to read some paragraphs multiple times because of this.
(Please note: My copy was an electronic ARC- so maybe these will be corrected by the publication date).
If you are a fan of French history or even Marie Antoinette, check this book out. Despite the issues mentioned above, I do recommend the book.
**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will admit I do not know much at all about Marie Antoinette. I read a fiction book with an alternate history about her that piqued my curiosity in regard to her life(Insatiable: A Macabre History of France
by Ginger Myrick). Darkest Days does not deal with her whole life, it focuses on the last few months of her life, specifically her 76 days of life in the Conciergerie.
Will Bashor obviously did his homework! He researched this topic very well and was able to provide specific details of Marie Antoinette’s “life” in the Conciergerie. It wasn’t much of a life. Her husband was executed, her children taken away from her, and subpar living quarters with no privacy. Her health went downhill during her time in the Conciergerie. Regardless of your opinion of Marie Antoinette, her last days her horrible. As she left the Conciergerie for the guillotine, she was mistreated even then. It was a horrible way to end a life. I felt sorry and sad for her. You also learn about plans to rescue her that failed.
Will Bashor writes the book in form of a novel which made it easy to read. Some historical books can be dry and flat, but at times this book was hard to put down. I also enjoyed seeing the pictures and maps provided in the book: that made some things in the book seem more real as the book was being read.
Reasons the book could not be given 5 stars:
The book doesn’t seem meant to be read in e-reader form:
-It was hard to read on a kindle as I wasn’t easily able to go back and forth to look at the map then read the description of places in the map.
-Footnotes in the book were in the middle of paragraphs which broke the flow of reading.
-There were several paragraphs where the paragraph was one sentence. The sentences were not necessarily run on sentences, but those long sentences make it hard to read the book. I had to read some paragraphs multiple times because of this.
(Please note: My copy was an electronic ARC- so maybe these will be corrected by the publication date).
If you are a fan of French history or even Marie Antoinette, check this book out. Despite the issues mentioned above, I do recommend the book.
**I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.