RIPPLES IN STONE

Harper’s historical YA novel imagines the lives of a family caught up in the French Revolution.

The novel opens in 1786 on protagonist Lady Geneviève de Mailly-Nesle’s 14th birthday as the family sets off on a long journey. Geneviève’s older sister, Félicité, is King Louis XVI’s mistress, a situation that’s complicated by the growing civil unrest and the fact that a third de Mailly-Nesle sister, Celeste, has also recently slept with the king. This invoked the wrath of the Vatican, which demanded that Geneviève be sent to a nunnery as restitution. The family’s current journey is to bring Geneviève to her new home. Geneviève finds the nuns’ constricting clothing and simple, cloistered life to be oppressive. She’s often reprimanded by the Mother Superior and others, which only increases her yearning to leave. She does make  a few friends, including sea shanty–singing Sister Victoria. Félicité is also sent to the nunnery. However, as the revolution heats up, some nuns are displaced, rehomed, and even join in the rebellion. The complex story ends on a hopeful note. Over the course of this novel, Harper takes care to include a multitude of details to set scenes in her novel, but in a way that enhances and engages the reader, rather than distracting them from the flow of the narrative. Harper notes that while her story’s overall timeline is true to actual French history, she took creative liberties with the real-life de Mailly-Nesle family and their fate. The final chapter of the novel helpfully clarifies what’s based in historical fact, and on the author’s extensive research, and what’s not. This is a wonderful inclusion, especially for readers for whom this may be a gateway into learning more about this sweeping period of history.

An engaging novel of 18th-century France with a spirited protagonist.