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CAKE EATER by Allyson Dahlin

CAKE EATER

by Allyson Dahlin

Pub Date: Aug. 9th, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-309677-6
Publisher: HarperTeen

Marie Antoinette, 1,000 years in the future.

It’s 3070. Seventeen-year-old Maria Antonia leaves the Austro Lands, where her mother is empress, to marry Louis-Auguste, dauphin of the Franc Kingdom and “a total mystery with almost zero social media presence” who may have sent her some anonymous texts. Due to a catastrophic climate-changing Event that killed half the world’s population, current humanity is mostly cut off from information about the past, but vestiges of former glory remain at Versailles, a crumbing ancient palace where the quickly married, newly Franc Marie Antoinette must navigate her shy new husband, an unfamiliar society, hidden turmoil, and social inequalities she was never taught to recognize, let alone address. Dahlin reimagines the French Revolution in all its complexity while sharpening the pace by compressing the timeline from years to months. The futuristic technology seems much like our own, but the parallels between the historic past and this future work well. The humanity of Dahlin’s characters, particularly Marie and Louis, shines, and the slow blossoming of the royal romance will break readers’ hearts. Even if they are not familiar with individuals such as the Princess de Lamballe or Robespierre, the characters are developed enough to feel like real people rather than just names from history. Cast members read as White by default.

Intriguing and imaginative.

(Fiction. 12-18)