Book Review: Callie's Revolution: The Audacious Adventures of a Woman on the Run by Tony Chiodo

Callie’s Revolution tells the story of young Callie Masterson, an aspiring journalist who follows an American troop into Mexico in chase of Poncho Villa, but what she finds is more than she bargained for. Expecting to see and report on the Mexican revolution she soon discovers that the true revolution lies within her.

The first half of the novel was very well paced with tight dialogue, which is a style I enjoy. I found Callie to be wild and perhaps a bit unbelievable. Everything seemed to be too well done, as she seemed to be great at everything and everyone loved her. But this definitely worked to her advantage, and to the advantage of the story. I had a difficult time, at first, reconciling what I know of 1916 to what was being presented in the novel. I’ll be honest and say most of my knowledge of the time period is mostly European with the war well underway, and being Canadian I did not know much of what was going on in the southern States. It was refreshing to read something new, and even more refreshing to not feel the need to confirm the research completed by the author. It’s a bad habit of mine, so I’m thankful the dialogue and story carried me away enough to forget about fact-checking.

The second half, however, felt quite slow. I felt that everything had wrapped up nicely and took me a while to adjust to the new pace of the plot. But now at the end of it, I recognize that the pacing was directly linked with Callie’s own life. It’s her time in Mexico that while she loved it, she was at a stand-still. Nothing was happening and she was becoming restless as I was with the pace. Once she found her new adventure the plot picked up once more until the end.

Without a spoiler, I’m somewhat disappointed with the ending, more about who she ended up with. Of course, the romantic in me was pleased but at the same time I wished the author had taken a bit more of a risk and left it the way we thought it would be. (It’s hard to talk about without spoiling it!)

Overall, I thought this was a well written novel with an interesting and well-rounded main character set in a wild and uncertain time. It was thrilling yet at the same time relevant to anyone seeking their true purpose in life.