Alrighty, if you regularly read my reviews, then you’re probably getting sick of me saying this… but I have had such a weakness, lately, for books about music/musicians!! My initial interest in Rebel Girls was because it is a book about an introverted main character who likes music and is set the year before I was born. 90s punk rock mixtapes? I’m in! But it ended up being so much more than that. It was about feminism and friendship and standing up for what is right. The relationships between all the characters, both friends and siblings, were dynamic and felt real and I really enjoyed the 90s references and got super nostalgic for all the music titles. This book was fifty percent Moxie and fifty percent This Song Will Save Your Life. Totally suggest it to any contemporary readers looking for a read that covers important topics like abortion rights and socially constructed sexism.

This was one of those books I went into unsure just what to expect but boy did I enjoy the overall outcome! A great read and I can't wait to read more by Elizabeth Keenan!

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Alright. this one was pretty slow going for a while there, but we did it. We finished it, and actually we kinda liked it.

Rebel girls follows Athena Graves, your run of the mill wannabe riot grrrl/amateur feminist who gets wrapped up in all the drama when her younger, very pro-life sister begins having abortion rumors circulate throughout their very strict, southern catholic school. Oh, and it's 1992.

As a character, I didn't love Athena. I spent a lot of time wanting to smack her upside the head for trying SO HARD to fit into the punk rock feminist values she claimed to have while bashing the girls around her, and falling for the most vapid guy on the planet. Now, I will say that this felt incredibly relatable as every young feminist has that militant stage where they question absolutely everything they say and do and criticize the girls around them for not being "feminist enough". That being said, while it's realistic, that doesn't necessarily mean I want to read about it...if that makes sense.

The side characters all felt quite underdeveloped, the plot was mediocre, and the resolution felt relatively lackluster. All in all this should've been a 2 star book. BUT, what set this apart from other meh books I've read this year is the fact that it made me ANGRY. The major conflict that occurs with the authority in this story results in some truly maddening conversations. For a book to incite so much rage in me is difficult, and for that, I had to bump this up to a 3 star review.

All in all, I really wanted to like this. And I guess I did, but not enough to actively seek out more that this author will write, and I think that says more than a true review would.

Trigger and Content Warnings: Abortion (both pro and cons, descriptions of imagery, shaming, etc), bullying, religion, religion as a means to harass people, cheating/infidelity (mentioned), estranged parent, girl hate

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of Rebel Girls by Elizabeth Keenan in exchange for an honest review!

It happened again. I was suckered by a gorgeous book cover. Rebel Girls had it’s pros (one being the book cover), but it unfortunately, also had plenty of flaws.

Rebel Girls has a case of important topic & concept, but not-so-great execution.

Rebel Girls deals with the taboo-subject, abortion, at a Catholic high school. Rumor has it that Athena’s sister, pro-life Helen, had an abortion over the summer & this rumor is tearing her world apart.

One thing that I did enjoy in Rebel Girls is that we get to witness both sides of the abortion debate; pro-lifers & pro-choicers come together to stand up for Helen. This is so very important, y’all & I’m so glad that Keenan had the balls to write something so powerful.

I also really enjoyed Rebel Girls' setting. It’s 1992 — a time where CLINTON was going against BUSH for office. Rebel Girls didn’t really discuss the election a lot; there were references to Bill Clinton playing saxophone on Arsenio Hall, and in general, it was just a blast to the past for me. Okay, sure, I was only 2 — but I still know the references, okay?!

Athena & her best friend, Melissa, were high school goals for me. I wanted to be one of the cool kids with fun-dyed hair & patches on denim. I wanted to stand up for my right to party & all that jazz.

Y’all ready for the cons?

Athena Graves was my least favorite character (excluding the mean girls — I’ll get to one of them next), which really sucks when she’s our leading character. She’s a self-acclaimed feminist who wants to be a Riot Grrrl! That’d be dope, right? However, she’s horrible at practicing what she preaches. She judges her female classmates & is too absorbed with Kyle (at one point awaiting his call & at another, leaving a football game with him when she was suppose to be passing out patches & pins for the supposed ‘rebellion’. Athena was kind of just a flop of a character. Athena is also so pretentious & annoying about music; at one point she even goes through Kyle’s cassette collection & judges him for each band in there.

Leah, our stereotypical mean girl, tends to do things out of spite & jealousy. Which, fine, cool — yet, in Rebel Girls, we partially learn about her at-home life, but it never goes any deeper; leaving a potentially interesting character very undeveloped. I get that she’s not our main character, but why even bring up her personal issues, if you’re only going to leave it on the surface? It felt like a really weak way to explain her awful actions.

In fact, a lot of this story felt unnecessary & left undeveloped. Kyle was an extremely pointless character, Sean was a shit friend who was only used as conflict for the ‘girl gang’ vs. Leah (which, same can totally be said about Kyle) & Trip, who could have been the only decent man in this book, was barely even in it. There was a lot of potential here & yet, it was left undiscovered.

To sum it all up, I’m here for the topic & concept of Rebel Girls, but I really did not enjoy reading this book whatsoever.

This book was, unfortunately, a struggle for me. I loved the cover and was excited to read a political, feminist YA. It just didn’t quite feel like that’s what I got. At first, I really enjoyed Athena’s thought processes and politics. What initially got me was how she ruminated upon the conflict one can face when trying to be a “good” feminist and respect other women while also struggling with the instinct to put them down when we feel threatened, something mainstream culture seems to have primed us to do. It gave me hope that the rest of the book would expand on this, and frame other struggles similarly.

I slowly realized that this wouldn’t go any further; sure, Athena thinks these things, but she doesn’t do them! She is judging women and putting them down based on her superficial slotting of them into roles. Every character here is just a trope, and Athena herself doesn’t make any effort to see them differently than that. We are told that Athena is a good feminist who struggles to fight against what she has been conditioned to feel for other women, but we aren’t shown this to be true. This gave the book a superficiality that made it impossible for me to become invested in.

To get more into the characters themselves, they’re truly just an amalgamation of the pop culture they consume. Everyone is described only by what they listen to or read -- except the mean girls, who are cardboard cut-out characters who have absolutely no redeemable qualities and are given absolutely no sympathy. I truly don’t understand how a book supposedly about justice and girl power could write women like this, but oh well. The constant pop culture references got stale very fast, and I found myself rolling my eyes every time they were brought up.

The plot was also confusing, I didn’t really understand what the author was trying to accomplish. The focus of the book is that Athena’s sister Helen is accused of getting an abortion. The book is mostly about Athena trying to figure out how to dispel these untrue rumors, but it’s also about Athena’s relationship with some guy who she had zero chemistry with? The scenes between them felt awkward and pointless and he only existed to further the mean girl plot. In an otherwise well-done book, I could have seen it as a play on how women are used as plot devices, but I truly don’t think that was the intention here. It felt like it was just thrown in to add to the drama Athena was going through. Not to mention that I essentially had to drag myself through the book; I kept checking the Goodreads page because I couldn’t believe that this was only 300 pages.

I feel bad, because I really wanted to like this and there was the potential for some good rep -- Athena’s best friend is half Vietnamese and her other best friend is black -- but none of the characters were sufficiently utilized or explored. Between that and the lack of an interesting plot, this just really fell flat for me.

Rebel Girls
by Elizabeth Keenan

Harlequin TEEN (US & Canada)

Inkyard Press

Teens & YA

Pub Date 10 Sep 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Rebel Girls through Harlequin Teen/Inkyard Press and Netgalley:

Athena Graves is far more comfortable creating Mixed Tape Playlists than she is talking to cute boys or anyone else for that matter. And her staunchly feminist views and love for Punk Rock aren’t exactly mainstream at St. Ann’s, her conservative Catholic high school.

There’s a horribly malicious rumor going around the halls, a rumor that Athena’s popular pretty, pro life sister had an abortion over this summer. This kind of rumor not only has the power to hurt Helen, but the power to see her expelled as well.

Despite their contrasting views Athena, Helen, and their friends must find a way to convince the student body and the administration that it doesn’t matter what Helen did or didn’t do…even if their riot grrrl protests result in the expulsion of their entire rebel girl gang.

I was hoping I would really love this book, but honestly I didn’t really like it all! It was one that I struggled through and one I would not care to let my nieces read!

I give Rebel Girls three out of five stars!

On its surface, Rebel Girls is a book about abortion, which shouldn’t have been a dirty word in 1992, the year the book takes place, or even now, in 2019, but it still kind of is and so here we are. 🤷‍♀️ I loved that Elizabeth Keenan decided to write a book focusing on abortion—as well as feminism, female friendships, slut-shaming, and bullying—because where were those books when I was a teenager? It took me until I was 26 until I remember even coming across the word feminism (thank you, Roxane Gay, as always), but then it was a black hole into which I willingly jumped. I couldn’t get enough—I still can’t, honestly—but what if I’d been exposed to riot grrrl at fifteen the way I’d been introduced to male-fronted punk and hardcore bands? What if I’d had a friend like Melissa? Or a relationship with my sister like that of Athena and Helen? (Which, admittedly, I did get, but it came much later.) Why didn’t The Perks of Being a Wallflower mention the words abortion or sexual assault or molestation? (Or, if it did, why don’t I remember?)

But I hate dwelling on what ifs—because I can’t do anything about them.

As soon as I saw the cover for Rebel Girls while walking the show floor at BEA, I bee-lined for it, knowing that I needed to find out what kind of story would accompany such a kick-ass image. And once I did? I immediately added it to my TBR. But maybe I shouldn’t have; maybe I should have waited until other readers had a chance to read it first. Because, although this book was everything I would have wanted at Athena’s age, it wasn’t the kind of book I wanted now—and I’m not good at separating teenage me from thirty-something me, nor do I really want to be transported back to that time in my life.

So it’s hard to say that this book wasn’t good—because it was good, in a lot of important and fundamental ways—it’s more that this book wasn’t meant for me as I am at this moment. And trying to qualify the ways in which I disliked Rebel Girls negates how good it will be for other readers, at whatever ages they are, in whatever stage of feminism they find themselves. Because not everyone has found their voice yet—and books that articulate that struggle with nuance and care and love? Those books need to be written—because someone needs to read them. Although I don’t need to be reminded that being pro-choice simply means one acknowledges abortion as one choice out of many, some people do, and I can’t discount that.

Keenan writes in her author’s note that one of the main inspirations for Rebel Girls were the letters held in the Riot Grrrl Collection at the Fales Library & Special Collections at New York University, letters that “grappled with what it was like to be a teen girl, and to feel all the contradictions of knowing you have something to say, but being stuck in a culture that often disregards you.” I’ve been very fortunate to be on the other side of Athena’s struggle—to know that I have a voice, and that my voice is worth something, even if other people don’t think so. (Perhaps especially when other people don’t.)

So maybe I didn’t love Rebel Girls, but I really wasn’t meant to. Instead, I’m meant to pass it along to someone who does.

This book tackles a lot of important issues and in a way that is really relatable. I loved that it brings to the forefront some important topics that need more exposure and more attention.

The author gets your head and your heart involved with the help of some great characters that will definitely leave an impression on you. I loved it all. The teenage drama, the rocky ride that is your first crush, the complex family situations, the friendships and of course, the battle of doing whats right when it's going against the majority. It was angsty, emotional and inspiring.

Athena was a great protaganist and the hardships she takes on with her ragtag group of friends is great. Yes, there is some romance but I didn't feel that it overshadowed the main plot of standing up against bullying and fighting for women's rights. Even though it's set in the 80s, the message is still very relevant in today's world. The romance (and all the drama that ensues) was just a bonus to an overall great story.

Disclaimer: I was given an advance reader copy of this book by Harlequin Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

I really wanted to like this book but I had a hard time, not because it wasn't well written but because I found myself in the position that I am both too old and too young for this book. I felt too old for this book because it is written for teens, which I am not a teen. I felt too young for this book because I am just a bit too young for the late 80s to early 90s references that were being made.

With that said, I did find this to be well written and brought up tough subject matter (abortion and bullying) that was presented in a real way and how the issues were dealt with.

I would say to give this book a look if you are interested in these topics, but it is definitely written for teens.

Rebel Girls has a great set-up: it's 1992, and Athena and her younger sister Helen have just returned to Baton Rouge, LA after a summer with their mother in Oregon. Over the summer, Baton Rouge had been sieged by anti-abortion protests, which Athena's best friend Melissa faced head-on as a clinic escort, so, although she wasn't involved herself, Athena has a personal connection to the summer's events. The issue is especially pressing for Athena and Melissa, two of the only pro-choice, feminist students at their conservative Catholic high school, where the coolest student activity is the pro-life club. Shortly after the school year begins, Athena's little sister Helen, a popular freshman and a dedicated member of that pro-life club, seems a bit down. We learn quickly that there's a rumor going around the school, which alleges that Helen had an abortion over the summer.

Athena and the reader know immediately that the rumor cannot be true (they were both on the other side of the country, after all, and the rumor depends on Helen being in Baton Rouge during the protests). This takes a bit of wind out of the plot's sails, and lowers the stakes considerably. Had there been a bit more suspense involved—if there was any possibility that Helen had, in fact, sought an abortion—the plot may have been a touch more suspenseful and complex. I suppose I may have expected a little too much based on the title and description, which brought to mind books like Moxie (Jennifer Mathieu), Watch Us Rise (Renée Watson & Ellen Hagan), and Amelia Westlake Was Never Here (Erin Gough) in which the protagonists are the driving forces behind their respective stories, making trouble and change by defying authority. Athena really is not much of a rebel, nor a particularly strong pro-choice voice. Most of the pro-choice arguments here come not from Athena, but from Melissa, and Helen's anti-choice views lack complexity (this may be intentional, as anti-choice views in real life are often simplistic and illogical, and Helen is consistently portrayed as a bit naive, but giving them more meat may have added some fuel to the narrative).

In spite of the issues mentioned above, I really did enjoy this. The writing is excellent, and Athena's voice is well-crafted. The family dynamics (between Athena and Helen, as well as their divorced and distant parents) and close, layered relationship between Athena, Helen, and their neighbor/Athena's friend Sean and his mother. I wanted just a little bit more from this book, but it is definitely an important read and, in my opinion, worthy of a 4-star rating.

I do my best not to DNF arcs. That being said, I just absolutely couldn't get through this. I have tried on multiple occasions for the last few months to read Rebel Girls, and each time I make it about another 3% before I just have to stop. At this point, friends, it isn't going to happen. I've talked before about the tenuous line that books with an abundance of pop culture references walk, and Rebel Girls is no exception despite being set in 1992. Our main character spends a lot of time exposition-ing and it felt incredibly repetitive. I think I did read the same exact phrase about Athena's mother twice a few pages apart. I was bored by the characters, bored by the exposition. Unfortunately, I just had to DNF this, but I will say I can see how this book could be enjoyable for some others. It just wasn't for me.

*Note -- I don't typically rate DNFs since I obviously didn't make it all the way through the book but Netgalley doesn't allow that.

This was really cute! I'm normally not one for the contemporary genre or books that focus so much around what I would generally call 'teen drama', but this was actually really relatable even as an adult and reminded me a lot of my teen years. I think the book did a good job of portraying the girls' struggles in a realistic manner and showing that it is possible to grow and change your opinions on things and also that you can protest something and make your voice heard and actually make a difference in a lot of different ways and that they aren't all as 'in your face' as people often believe. I also liked that all the characters felt very real instead of just having it be a very two dimensional 'us versus them' situation. Definitely a good book for teen girls. I wish there had been more books like this around when I was younger!

Athena and her “do-good” sister, Helen, are students at a Catholic school in 1992. When her pro-life sister is accused of having an abortion, Athena and their friends set aside their differences and gang up to take on the school.

While this book is not something I would typically pick up due to the content discussed, early reviews had me intrigued and I wanted to give it a shot.

The characters were not interesting whatsoever. I just was not interested in them and found their dialogue and personalities boring. I almost DNF’d this book at page 132. However, I continued and have to say that I do enjoy the varying viewpoints on the topics discussed. Most texts depicting pro-choice/pro-life subject matter typically lean heavily one way or the other and I felt that this did a nice job at showing both vantage points. I will say that I felt that I did sway more on the pro-choice side of things.

Overall, I didn’t find this book enjoyable simply for the fact that it was extremely slow and I felt like a lot of the material could have been trimmed down or cut out completely.

Title: Rebel Girls
Author: Elizabeth Keenan
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

In Athena Graves’ Baton Rouge Catholic high school, rocking the boat or rebelling can get you expelled. Her riot grrrl leanings are more theoretical than anything, until her younger sister, Helen, leader of the Pro-Life Alliance, is accused of having an abortion.

Helen is popular and pretty, but the rumor leads to bullying from her peers and punishment from the school—while the mean girls who started the rumor get off scot free. And Athena won’t have that. So she and her friends come together to prevent Helen from being expelled because of the lies—and to make their voices heard.

It was a little weird reading a book set when I was in high school. Granted, the Riot Grrrl movement didn’t touch my small country high school back then, but still, I recognize some of the attitudes in the book. I loved seeing how Athena grew from being the shy girl with big ideas to being someone who takes action.

Elizabeth Keenan is a writer, a punk rock expert, and a real estate agent in New York City. Rebel Girls is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin TEEN/Inkyard Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

When I saw this book on Net Galley I was instantly intrigued. I graduated from high school and got married in 1992, so that year has a lot of significance for me. How fun would it be to go back to that time? Plus, there would be fight against social injustice on top of it all. I couldn’t pass it up. (I’d be remiss not to note that this book deals with abortion, so although it’s a YA book not all parents will find it suitable for their teen. My advice, read it yourself before passing it on to your kids so you’ll be prepared to discuss. This story doesn’t preach any one side hard although it does lean a certain way.)

I was frustrated with the first half of this book. It was very slow moving and I kept waiting for the action to start. The only characters I felt any type of chemistry from (friendly or romantic) were Sean and Helen so I wasn’t feeling the connections I should have felt. On top of that, there are a lot of musical references throughout this book that get to be a bit much. I understand that the author is trying to make a particular point, but she made that point many times over. The references to obscure punk girl bands start to bog the story down. There will a niche group that will revel in Athena’s riot grrrl references, but it’s my belief most readers will start skimming those parts to get to the meat and potatoes of the story.

This author does a great job of evoking those teenage feelings when confronted with a mean girl. Those overwhelming feelings of nobody believing the truth, especially the adults. Oh, the adults believing the “good girls” is such a frustrating thing and this author got the tone in those scenes spot on. But I felt myself looking forward to those scenes and not staying engaged with the rest of the story.

The content of this story is interesting and, believe it or not, relevant to our current social and political climate. And there is a strong theme of girl power and equality that I enjoy seeing in YA books. Those things make this book is worth picking up. It’s a solid read, just not a fast read. I’m curious to see what the future holds for this author. There’s definitely a lot of potential there.

I really wanted to like this because a book about teen girls coming together to protest bullying & abortion shaming is 100% for me. PROs: the main characters, the sibling relationship, and the exploration of feminism. CONs: there was too much unnecessary detail and the story dragged. It felt way too long for the amount of things that actually happened. I ended up skimming the second half because I was bored, but wanted to know what happened. It felt like the author wanted to get as much politics and culture in each scene as possible, which diluted the story and made everything seem very forced.

**Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ecopy in exchange for an honest review.**

I had high hopes for Rebel Girls but it failed to meet them in a stunning way.

This should have been a poignant book about abortion but it ended up being more 90210 than anything. Being set in the 90s made this even more glaring.

Teen crushes, cliques, drama drama drama. The characters were very stereotypical and shallow. Although they did address both sides of the pro-life/pro-choice issue, if you can't get into it because you can't get past the drama, what is the point?

The plot made me roll my eyes so much that I couldn't take anything seriously. And with such a heavy topical issue that is saying a lot. The interaction between the sisters was really difficult because while everything is happening to one character, the point of view is completely from her sister. This is jarring to say the least.

Unpregnant was much closer to being something I would recommend but had pieces that were a bit unrealistic and this was completely off the mark. I really hope another novel comes along and truly addresses all sides of this issue, the parties that it effects and the aftermath. It isn't about teen drama or pink elephants. It is a serious issue no matter what your political beliefs and should be addressed as such. People of all ages deserve as much.

YA feminist rise-up set in the RIOT GRRRL 90s of my youth? I couldn't wait to read it, and I was prepared to LOVE it. Unfortunately, I didn't.

First, the book was at least 150 pages too long and the filler was unnecessary storylines about secondary characters (why even include everything with Kyle? It really added nothing to the story). Second, aside from Athena and Melissa, I felt like all the characters were just one-dimensional caricatures and stereotypes (especially the "mean girls" clique). Third, as much as I loved reading and reminiscing about riot grrrl bands and early 90s alterna-teen fashion, I feel like Keenan was just tossing out names of bands and musicians left and right with no context or history, and I wonder if today's teen girls would just be confused about it all.

Look, Keenan had honorable intentions with this book and I do think she did a good job of getting across the feminist REVOLUTION GIRL STYLE NOW! ideals. I just wish the story was tightened up and refined a bit to make it more impactful.

Well done story of young women - especially sisters Helen and Athena - banding together against mean girls, rumors, and exploring both sides of the abortion issue within a Catholic high school in 1992. That last is a kicker. While this is going to be a terrific trip down memory lane for adult readers, I'm not sure how the target YA audience will react given how much things have changed, especially with regard to social media. I loved how Keenan worked the Riot Grrl movement and the strong feminist/love of self message. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I loved the female support system in this story. Featuring the classic mean girls was a perfect foil to the sisters who find themselves friends at last despite their different ideologies. The pop culture references and the 1990 setting should have felt like a reunion but I must have slept through the Riot Grrls movement.