Athena and her sister Helen do NOT get along. They are total opposites; Athena the shy feminist punk rocker and Helen the popular pro-lifer. But when a vicious rumor starts at their conservative Catholic school that Helen had an abortion over the summer, Athena and Helen put their differences on hold to try to get to the bottom of the rumors and run damage control. Will they be able to set the record straight before Helen is expelled?
Keenan's decision of setting this book in the 90s was a good choice for the storyline. Having two sisters that were polar opposites was a great way to portray the opposing of the abortion arguments. I wish I had been able to read this book when I was a teenager and could have used the confused, yet tough example of Athena. I loved this book and would recommend without reserve. ( )

Rebel girl you are the queen of my world
Rebel girl, rebel girl
I know I wanna take you home
I wanna try on your clothes
Love you like a sister always
Soul sister, rebel girl
Come and be my best friend
Will you, rebel girl?
I really like you
I really wanna be your best friend
Be my rebel girl

I had Bikini Kill running through my brain every time I picked this book up. This feminist, realistic, awesome story warmed my cold, dead heart and was everything I wanted it to be. There were so many time reading that I thought I could see the twists and turns coming and dreading the potential reactions of characters that would ruin the book for me, and every time I was wrong. This book oozes girl power, revolution, and exactly what it's like to be a teen girl fighting the power.

Set in the early 1990s, Rebel Girls tells the story of Athena Graves, aspiring Riot Grrrl and high-school sophomore who never feels quite outspoken or punk enough to really be part of the movement. Sure, her taste in music fits the bill but she knows that being a feminist is so much more than that. Unfortunately, she's often stuck her her sister, Helen. Helen is an aspiring fashion model and was the head of the pro-life club at her middle school.

Everything changes once they're back to school and a viscious rumor starts spreading - people think that Helen had an abortion over the summer. Their ultra-Catholic high school strictly forbids this, and the rumor is not only ostracizing socially, it could get Helen expelled.

Helen and Athena, along with their friends, band together to protest the rumor, but also send a message that it's not anyone's business whether or not she had an abortion.

Athena fights the power, stands up for women, and always sticks to her values. The way she questions herself and chides herself for thinking things that don't always line up with the feminist message was so real and honest and refreshing. The growth we see in her as a character was amazing, and left me so happy. I'll definitely be buying a copy of this for all the young girls in my life.

Also, how cool is that cover? ( )

4.5 stars.

Set in 1992, Rebel Girls by Elizabeth Keenan is a thought-provoking young adult novel with a topical, meaningful storyline.

Athena Graves is not like her fellow Catholic School peers. She is a pro-choice feminist and would-be riot grrrl. Her best friend Melissa Lemoine shares many of her viewpoints and in fact, she spent part of her summer working to protect patients at a local abortion clinic. School is now back in session and Athena's pro-life beautiful fourteen year old sister Helen is beginning her freshman year. Athena is crushing on new student, Kyle Buchanan, but she is soon distracted when mean-girl Leah Sullivan and her sidekick Aimee stir up trouble by spreading vicious rumors about Helen. Although the sisters are on opposite sides on abortion, they team up with Melissa and Helen's best friends Sara and Jennifer to prevent Helen from being expelled from school.

Athena tries to fly under the radar as she navigates the tricky high school waters. She is not part of the "in crowd" despite her lifelong friendship with popular football player Sean Mitchell. Athena has also managed to avoid becoming a target of Sean's girlfriend Leah and she is wary of doing anything to cross her. She works hard to live up to the riot grrrl movement as she tries to be supportive of other girls. But will Athena be able to continue taking the high road when she discovers what Leah is doing to Helen?

Helen could not be more different than Athena. She is popular and well-liked with aspirations of becoming a model. The sisters are not close, so initially, Helen does not tell Athena about the rumors Leah is spreading about her. But once Athena learns the truth, will Helen accept her help in salvaging her reputation?

Athena, Helen, Melissa and Jennifer must figure out how to get justice without flouting any of the school rules. Their campaign is clever and although their success is limited at first, a vindictive incident aids their cause. Athena finds herself in the crosshairs of their guidance counselor (!) and she is faced with an almost untenable choice as their plan is reaching its denouement.

Rebel Girls is a wonderful young adult novel that offers an uplifting and positive portrayal of young women's friendships and tackles both sides of the abortion issue. The characters are diverse and most of them are three-dimensional and multi-faceted. The exceptions are Leah and Aimee who are rather one dimensional since they are stereotypical mean girls. The storyline is engaging and well-researched with the time period springing vibrantly to life. Elizabeth Keenan brings this heartwarming novel to a satisfying and realistic conclusion. I highly recommend this outstanding young adult novel to older teen and adult readers.
( )

Rebel Girls, while enjoyable is probably going to be a mostly forgettable read for me. I loved the strong focus on sibling relationships, girl solidarity, and challenging belief you find harmful or disrespectful, but I just didn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. Sister Catherine was probably one of the standout characters and I loved seeing her throughout the story. Unfortunately, I didn't like any of the romances in the story - they were just too flat for me to care about. So while the 90s nostalgia was awesome, and the message was incredibly relevant and important, Rebel Girls didn't quite get there - based on purely enjoyment factor - for me personally.

I received a cop of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review ( )

This review can also be found on my blog.

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. ( )