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Author: Mary Weber Pages: 314
When I first started this book I thought I was reading one story and it turned out to be totally different. Which is a good thing but you can see in my notes that I did a double take on my notes once or twice!
At the beginning of this book, all I had was questions, to be honest, but that's because the first seven chapters are laying down the foundation of what is the awesomeness to come. This book is laden with so much feminism that my heart was just full of glee. The MC's in the story Rhen and Seleni are just powerhouses in their own way. They each bring different things to their friendships and to the story. They are the balance that the society they live in is so carefully treading on. Rhen progressive and Seleni traditional but they don't hold it against each other.
There are a lot of topics addressed in this book, just to name a few:
Women's education and rights
Women's traditional role in the home
Rich vs Poor
Inter-class Marriages
Government oversight
Disdain for the sick
Rep- Dyslexia, Down Syndrome,
Objectification of women
and the even better part is that the author includes discussion questions at the end of her book, that can be used for in-class discussion or for you to further look into the themes in the book. This has me tempted to recommend it to my friend to use it in her class.
Back to the story, It was mysterious and intriguing. It literally kept me guessing every now and then when different things and moments got inserted into the story. There are boys in this story but only one is worth mentioning! Mentioning him though would spoil it, so I'll say this. Rhen ends up with the boy she wants at the end but that's only part of her journey, not the end all be all of her success. I can't tell you if she gets everything she wants from a society that has enforced staying male-dominated for at least the last 54 years, so you are going to have to read the book to discover whether Rhen belongs to someone or to herself!
Rating 4/5 ❤❤❤❤
It took me a while to catch up on what was going on but it was necessary for the world-building, so I'll take it. This book really shines in showing what women who are empowered and supported can do and believe. These girls don't have everybody's approval but they have it from the people that matter to them and that is what matters the most. They want to dream like girls, big and impossible but totally within your grasp if you let them. This book is good to read for every young girl with a dream and for every young boy who can use Lute as a role model on how to love unconditionally and freely when each other dreams lead to different paths.