Over this past weekend I decided to do some reading and I ended up finishing a book that I’ve been reading for a while called Rebels Like Us. The book is about a girl by the name of Agnus who moves from New York to Georgia after some drama regarding her mother. While in Georgia she ends up meeting a guy by the name of Doyle and the two fall for each other but experience some drama along the way.
The book dealt with of course romance but also prejudice, the experience of getting older, and realizing that not everyone in world is going to like purely based on your skin color. The dealings of prejudice in this book didn’t appear until almost half way into the book but once it was there it definitely took over the entire story and showed how these issues can affect a relationship. It also showed how these issues can change someone who has never experienced those things before.
The book did have a bit of a slow start and I think that has to do with the topic of the family issues that Agnus and her mom were going through. It was a lot of push and pull with her and her mom which after a while got to be very redundant and needed to be resolved. But after those things were kind of resolved the book really took off especially when it came to the romance between Agnus and Doyle.
Their relationship was pretty much a typical teenage romance all the way down to now knowing what they were to each other but all they knew was that they loved each other. Plus there was the knowing that Agnus may not stick around after they graduate. The issue that made their relationship have the most hardship was the issues and race and how people within their city looked at Agnus and the traditions that the town already had. Agnus in the book is half Irish and half Dominican which Doyle is white. So people in the down automatically looked at Agnus differently especially once she started talking with her New York accent.
Overall though I enjoyed this book and I think what originally had me drawn to this book was the relationship. Thats mostly because I’m in a interracial relationship and know that people can be very ignorant if someone dates outside their race. So seeing the 2 main characters deal with this at such a young age was amazing to see and made the story very interesting.
I definitely recommend checking out this book just know that it does get better as you continue to read since the beginning can be kind of boring. Also this book is available for digital download through iBooks and there is also a audiobook. Also be sure to check me out on youtube where I post videos every Monday, Wednesday, & Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/shaytaree
~Shay Taree
