These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch - OPTIONAL

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch, 480 pages.  Balzer + Bray (Harper), 2018.  $18.  

Language: R (100+ swears, 1 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13 (fighting, assassinations, some blood)

BUYING ADVISORY:  HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Lu, Vex, and Ben are young people caught up in the machinations of a small island nation versus a giant military theocracy.  While each of them thought they knew their place in the struggle, each of them will have to rethink their assumptions, trust each other, and find a dream to hold on to in order to survive.

Raasch builds so much new world so quickly, I was overwhelmed by what I had to learn in order to make sense of her world.  Luckily the three main characters were intriguing enough to keep me going.  It isn’t until the last third of the book that the thrill of the action catches up with the love for the protagonists.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS