Review of Rebel by Marie Lu

Books added to a series after it was finished are always difficult. The fans are expecting so much, they have had years to decide what should and did happen after that final chapter. There are very high expectations. I wouldn’t call them hit or miss because sometimes the book can be good but not necessarily a hit.

Rebel felt like that. It was good, I enjoyed the read. We got to see the characters deal with being adults with responsibility and deal with the aftermath of the revolution, both in themselves and in their government. I enjoyed it; did I love it? No.

I didn’t feel a need to finish just to find out what was going to happen. I didn’t particularly find it interesting or necessary.

It was interesting to see Daniel deal with being an adult, part of a government with rules he couldn’t break, and raising his brother who as any teenager, rebels against him. Both brothers are very similar, so much so that they anger each other because neither will give an inch. Eden acts much like Day did during the first book, rebelling against a system that is unjust with no backing and falls for a girl that is trouble. The difference is that Eden doesn’t remember the suffering of living in poverty, he remembers small moments and feelings but not the pain Day had to go through to survive each day, the hunger and fear. Eden only remembers what was once his home and the anger at the people that were above them.

Daniel comes to terms with who he was as Day and who he wants to be. He runs from his past in an attempt to protect Eden from suffering and pain but doesn’t realize that Eden still lived it as much as he did and doesn’t want to run, Eden wants to confront it.

Antarctica is said to be a paradise in the trilogy, nothing like the Republic, but in Rebel, we find out no system is perfect. Although Antarctica is far from being the Republic it still has injustice and very separate lines between socio-economic classes which are almost impossible to climb. Rebel reminds us that no system, no matter how advance and just, is perfect. There are always going to be holes in the system where problems slip through. That’s why we must always keep changing and working on our governments.

Rebel was good. I enjoyed reading Daniel and June as adults with responsibilities, as well as getting to know Eden. The fact the brothers have trauma from their past they bury to not deal with it felt very realistic and I did enjoy the moral of the book.