In my inaugural post of the year, I mentioned that part of my 2019 reading goal was to read more books by international and female writers in order to expand my horizons a bit. I’m also trying to jump out of my typical genres, to see what’s out there. Rachel Hawkins’ Rebel Belle was a fun diversion from what I normally read. It’s the perfect kind of book to listen to whilst road tripping – light, fun, and entertaining. Amy Rubinate’s narration style was a welcome passenger seat companion on my long work trip.
Here’s what you need to know: Harper Price is an Alabama high-schooler fuller embracing the Southern lifestyle. She’s proper, polite, an overachiever, and she has the perfect boyfriend. She’s nice if not good. During a school dance, a quick trip to the restroom to freshen up turns into a grisly nightmare, and all of a sudden her world is turned upside down. Through no choice of her own, Harper becomes privy to a secret, fantastical world in which the stakes couldn’t be higher. Things like Cotillion and homecoming games no longer carry the importance they once did. Still, she has to juggle both her old world and the new one. Along the way, she even befriends…a boy hipster. It’s kind of like Jumanji, Vampire Academy, Buffy, etc., althoug the tone is pretty chaste. It’s probably somewhere between PG and PG-13.
While this book is like a lot of other books in some respects, one thing I did appreciate was reality of Southern, small-town living. I’ve known a few young people like Harper, and one thing people don’t always realize is the anxiety that comes with high expectations. Hawkins definitely lets you feel the pressure that Harper is under, even when Harper doesn’t fully understand it herself. That was the most unique thing in the book to me and it made the protagonist relatable to me, even across generations and gender.