Review Detail

The cover of this book caught my eye because the girl exudes so much strength and confidence! I knew I had to read it, even though I'm not a fan of Dystopian/post-apocalypse stories (and my TBR pile is huge!)

Rachel and Logan were a breath of fresh air as a leading duo! The YA genre so often gives young readers terrible examples of what a strong woman should be. It's always one extreme or another. A weak girl, lifted up by her love interest and made to be special because of him. OR she's so strong and hard core that she's damaged and unable to love or feel much of anything. It takes a careful balancing act to create a character that is a true young woman of strength. She needs to be strong, yes! But she needs to be capable of vulnerability too. With Rachel, we get that and it's a wonderful thing to see.

But with Defiance, we also get Logan, who isn't afraid to let Rachael take care of herself. He knows she can handle anything that comes her way and he loves that about her. So many times in YA, we see the bad ass girl with the weakling guy trailing along behind her. It is not necessary to tear men down in order to build women up! Finally, a successful YA leading couple that manages to find equal ground? It's like finding a tap dancing unicorn!

Defiance is a great example of a healthy relationship of equality, (with characters who are flawed), while still an entertaining read. The post-apocalypse theme was cleverly done in a way that made the timeline ambiguous. The misogynist society had me gnashing my teeth in despair, but thankfully, Rachel was there to balk the system with her bad-assery.
I look forward to the rest of the series and am especially anticipating Redwine's upcoming fairytale retelling, The Shadow Queen.