Review Detail

What I Liked
I cannot remember the last time a book made me feel so incredibly, incandescently, indescribably enraged. Seriously, I was filled with anger for most of the book. Loathing. Unadulterated loathing. Right now, I can see you looking at the rating and wondering whether I slipped up. No, I didn’t. This book pissed me off more than most any other, but it MEANT to make me feel that way. This review will involve a good deal of ranting, but that’s not directed at the book. Rites of Passage is an intense read about gender and the military, which made me want to go on a feminist rampage.

My expectations going into Rites of Passage were something along the lines of Cadet Kelly, the Disney Channel Original Movie where Hilary Duff is sent to a military academy. It’s fluffy and fun and there’s romance. On the one hand, they’re definitely ripe for comparison, but there’s nothing fluffy about Rites of Passage. The key difference is that there were other women in positions of power at the military academy Hilary Duff went to (most notably Ren Stevens as a badass drill sergeant). Sam McKenna is one of five girls to attend Denmark Military Academy, and they are not wanted.

Sam McKenna is from a military family. She knows the regulations and has lived them for most of her life. Her father’s a colonel and both her brothers followed in his footsteps. Before he died, her favorite brother, Amos, dared Sam to attend the DMA. After his death, she had no choice but to follow through, because she owes it to her love of him. Plus, she’s as ready as anyone can be for the challenges of a military academy. She knows what will be asked of her and she’s both strong and determined.

In fact, Sam IS ready. She’s basically a model recruit. She’s able to bear up for the physical challenges. Though she doesn’t usually finish first, she’s generally near the front of the pack. The rules of the academy are already drilled into her. A military academy is tough and not remotely fluffy. Recruits are not allowed to walk on the sidewalks, even though sidewalks are literally made for walking. They have to sandwich the rank of anyone above them, like “Drill Sergeant Stamm, yes, Drill Sergeant Stamm,” which to my mind is a completely pointless and idiotic waste of time. Pretty much every single rule is there to dehumanize the recruits. While I will never ever understand any of this being necessary on an emotional level, it’s intended to bring the class of recruits together and make them 1) work hard and 2) work as a team.

Still, that’s what Sam signed up for and she could handle that. Unfortunately, this DMA is populated by misogynistics and from day one everyone has been telling her to go home and stop polluting the academy. Sam responds not by acting out but by holding herself to ever higher standards of excellence. Meanwhile, she’s consistently berated for holding her company back and for being weak and inferior, even though she’s much better than many of the other recruits. Watching this is agony. People abuse her verbally and physically in an effort to make her leave. Clearly, these sexist boys are aware that, if women come to the academy, the females might just excel. If they truly believed women were inferior, they could have just left the women alone and waited for them to inevitably fail. Secretly, these boys know women are strong enough and that’s why they’re so afraid. DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY.

What happens to Sam is completely disgusting, not because she’s a girl, but because she’s being held to a different standard because she’s a girl. Sam doesn’t need or want special treatment. She does all the same physical activity as everyone else. The only reason they claim she can’t hack it is because her genitals are on the inside. It’s such crap. And all she can do is either drop out or accept the abuse quietly, because the military will always believe people of higher rank. I FEEL SO MUCH RAGE.

For a lot of the book, Sam’s completely alone. No one is on her side and it is painful to watch. The way her family doesn’t stand by her is what really kicked me in the emotional kidneys. Her mom, especially, who is completely outside the military academy and draws away for non-political reasons. Losing one child is a horrible reason to push away the rest of them. What kills me about this book is how plausible it seems. I want to be able to say, “this book is unrealistic because there’s no way people would have allowed the vendetta against Sam to get this far,” but I really just can’t. Removing prejudice is an incredibly slow process and I think the military, by its nature, is probably even slower.

There is a bit of a romance and, at first, I wasn’t a fan of that. Sam is such a rule-follower and so set on making it through this year to ease the path for other female recruits to follow that I couldn’t see her risking her place on kissing. However, I think Hensley handled it perfectly. There’s a ship there for you to enjoy, but Sam’s pretty careful about what she does. Despite the hormones, she cares about her military career first. It fits with Sam’s personality and I won’t complain about adding shippy moments that make sense.

What Left Me Wanting More:
The one thing that didn’t ring true for me was Jax. During her first days, Sam gets an email from an account called jaxhax telling her to quit the DMA. Eventually, you learn who Jax is and that she wants to help Sam. Conveniently, Jax is a hacker and has exactly the skills needed to make the plot possible. Her presence is too convenient and her character’s rather inconsistent, I find, in order to fit the demands of the plot. Honestly, the whole larger plot that Jax is needed for really didn’t do much for me anyway. I don’t feel like things needed to be conspiracy theory intense.

The Final Verdict:
Rites of Passage is an intense consideration of gender roles and expectations in a military academy. It might make you want to feminist smash some stuff, but it’s a really great, worthwhile read. Now, I think I need to watch Cadet Kelly to recover.