Rebelwing by Andrea Tang is an interesting dystopian story about a girl who accidentally “imprints” on a sentient mech prototype, becoming its pilot. Set in a dystopian future where free speech has become censored, Prudence Wu is a preppy high schooler who deals illegal merchandise on the side–until she becomes embroiled in a resistance determined to fight against the censorship.
Rebelwing definitely delivers on action and an engaging plotline. I was disappointed that I couldn’t seem to connect more with the characters. I think my tolerance for content (see content review below) has deteriorated these last few months because overall I finished this book feeling frustrated that the author didn’t write an engaging story without including these items. However, three stars for a great storyline!
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Razorbill
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 24 religious exclamations; 72 mild obscenities; 18 religious profanities;17 derogatory names; 86 scatological words; 57 anatomical terms; 15 F-word derivatives.
Violence/Gore: Many instances of violence and gore, including but not limited to: Instances of characters being threatened with weapons, threatened with violence and/or death; character is a smuggler; characters often engage in verbal altercations; characters discuss political unrest; a character is betrayed by another; a character flees arrest, escapes into an old elevator that shakes loose and plummets downward; a metal creature advances on a character; report of nations eliminating free speech and engaging in censorship; a girl mouths off to her elders; report of a family’s death during an uprising; a character’s image is caught on videotape during an illegal action; a woman punches a man on the jaw; a mother and a daughter have a fight; a character tries to pilot a mech which she accidentally imprinted on, gets mad at it and shouts and it spins out of control so she nearly crashes; threat of war; report of characters dying in a mech accident; a woman transmits a video before she dies, explaining an ambush and children killed in factories; a character is accused of treason; characters are ambushed at a project demo, and plasma guns rain down fire; a character is terrified her friends are hurt or dead; a character violently transforms into a cyborg, with description of metal perforating through his skin; many discussions by characters about a previous war and threat of new war; a girl has a flashback to a deadly attack; report of a man torturing a prisoner to transform him into a cyborg wyvern; characters break into a facility to destroy war machines; a mech flies into a no-fly zone and breaks open, tumbling its pilot from the cockpit and the pilot falls toward the ground; a character is captured and threatened with being transformed; a character in a mech attacks a cyborg wyvern; a wyvern is killed, exposing the human it contained; characters sacrifice themselves to stop a deadly threat; report of end of battle and dead bodies; a boy takes a shot to stop an attack, killing wyverns; a character nearly gets killed by plasma fire; characters are caught in the outskirts of an ambush, waiting for help; a character kills a cyborg in self-defense, with some description of gore.
Sex/Nudity: Many instances of sex and nudity, including but not limited to: A girl thinks a boy has sex appeal; implication of a character peddling X-rated material; characters joke about a concert sounding like someone hired a stripper; report of a popular song about boys, booze, and uppers; a character describes herself as a girl “for now”; a boy and a girl frequently touch; jokes about someone not feeling incestuous when making eyes at a boy; a woman threatens to take a man’s ball; a girl states some girls prefer kissing other girls rather than boys; character’s accuse a boy of banging some other girl; characters discuss having hatesex to spy on their enemies; a girl expresses interest in another girl; mention of having paramours of both sexes; two lesbian girls make eyes at each other; characters plan to engage in public displays of affection in order to get people to ignore them; two girls flirt, lean into each other, touching and talking, and one girl laughs into another girl’s neck; a boy and girl engage in stiff flirtation; a girl strokes a boy’s neck and a boy drops his hand on a girl’s thigh; a girl accuses a boy of groping her beneath the table; a girl slips her fingers through a boy’s belt loops, and a boy holds a girl about the waist and breathes on her shoulder; characters joke about two girls canoodling in a sand dune; mention of a girl wanting to get laid; a woman jokes that her raunchy poems helped a man get into bed with her; report of a character transporting erotic material, and a girl holds up an erotic romance novel; depiction of gay porn on a book cover, with mention of queer romance being undervalued; a woman writes fanfiction about a queer hero.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death of a family member; smuggling; black market; threat of war; addictions; gender/sex identity issues; homosexuality.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
A character accuses another of taking “uppers”; characters discuss drugs; a woman smokes chronically through a conversation; mention of a character going whiskey tasting; mention of girls wooed by wine and flowers; mention of a boozy weekend; mention of mingling over champagne; mention of someone being drunkenly eager; mention of a boozy beach party; characters drink and discuss champagne pairings; a man splatters others with his champagne; a man is drunk and makes threats; a man is high on drinks and uppers; mention of getting profiteers drunk to learn their plans; characters drink wine; a character asks if someone is on uppers; mention of supplying scotch for business associates; mention of someone taking like champagne.
