Monday, December 16, 2019

Book Review: Revolution

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy #2) Deborah Wiles. 2014. 538 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: The first thing we do, me and Gillette, is make sure everybody is asleep.

Premise/plot: Revolution is the second book in the 60s trilogy by Deborah Wiles. It is set in Greenwood, Mississippi in the summer of 1964. Sunny, our heroine, is still enthralled with another invasion—a British one—when rumors of another invasion spread through town. These invaders don’t harmonize but they do seek to spread peace and harmony. Their mission is to help black residents register to vote, to end segregation, to take a stand for equal rights. Sunny is coming of age at an interesting time in America’s history. She finds herself drawn to one of the freedom righters, Jo Ellen (a character first introduced in Countdown as Franny’s older sister). But the book isn’t all about racial tensions and strife. Her family has plenty of strife and tension. Her mother abandoned her as a baby, her father has recently remarried, she now has a stepmother and step siblings. And a new baby is on the way.

My thoughts: I love, love, love this one. I love the integral role faith plays in this one. It isn’t a preachy, flashy kind of religion. No, it’s more like the Christian Faith is the skeleton beneath fully fleshed characters.

I loved Sunny as a narrator. I loved getting to know her family and friends. I loved her obsession with the Beatles. That was a pleasant surprise. I myself love the Beatles (though Paul was never ever my favorite Beatle.)

Like Countdown it’s a documentary novel. It blends pure fiction with photographs, song lyrics, quotes from primary sources, and biographical sketches of real people from the era.

Sometimes you just need a book near you and you can’t explain why. (108)

What can I say to a girl who really believes Paul McCartney is going to show up on her doorstep? What’s wrong with me that I don’t believe it, too? (119)

Believe me, there are only so many times you can sing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” before you have no joy at all, anywhere. None. Zero. (155)

Every choice matters. Every person is vital, and valuable, and worthy of respect. (361)

”You are one of the bravest people I know.” “I am?” “You are.” “But I’m afraid all the time.” “It’s okay to be afraid,” Annabelle assures me. “I’m afraid too.” “You are?” “Yes. I am. But I know something about being afraid that helps me.” “What is it?” “I know that you don’t have to be afraid by yourself. You don’t have to be alone with what scares you.”(429)

Each of us is small, all by ourselves, but we are big, when we stick together. (495)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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