Rebel Daughter

by Lori Banov Kaufmann

Hardcover, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

T F KAU

Genres

Publication

Delacorte Press (2021), 400 pages

Description

In the years preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, young Esther's greatest worry is that she will be forced to marry against her will but soon, she faces famine, seige, and slavery.

Barcode

6793

Awards

National Jewish Book Award (Winner — Young Adult Literature — 2021)

Language

User reviews

LibraryThing member BooksCooksLooks
Esther is the young woman at the center of this story but it’s really the tale of thousands. She is a just a girl really, dreaming of her future. Feeling things she doesn’t understand for for different men and fearing what the Romans are bringing to her world. When her parents bring her a
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husband she is not happy with the choice but she has little power. But before her life becomes the boring world she fears it implodes and she finds herself taken captive and a Roman slave.

But Esther is stronger than she ever knew and while she and her younger brother are in an untenable position she knows that she will find a way out for both of them. It’s thanks to her character and faith that she manages to seek out both freedom and love and live the live she is supposed to live.

Rebel Daughter is based in history and the book was a fascinating read. The characters were all very interesting and unique. The conquerors were not portrayed as completely evil as they like all peoples are made up of all types from the worst to those just trying to survive.

I very much enjoyed this novel, even though it had difficult passages at times. The over arching plot was complex and detailed and the subplots wove in beautifully. A well written book about a complicated time.
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LibraryThing member NadineC.Keels
Though increasing unrest in first-century Jerusalem explodes into a deadly Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire, a young Jewish woman manages to survive in Rebel Daughter by author Lori Banov Kaufmann.

All right, so can I admit I got an inaccurate impression of what this story would be? The title
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(which I now don't think fits the novel well) and the woman holding a weapon on the cover gave me the expectation of a heroine joining in physical combat with the rebels. That isn't what happens. And, no, I didn't read the whole blurb beforehand (so many book blurbs give away too much), but the blurb's first paragraph mentioning a "satisfying tale of...forbidden love" made me think this novel would be full of romance. It isn't.

But it's a gritty tale of family and survival that does include a love story, and I did find the read satisfying, even if that feeling didn't kick in for me until around the last third or quarter.

This novel based on real people is chock-full of calamity: family conflict and tragedy; starvation; the gory carnage of war; slavery and the physical, verbal, and sexual abuse that goes along with it... It wasn't the amount of heavy content that made me unable to warm to most of the read, though; it was the fact that I found the heroine to be prickly, petulant, and pretty self-centered. There's also some profanity and crude references to male and female privates (that only surprised me because the book was presented to me as Christian Fiction, which I wouldn't say it is), and the writing style and pacing had a choppy feel to me in various places.

Nevertheless, I did eventually gain respect for the heroine as she grew up and made some hard, fierce decisions in devastating times. And even though the book isn't what I was expecting, this historical fiction lover appreciates reading about people and events (particularly religious ones) from different kinds of angles.
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ISBN

0593125819 / 9780593125816
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