Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Rebels by Accident by Patricia Dunn

On tour with Sourcebooks.

Rebels by AccidentRebels by Accident
by Patricia Dunn
YA Contemporary
Paperback290 Pages
October 1st 2014 by Sourcebooks Fire

Summary

A Troubled Teen Sent to Cairo Finds Revolution is Everywhere, Including in Ourselves

When my first party ends in jail, I think things can’t possibly get worse. But then my parents send me to my grandmother in Cairo, and I’m sure my life is over. My sittu is Darth Vader’s evil sister, and I’m sure the only sites I’ll get to see in Egypt are the rooms in her apartment.

Turns out she’s not so bad. We ride camels by the pyramids and ice skate at a mall.

As Sittu says, “Sometimes a moment can change your life.” But it can change the life of a country too. When a girl named Asmaa calls the people of Egypt to protest, I find myself in the middle of a revolution, running from tear gas and guns.

Oh yeah, and I meet the cutest guy I’ve ever seen. Fall in love for the first time. And have my first kiss.
    

My Review

Rebels by Accident was a pleasant surprise. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I ended up being perfectly happy that it turned out to be something different. I loved that the main character, Mariam, was an Egyptian-American. I loved the pieces of culture throughout the book and the sweet endearments and sayings from Sittu (her grandmother). I also loved the friendship and camaraderie between Mariam, Deanna (her best friend who comes with her to Egypt) and the other characters they befriend.

I do have to mention that there were parts where I was upset and frustrated with the characters, specifically Deanna and a few times Mariam. Of course they're teenagers and so some things they didn't think through or were naive about. Some of it was that they both grew up in the US and didn't realize how unsafe Egypt was at the time they were there. What I did like was how the author let these two girls learn from their experiences and how Sittu weighed in with her "advices." I also liked how Sittu and the girls talked about first love and how sweet and just immediate that was for them.


Overall, Rebels by Accident was a fun, lovely, humorous, and bittersweet story about two girls experiencing a country in turmoil and getting to know a grandmother who was full of wisdom and love. It was also a story about these girls finding out who they are and can become. I'm definitely curious to see what Dunn writes next.

Content: Some swearing and violence, but fairly clean.

Source: I would like to thank Sourcebooks Fire for my complimentary copy received through NetGalley, which did not affect my review in any way.

About the Author

Patricia DunnDunn was the managing editor of Muslimwakeup.com, America’s most popular Muslim online magazine from 2003-2008. She has an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College where she also teaches.

Her writing has appeared in Global City Review, where she edited the post-9-11 International Issue. Salon.com, Women’s eNews, The Christian Science Monitor, The Village Voice, The Nation, L.A. Weekly and other publications have featured her writing.

Her work is anthologized in Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies, from Kent State University Press (2006); Progressive Muslim Identities: Personal Stories From the U.S. and Canada, Muslim Progressive Values; and most recently in the bestselling anthology, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, Soft Skull Press. She is featured on WISE Muslim Women.

Dunn was raised in the Bronx, became a political activist while living in Los Angeles, has traveled throughout the Middle East, and lived in Jordan and Egypt before settling back down in New York where she lives with her teenage son and her toddler dog.


One print copy of Rebels by Accident (US/CAN only) provided by the publisher
Ends December 19th

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5 comments

  1. Cali Willette12/3/14, 11:08 AM

    Good review! I like the title of the book. ;)

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  2. Interesting. I can't remember ever reading a book that takes place in Egypt, I would love to visit this place, even fictionally. Maybe soon, the book sounds great. ;) Thanks for sharing!

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  3. The main character having another culture as part of her identity makes me want to read this book!

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  4. Great review! I love the Title of this book :)

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  5. This sounds like a book which is surprisingly different from what you'd expect. I am going to give it a hit and miss because I think their choices would frustrate me like it did you. But then again I am someone who loves different cultures and would love to read more about he Egyptian one as I don't know much about it.

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