Run, Rebel

Run, Rebel is young adult novel in verse about a girl looking for a way to start a revolution in her life. Amber lives on a council estate with her parents, her abusive, alcoholic father and her mother who works long shifts at an exploitative job. She used to have her sister, but she's married now, her dreams of university long gone, and Amber is left to read out receipts to her illiterate mum and go to appointments to translate for her father. She can't tell her friends exactly what goes on at home and she can't explain to her teachers why she's not allowed to continue athletics training despite her love of running. Now, though, Amber is ready to fight, inspired by learning about revolutions and by her mum's growing rebellions.

The verse style is vital to the novel, allowing the story to flow forward and the narrative to cut deep into Amber's emotions. It makes it a very readable book, despite the difficult subject matter, and feels like it is pulsing forward like the running that keeps Amber going. The story is a powerful one that shows that people can find ways to get out of terrible situations and that it isn't always as simple as wanting to leave. Run, Rebel will hopefully not only share an important narrative, but also give teenager readers examples of how poetry can be used to fight back and to tell a story in a fast-paced, engaging way.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

Wow. I sped through this because it was so intense and easy to read. I know - intense and easy shouldn't go together but it just does.

This book really tugs at your heartstrings. I love that the story is told in verse because I don't believe it would have been as good had it been written traditionally. The sparsity of the words really hones in on all the emotions where traditional narratives would have overshadowed it.

The concept of the novel isn't anything new but the way it has been dealt with is. I really felt for Amber and her Mum and seeing them both come out of their shells was amazing. The book didn't leave you with false hope - it didn't say it was going to be okay, but it did say you have to try no matter what.

I wrote about my love for YA verse novels in 2019, discussing Sarah Crossan and Kwame Alexander’s books and Louisa Reid’s Gloves Off. Since then, anyone who read my January Wrap Up post will have seen that I have finally read Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X after so many people recommended it to me. I loved it… but potentially not as much as I loved Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann, which is published by Penguin on 5th March!

It is the story of Amber Rai, a ‘British Asian girl hailing from a low-income council estate’. Amber lives on Palm Wood Estate, described as one of the roughest in the country, in a town split in two: ‘The council tenants and the homeowners. The unemployed and the employed.’ While she is from Palm Wood, her school friends Tara and David live very different lives, putting distance between them.

Amber feels trapped by her father’s strict rules, his expectations and her own fears: ‘No one wanted my mother. No one wanted her mother, and no one wanted her mother. It goes on and on now and way back then.’ Her father is abusive and her mother works long hours in an exploitative job, only to hide away a bit of the money she earns so that her husband doesn’t drink in away. Both her parents are illiterate – in their own language and in English – and Amber has to step up as the parent, from signing her own consent forms for school trips to helping to pay the plumber. Despite all of this, the book opens with a bold statement, as Amber refuses to accept the status quo:

‘You are the property of your parents, husband, brothers. You endure it,
never question it.
I question it.‘

She finds freedom and her voice on the running track – ‘It’s where I’m truly alive’ – and, as she learns about the European revolutions of 1848 in History class, she begins her own revolution in parallel. It rises up within her, until it can’t be ignored:

‘Maybe it’s always been there waiting – for the right time. A fight. I deserve more, something whispers deep inside.’

I was behind Amber the whole way. She isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination – her own suffering leads her to do awful things at times – but these imperfections make her feel like a living, breathing character. Through the verse we feel every heartbeat as she pumps around the racetracks and searches for an escape.

Run, Rebel is Manjeet Mann’s debut novel and I hope she continues to write in verse. She wanted to write the novel for her teenage self, who experienced feeling voiceless and isolated, and was also inspired by her work creating Run the World, an organisation that empowers women and girls from marginalised backgrounds through sport and storytelling.

In the interview with Manjeet at the end of the book, she recommends that fans of the book go on to read Muhammad Khan’s I Am Thunder, Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give and Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X. They’re all fantastic books and, if you’ve enjoyed them, I’d definitely recommend giving Run, Rebel a go!

Thank you netgalley for this arc.

This is a novel in verse.

Powerful,devastating, outstanding.

Trigger warnings for domestic violence.

TW: emotional and physical abuse, Bullying, Alcoholism

A very emotionally hard hitting story written in verse!!! This has some very tough and serious topics written about in this book such as abuse (physical and emotional).

This story was such a heartbreaking but incredibly beautiful story!! This book made me feel so many different emotions throughout from so Angry to happy and full of hope for this family. It was such a powerful read as Amber tries to navigate her life and try to make herself and her mum leave the unhealthy surroundings she is in from her fathers controlling and abusive behaviour to them both.

This could be a very hard read for some people, so please be aware before you read this book that you are in the right head space and feel okay reading this book. If you ever been in a situation like this

Totally immersive & fast-paced verse novel with a likeable but flawed heroine who is caught between her own dreams & the expectations of her family. Powerful, shocking but ultimately hopeful, this an arresting & impressive debut. I loved it!

What a journey. This book is dark, the emotions are dark, the house is dark, the atmosphere is dark. But there is love, hope and friendship in between. The main character, Amber goes to some very dark places herself as her fear leads to hate and anger.

Amber has two lives, her friends, school, running, going to MaccyD's on oneside, and her abusive family life. She lives in fear of her father and his over-reactions to things he doesn't understand (illiterate or cross-culture) or blurred by his love of alcohol. I loved Amber's Mum and her journey, what she goes through to help herself and her family, such a strong character.

I love that it's written in verse, you still get a story, fast paced and descriptive. The side characters make this story shine, especially the family. Very feminist, sporty, full of friendship, and love.