I’ve never read such an explicitly feminist YA novel. Jasmine and Chelsea take turns telling the story of their junior year and the rise of their feminist club blog Write Like a Girl. The 40 something part of me is skeptical that teens these days have such intersectional mindsets and are willing and able to systematically dismantle racism, sexism, sizeism in their classrooms and relationships. The skeptic in me also struggled with the consistently explicit social justice curriculum: “today we are talking about food deserts.” Do these things really happen or is this story an amalgamation of #resistance things the authors wish were happening with young people today? Are there really teachers in a social justice school who aren’t aware of how their biases pigeonhole their students into deeply uncomfortable stereotypes? I was frustrated that ability and mental health were not folded into the many identities the girls were juggling; that seems like a glaring oversight on behalf of the authors. It all felt heavy handed. The reality, surely, lies beyond my skepticism. Young activists will eat this up with a spoon. It’s a guide to tackling the issues of your school community, and I’m sure many young readers will use it to inspire their own burgeoning sense of feminism and justice work.

A stirring and unputdownable read about what it means to be a woman today. Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give and Moxie.

Throughout this book is a combination of writing and poetry, and that works so well. The poems fit in perfectly throughout this book and really allows for the story to grow in a unique and brilliant way. The writing style in this book gives these characters, well, more character and gives you greater insight and depth to the people Hagan and Watson create.

The plot throughout this book though really is so empowering for the characters. I like that the romance is subtle in this book as it allows for the voices of the young women in this book to be loud and allows for this book to have such a brilliant and fierce ending that just made me sit there and smile and want to punch the air for them as I just felt so happy for them all.

A really great debut from these two fantastic writers, if you want a book that makes you feel like you could start a revolution in your living room, this is the book for you.

(I recieved an ARC from Netgalley for honest review).

Watch Us Rise is a book that deals with a very important topic (topics?) and has some awesome characters. I loved the inclusion of the character's poetry and art but I found the dual POV unnecessary. The two characters were almost always together and when they weren't, not much was added to the story to warrant the book being from both their perspectives. I think it would have worked better as a single POV or if we had Nadine and Isaac included also since the friends are like a foursome but we only seem to follow Chelsea and Jasmine...
Although thinking about it, Isaac is only really there to be the dude who cares about feminism and Nadine? I feel like she shows up twice and does nothing so.... ugh I don't know.

I definitely think the book is good and well written to an extent but I didn't... enjoy it? It felt very shouty about the message it was trying to send and less about an overall plot or something?

A fantastic addition to this growing genre. It took me several chapters to remember which of our POV characters was which, but that's a common problem for me. I really enjoyed the story and it kept me thinking after I'd read it, which is always a good sign! I also liked that the authors didn't demonise anyone; the principal should have listened to the girls, but he was doing his job otherwise, the teachers were mostly nice, and even

Spoiler

the mean girl came around when they talked things out properly.

This is going to go well, I think.

Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.


"What happened?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing, we just pretty much got James and a few of the basketballs players to run up and down the bleachers while doing their sprints and drop statements in all the seats. It looks like it's been raining women's rights in the gym," Nadine says, clearly proud of herself.
"At one point, Namel was throwing up statements like it was cash money," Isaac says, smiling at us.
"And he also might have been singing some of the statements," Nadine finishes, and as if on cue, Namel and James walk down the hallway, Namel singing, "I resolve to raise my hand more. I resolve to answer questions more in algebra. I resolve to use my voice." He enters a falsetto on the last note, and we all start laughing. I see him tucking one of the statements into his pocket.
"What's that one say?" I ask, hanging back as they all continue down the hall practising their new songs.
"Ah, nothing. I just liked it." He hands it to me. It says: I resolve to ask for what I want. My voice should be valued and heard.
"Why do you like it?" I ask.
"I guess I'm just curious. What do you want?"

3 Stars

I got this book on a whim at my local library. I was browsing the Teen shelves for a few specific books and none of them were available. I happened to notice this one featured on a shelf and after reading the back cover I was intrigued. Two young girls taking on the system in the name of intersectional feminism? Yes, please. Unfortunately, only about half this book lived up to my expectations.

Watch Us Rise is a young adult novel that follows Chelsea and Jasmine through their junior year of high school. At the start of the year, both girls are facing their own personal struggles at home, relationship problems, and they are finding themselves alienated more and more in their after school clubs. Jasmine finds herself the victim of both overt and subtle racism in her theatre group; meanwhile, Chelsea is sick of her poetry club focusing exclusively on older poetry written primarily by white men. The two girls break away and start their own club, aimed at giving ALL women a voice.

This is not a plot driven story. The narrative is very straightforward, with no surprises. I did appreciate the uniqueness of this story. I have never read a book with this concept and I do think the plot was well executed. What really fell short for me was the characters. Well, actually, just one character in particular: Chelsea.

Chelsea, in my opinion, is a non-example of feminism. She does not take into account the complexities of being a woman, such as her BEST FRIEND JASMINE! not being a size 00. It never occurs to her that her friend isn’t buying clothes when they go shopping together because she literally cannot find her size in all the stores Chelsea goes to. And, even when Jasmine confronted her about this issue she never really apologized. It was more like Jasmine forgave her because she didn’t want to have conflict with her best friend, not because she really believed Chelsea had given the issue any thought. I was just so annoyed at this aspect of the story that it kind of ruined it for me. I would have LOVED to seen Chelsea truly engage in self-reflection and realize how much of the feminist picture she was missing and then make real changes in her actions. Instead, she learned nothing and whined about crap the entire book. There were also several times she made comments about how women shouldn’t cook for their husbands and even looked down on woman who do. To me, she’s a perfect example of white feminism, not intersectional feminism.

Jasmine, on the other hand, was a wonderful character. I loved her storyline, her romantic and family relationships, and seeing her fight for what she believed in. I was so proud to see her stand up for herself and begin to love and appreciate herself for all the glorious things she is. Honestly, this whole book would have been a 4 or 4.5 star read if not for Chelsea’s character and storyline. Jasmine was just a much more likable and real main character than Chelsea.

I do think more areas of intersectional feminism could have been addressed- women with disabilities, trans women, and sexual orientation just to name a few. I think with a different character to balance with Jasmine, more of these issues could be explored. As much as I loved Jasmine, it would have also been nice to see other aspects of womanhood acknowledged in the book.

Overall, this might be a good introduction for a young reader who has never read anything about feminism before. However, it was not a perfect example nor was it an all-encompassing view of feminism in general. As an adult, the missing aspects were glaringly obvious and really took me away from the story. However, as a teen, I could have seen myself loving this book- just to see that women authors are writing fiction like this would have been uplifting. Still, it was nothing revolutionary or life changing. It was just okay. I’d recommend this book maybe to young readers in 8th / 9th grade, but I would be sure to also recommend better, more inclusive examples of feminist fiction for them as well.

I was super into the first 1/3 of this. I loved both Jasmine and Chelsea (though Chelsea is more abrasive, she is amazing and a fighter) along with their friends and families. The conflicts both at school and home were well executed and realistic. I just started to lose interest and felt as though it was getting a bit repetitive after a while. It may be the mood of the week, or maybe it needed tighter editing. Whichever is the case, it tempered my enjoyment of the book as a whole. I do love that it is a book I feel I can recommend to younger readers in the YA range who love contemporary social justice stories.

Great rep of transforming anger, grief, and all the teenage feelings into a successful activist movement

Preachy and shallow. I don't think I needed Chelsea's perspective (or her poetry). A book about Jasmine? Yeah, maybe. She was a much more interesting character.

I wish my teenage-self had gotten to read this!