Girls with Rebel Souls

Gr 9 Up–Mena and her friends may be AI, but they grapple with very human moral complexities in this trilogy finale, as Mena worries that the girls’ quest for justice will devolve into revenge. The novel opens with a shocking act of violence that results in a grisly death. As the body count rises and alliances come into question, Mena and the girls struggle to serve justice to monstrous men without becoming monsters themselves. Young’s finale to the “Girls With Sharp Sticks” series is full of the plot twists, urgent pacing, and musings on humanity and gender politics that readers of the first two novels will expect. The girls’ analysis that humans expect too little of themselves and therefore allow atrocities will ring true to many teen readers concerned about the world they are inheriting. Meanwhile, the girls’ friends Jackson and Quentin are held up as examples of good men, the type society should hold in high esteem rather than protecting predators. Wrapping up all the loose ends of this trilogy proves to be an unwieldy task. The resolution, after so much mystery and such high stakes, ends up feeling small and anticlimactic. The driving motivation of the ultimate antagonists also becomes somewhat lost in the action and big reveals. However, readers invested in the fate of Mena and her sisters will likely excuse any missteps to see the heroes reach the end of their journey.