Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Summary from Goodreads:

An unlikely teenager starts a feminist revolution at a small-town Texan high school in the new novel from Jennifer Matheiu, author of The Truth About Alice.

MOXIE GIRLS FIGHT BACK!

Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with a school administration at her small-town Texas high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.

Viv's mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.

Moxie is a book about high school life that will make you wanna riot!

Review:

This seems to be the year of reading books I didn’t know how badly I needed. I needed this book. I needed this book so badly that at times, I had goose bumps and tears in my eyes. I have felt what Viv has felt. I have seen dress codes only apply to women. I have been groped by male classmates (whether as part of a dumb game like Viv’s school was doing, or just because men feel like they can). I have listened to boys say stupid things like, “go back to the kitchen,” “make me a sandwich,” and “why are women even allowed to drive?” and like Viv I never wanted to cause any problems or draw too much attention to myself. Life can be scary when you’re a woman.

Her zine or newsletter (as every other character referred to it) reminded me of all these things I have seen, witnessed, listened to all my life and always hated. And I’m so glad someone wrote a book about this. More girls (myself included) need to know that we can stand up and fight against these problems.

I love that this book also focused so highly on friendship. It didn’t matter what social circle, racial group, or religon these girls belonged to. They all could relate to what Viv was angry about. All girls can relate. And watching all these different girls from various backgrounds come together, stand together, was such a powerful thing. And it was probably the strongest message from this book overall: the power of girls working together is mind blowing and fierce.

We’re finally at a point in time where YA literature is reflecting the current political atmosphere. People want to read books where the little guy wins, where women can start a revolution and succeed, and where small successes can mean the world. Sure, we will always need distraction and YA generates some of my all time favorite distraction. But, lately, I’ve been feeling this mass need of something else: hope. Hope for a future with less sexism, racism, and hatred.

Was this the perfect book? No. I thought Viv’s romance actually could have been taken out of the book. It’s weird when I’m skimming through the romantic stuff so I can get back to the plot, but I was doing that there. I’m not sure the main character needed to avoid telling her mom things for as long as she did either. But, honestly, this book was so powerful, positive, fierce, and hopeful that none of that stuff really bothered me at all. I give this a 10/10. I hope for more books like this.