REVIEW for A Disobedient Girl

A big thank you goes out to Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC of this book!

TITLE: A Disobedient Girl

AUTHOR: Ru Freeman

GENRE: Fiction

RATING: 4 Stars

I don't normally read this type of book, but after reading the first sentences, for some reason, I felt totally engrossed into the storyline. I say for some reason, because the subject matter, as a rule, usually just serves to enrage me, as I hate, hate reading books about women who are powerless, but author Ru Freeman does a great job of introducing to us the two main characters in this story and she does a great job of setting up their background so that we clearly understand (if not agree) with the choices and situations both of these women will (do) find themselves.

This book tells us the story of two distinct women and at first I could not figure out why the author chose to tell us the story of these two particular woman - at first glance you don't really see the similarities betwen them. Latha is a servant, who is certain that her future holds something grander and bigger, that she deserves so much more than what she currently has. On the other side we find Biso who is a mom and caught in an abusive marriage, as she tries to figure out how to get out of her hell, she will make poor choices that will tax and challenge her.

After reading a little bit more on each woman's story, I finally come to realize that the author has chosen to show us two women from different pasts, but who aspire to better for themselves and yet, manage to make poor choices and somehow keep repeating their patterns of destruction and hardship.

This first time author (I think) has written such a powerful story that at times, I found myself hating both women for their weakness and at the same time, I found myself cheering both of them on - I wanted them to succeed and find a degree of joy, that, so far, had escaped them.

I was extremely surprised to find myself enjoying this novel. The time period is extremely sketchy and the timeline for both woman is actually quite different - which made reading this novel, at times, confusing, but overall, the writing is very powerful and made me want to overlook some of the more minor issues.