Review: The Rebel Girls of Rome
The Rebel Girls of Rome
by Jordyn Taylor
Harper (imprint of HarperCollins), 2025
Category: Amy Brook Cohen
Reviewer: Young Adult
In The Rebel Girls of Rome, Taylor has written an epic, important and moving story. The story is told from the perspective of two characters: Lilah and Bruna. Lilah is a Jewish American college student who travels to Italy with her grandfather, Raffa (a Holocaust survivor with a tremendous amount of survivor’s guilt), looking for answers after receiving an intriguing email. Lilah and her grandfather are grieving after having recently lost Lilah’s mother to cancer, and a purpose-filled trip to Italy comes at an opportune time.
Lilah and Raffa have no idea just how important and transformative this trip to Italy will be. Their visit to Rome leads them to uncover answers to questions about their family history, which will change their lives forever.
The second perspective offered is that of Bruna - Lilah’s great aunt, and Raffa’s sister, who escaped a Nazi roundup in Rome and whom Raffa has not seen since he was six years old. Bruna, grieving the loss of her family who were sent to concentration camps and suffering from survivor’s guilt of her own, joins the resistance and, at the same time, gradually comes to terms with her identity as a lesbian. Under Mussolini, women were expected to exist within the domestic realm as wives and mothers. Bruna’s struggle with accepting her sexuality under this historical backdrop will be eye-opening for today’s young readers.
Lilah and Raffa have no idea just how important and transformative this trip to Italy will be. Their visit to Rome leads them to uncover answers to questions about their family history, which will change their lives forever.
The second perspective offered is that of Bruna - Lilah’s great aunt, and Raffa’s sister, who escaped a Nazi roundup in Rome and whom Raffa has not seen since he was six years old. Bruna, grieving the loss of her family who were sent to concentration camps and suffering from survivor’s guilt of her own, joins the resistance and, at the same time, gradually comes to terms with her identity as a lesbian. Under Mussolini, women were expected to exist within the domestic realm as wives and mothers. Bruna’s struggle with accepting her sexuality under this historical backdrop will be eye-opening for today’s young readers.
This book is a breath of fresh air as an addition to the YA Holocaust cadre. While The Rebel Girls of Rome includes many hard-to-stomach, sobering details about the grim realities of life for Jewish Italians in Rome during the Second World War, there is lightness and joy, too. Lilah falls for a wonderful Italian man and experiences feelings of love and lust for the first time, and the ever-evolving relationship between Lilah and her grandfather is tender and beautiful. There is much for any history-lover, Jewish or non-Jewish, to learn from this book. Taylor writes crisp, clear and riveting prose, and her writing is both visually descriptive and historically fascinating.
The Rebel Girls of Rome offers an empowering take on some big themes: family, love, identity, sexuality, allyship, courage and freedom. The poignant last chapter made me cry, and I missed the characters immediately after saying goodbye to them. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer Amy Brook Cohen is a writer and teacher; her essays and articles have been published widely on both sides of the Atlantic. Amy is currently at work on her first children's picture book. She lives in London, England, with her husband and two children.
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