A review by thriftylibrarian
This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke

4.0

I'm not too experienced with magical realism and it shows in this book. I think I went into it expecting historical fiction in my head, and then maybe fantasy, and then realizing that it was something with elements of both. I also listened to this as an audiobook, which may have complicated things. It took me until about 40% of the way through the book that I could connect with the characters and the plot, and I really enjoyed the story when I did. Locke's writing is very beautiful and almost dreamlike, and the symbolism was very rich and detailed. I may end up rereading this at some point as a physical book, because I feel like it would help with comprehension. Overall a really interesting tale of 1950's Hungary and the People's resistance to communist rule!

I feel like the cover definitely deserved an extra half star.