A review by nerfherder86
Rebelwing by Andrea Tang

5.0

A great readalike for fans of dystopias like [b:Legend|9275658|Legend (Legend, #1)|Marie Lu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501368160l/9275658._SY75_.jpg|14157512] and anime and manga featuring "mechs" (giant mechanical robots and things). The first chapter is a bit confusing, it jumps you right in the middle of the action with backstory only vaguely referenced and also has a time jump, but I tell teen readers to stick with it til you figure out what's going on. Here's a little primer: it is set in a future where the United States, Mexico and Canada have been absorbed into the "United Continental Confederacy, Inc," a corporation-government that rules everywhere except for a few holdout cities such as "New Columbia" (formerly Washington, D.C.) that rebelled against the UCC 20 years ago and formed their own "Barricaded Coalition" (each city is safe behind its walls) to fight the Partition Wars. Our hero, Pru, smuggles black market books and comics past the Barricade to UCC citizens who still want to read uncensored, independent creations and not corporate-mandated books. When Pru is nearly caught by the cops, her escape only happens because she is rescued by a giant mech dragon! Turns out she has been "imprinted" upon by Rebelwing, a sentient mech, developed in secret by the Coalition government to defend against attacks by UCC "wyverns," which are like smaller dragons but mechanical? And not sentient. (This part was a little bit hazy to me, but I thought, 'Don't worry about the details and go with the flow!' And then I loved it. This is also why I put this down as both a fantasy and a sci fi--there's some supernatural aspects to this for the mind-bonding stuff.) Rebelwing was designed to be piloted by Alex, a handsome classmate of Pru's, and also a top notch mech pilot whose uncle was a rebel soldier with Pru's mom back during the Partition Wars. But instead, Pru is now going to be the pilot and she has no idea how, so she'll have to be trained. Along with Alex, she'll get help from her best friend Anabel, and Alex's cyborg/engineer friend Cat. They'll encounter wyverns and politics and betrayals and the fallout from their parents' long ago actions, in an action-packed, banter-filled adventure that had more heart than I was expecting. The family ties aspect was really nice. I also liked the First Amendment free speech angle, although it was just a side plot. And I definitely now want my very own sentient giant flying mech dragon!