The Radical Element Gives the Spotlight to History’s Rebellious Girls

Obviously, the Venn Diagram overlaps, but there’s something different about the rebellious girls who fight their way through every page of this collection. The bulk of these Radical heroines are situated in the margins; in history textbooks, their stories have too often taken place offscreen. A Tyranny of Petticoats showcased the diversity of women’s experience in American history, and this second collection builds on that foundation while moving the needle ever so slightly, focusing on intersectionality, and the struggle to situate yourself in the life you want.
Consider Anna-Marie McLemore’s stunning, magical realism–soaked “Glamour,” where the titular descriptor pertains to far more than its 1920s Hollywood setting. Grace wants to be a star, and a unique gift just might allow her to do it—but at what cost? As McLemore’s author’s note explains, the story is about more than Grace’s struggle with her own Mexican American identity; it’s a painful reminder that beneath all the glitz and, yes, glamour, “Golden Age” Hollywood was a hotbed of racism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia.
The eleven remaining stories do just as much work confronting ugly realities. Marieke Nijkamp’s #OwnVoices story, “Better for All the World,” paints a startling portrait of a dark chapter in American history when sterilization laws targeted developmentally disabled, physically disabled, or mentally ill people like Carrie Buck, whose Supreme Court case makes for an infuriating and motivating subject. And fresh off the release of Bygone Badass Broads (another Women’s History Month must-read), Mackenzi Lee tells the story of remarkable girl Vilatte, struggling with her faith at a time when she and her fellow Mormons also struggled for their very existence. Her tale, “You’re a Stranger Here,” gives voice to one of several running themes in Radical, through the calming voice of Vilatte’s teacher, Eliza, who explains to her pupil: “Fear’s a potent poison. And these men know it.”

There’s much fear in the stories collected here, felt by both the “dauntless girls” at their centers and by the societies so eager to minimize them or to shut them out completely. Aspiring, ambitious girls like Rebekah in B&N Teen’s own Dahlia Adler’s “Daughter of the Book,” find it difficult and frightening to leave home, to leave their families, to leave the only lives they’ve ever known. But when staying in that home threatens to diminish the life they have before them, what then? It’s a choice Rebekah confronts in 1830s Savannah, Georgia, where the Jewish education she desires eludes her because of her gender.
In Dhonielle Clayton’s magical “When the Moonlight Isn’t Enough,” Emma similarly squirms in the grip of her parents’ control, but under far different circumstances. Preserved at age sixteen since 1768, she finds herself unable to resist the complicated urge to serve in World War II, to serve a country that has never cared for her—or her black skin.
The complex stories about boundary-pushing, daring girls roll on, from 1838 all the way to Purple Rain–soaked 1984. A girl finds a haven from her uncle’s abuse with a new family in the circus. Two girls—one white, one black—go undercover to thwart the Confederate War effort. A girl wears her Asian American identity with pride at a 1950s pageant eager to hide her face and ignore her talents. And so on and so on and so on.
There are no weak stories in The Radical Element. They’re all as strong as the rebels they portray, and just as timeless.
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