Moxie
A Novel
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4.5 • 58 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Now a Netflix Original Film directed by Amy Poehler.
"Sweet, funny, and fierce. Read this and then join the fight."—Amy Poehler
An unlikely teenager starts a feminist revolution at a small-town Texas high school in this novel from Jennifer Mathieu, author of Down Came the Rain and The Truth About Alice.
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with an administration at her high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.
Viv's mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.
Moxie girls fight back!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Jennifer Mathieu’s YA novel captures the legacy of the ’90s riot grrrl movement so powerfully that of course it’s being turned into a movie, with Amy Poehler directing. When the book’s teenage heroine, Vivian, finds her mom’s collection of Bikini Kill memorabilia, she’s inspired to publish a handcrafted zine and incite a feminist revolution at her small-town Texas school. Though it doesn’t always resist clichés, Moxie embraces third-wave feminism’s all-for-one mentality and furthers the conversation by including discussions of race. Taking on leering football players and body-shaming dress codes, it’s a fun, resonant read that manages to be both timely and nostalgic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At Viv's Texas high school, no one stops the boys from wearing T-shirts that degrade women, while girls get sent home for minor dress code violations. Boys mainly football jocks harass girls in classes and corridors without consequence. Viv, a junior, is used to it, but one day she decides that enough is enough. Inspired by her mother's days as a rebellious Riot Grrrl, Viv creates and circulates issues of Moxie, a girl-power zine, at school. More girls take Moxie-endorsed action with each issue, and because Viv hasn't owned up to being behind it, other girls get into the act and things snowball. Mathieu (Afterward) isn't going for nuance: the jocks are total jerks, the all-male administration is unfailingly sexist, and the Moxie spirit crosses cliques and racial boundaries with an intersectional ease that can be elusive in real life. But seeing the girls changing their definitions of what's acceptable as they become radicalized is satisfying and moving, both for Viv and for readers. If it's depressing that Viv has to reach back to the '90s for models, perhaps this unapologetically feminist book will help change that. Ages 12 up.
Customer Reviews
Excitement book to read!
Amazing! Hard to put down !
👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼
Moxie girls fight back!!! This is such a powerful and thoughtful novel that young women need to read. I love how Viv was just a shy kid and still had insecurities but still was the head of the moxie girls. She was real and honest and willing to fight for what is right.