How Samantha Smart Became a Revolutionary

by Dawn Green

In this incisive pre-dystopian novel that has echoes of 1984 – where world events are driven by fear mongering and finger pointing, Dawn Green shows a society divided and opposed, a world eerily like our own. At the center of the turmoil is Samantha Smart, an ordinary girl who gets caught up in the struggle – and eventually becomes leader of the protest that faces off against the dark forces that are taking over the world.

Genres: Young Adult

312 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2017

About the author

I live on the Best… oops, I mean West Coast of Canada. If I'm not at my computer you can usually find me in some bookstore somewhere. Besides a good book some of my favourite things include: hoodies, Kermit (green things in general), Dr. Seuss, rain, coffee, the ocean, bookstores…

No, I'm not related to John Green. But I do think he's awesome.

Personal mottos: Question everything. Use your words.

Reviews

[American Mensa]

Dawn Greene’s novel, How Samantha Smart Became a Revolutionary, tells the story of an ordinary young girl who is just figuring out college as a new presidential election comes into play. Samantha Smart, a college girl, falls in love with a boy named Brady. She gets onto the college soccer team and meets her best friend Kayla. The election causes many disputes between the different friends. Samantha has to choose between what her heart is telling her and what her mind is telling her.
If you’ve ever had to make a hard decision that might not be the most logical, but it is morally right. Samantha Smart doesn’t know if she should rebel against the new president or just stay quiet so that she doesn’t cause problems between Brady and her. At a shooting in the college stadium, Samantha’s decision to stay quiet completely changes. She rebels against the new president alongside the candidate, Wright, that was running against President King. Will she survive through the tortuous events King puts her through?
Dawn Greene uses first person from the point of view of Samantha. Greene is an excellent writer who make sure every moment is captured between the characters. While reading this, I felt like I was there with Samantha when she was making hard decisions because Greene never excluded any detail. While she tells Samantha and Brady’s love story, she explains how they met, how they interacted with each other, and how all the fighting started. Greene reflects Samantha’s traumatic childhood into the book when President King is torturing her. The constant flip from present to future Greene does really compares and contrasts Samantha’s life then and now.
The book was an amazing read, and I would most definitely recommend. If readers are interested in politics or love to make comparisons to past and present political events, then this book is for them
Reviewed by Zelie M., age 15, Central Pennsylvania Mensa

[Krista Stevens]

More of a 2.5. Samantha becomes the face of a revolution because she happened to be in the right spot at the right time. She does very little in terms of the hard work of making alliances, speeches, and thinking about strategies that would go into a rebellion. It felt too light for me.

[Alyssa]

There were aspects of this book I really liked, but the cause for struggle wasn't emphasized, and it made the entire revolution seem watered down. At times, it reads like a self-absorbed teenager's fantasy as the leader of a revolution. I just wish the focus was less on boys and playing dress up and more on the struggle of the rebellion.

Samantha Smart is a student athlete, attending college on a scholarship. From a broken home, Sam has overcome obstacles to get where she is, and this has made her a strong person who cares for the have-nots. This part of her personality sets her apart from her boyfriend, Brady. He comes from a privileged family that starkly supports the totalitarian leaders. This places a wedge between the couple when Brady joins the Guard, a government organized militia. Things become further hopeless for their relationship when Sam unknowingly becomes the symbol for the rebellion because of a heroic picture of her that becomes viral online.

Society is starkly divided. In a dystopia where food is scarce and a wall divides the Eastern and Western sides of former America, Sam is a symbol of hope for the oppressed. However, really, it seems as though she doesn't support the cause that passionately. Her friend has to bribe her with a mocha latte just to get her to go to a rally.

Maybe Sam does become more devoted to the cause over the course of the story, but this part is largely left out of the explicit text. The story also doesn't explain how the revolutionaries try to help people. Instead, the focus is on Sam being a unique girl with a rough past. Even the totalitarian leader seems to strangely care about Sam and her past.

This seems like a rough draft that could be a compelling story with work. Sam's backstory is interesting, as are Brady's parents. This author is great at developing characters. I think she should read more about rebellions and revolutionaries and try again. Also, there is a vague comparison between Sam and Che Guevara, but there are never any clear reasons why (other than the vague 'you are a revolutionary too!').

[Marisa]

I found this book to be lacking. I thought the 22 year old protagonist in a pre-dystopian novel, written for an audience of grade 7-9 readers was a miss. The main character of Sam/Samantha was cold and not really developed. There were hidden facts about her past, brought to light by others, but didn’t actually emotionally connect me, the reader to her story. This was problematic because if I’m not invested in my main character (or any of the stuff characters), then why read.

I did read all the way to the end to see if it got better or changed. I didn’t prefer the choice of jumping the plot between past and present; any future shock at a plot point was softened knowing where she would end up-but this might have been done to make it less scary and tense for younger teen readers.

I really didn’t like the choices of almost breaking the 4th wall, when Sam drew comfort from the thought that her life was a story and there were those reading her story.

[anto spera]

Very fast-paced. This book always keeps you on your toes. It's basically a description of everything that lead to a dystopian society, everything that went wrong and a lot foreshadowing.

[Amy Mathers]

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