Life inside a religious cult becomes too much for 16-year-old Rebecca when she finds out who she is to marry.
When she turns 14, Rebecca will find out who she is to marry.
All the girls in her strict religious sect must be married just after their 16th birthdays. Her twin sister Rachel desperately wants to marry the boy she's given her heart to. All Rebecca wants is to have a husband who is kind, but both girls know the choice is not theirs to make.
But what will the future hold for Rebecca? Is there a dark side to the rules which have kept her safe? Can the way ahead be so simple when the community is driven by secrets and hidden desires?
Award-winning YA writer Fleur Beale's gripping sequel to the bestselling classic I am not Esther is a psychological thriller.
Awards
Winner of a Storylines Notable Young Adult Fiction Award 2015
LIANZA Librarian's Choice Award 2015
Behind The Book…
A boy my husband taught wanted to be a doctor, but the religion his family belonged to believed education was evil as it exposed the mind to worldly influences that would lead you to hell. The boy managed to complete four years at high school but his father refused to let him do a final year. The boy argued with his father about it ending with the father throwing his son from the house and telling him he was now dead to his family. He went to his mate whose family gave him a home. He did become a doctor.
That story stayed in my head for about fifteen years. When I decided the time had come to use what had happened to him as the idea for a story I contacted him to ask permission and he was fine with it. But I didn’t want to write his story and instead I wrote about a 14 year old girl called Kirby who is sent to live with strictly religious relatives.
It took me six weeks of the summer holidays to work out why Kirby’s loving mother would make her live with the religious relatives she’d never told Kirby about. I had no intention of writing a sequel. Another fifteen or so years went by and I didn’t know what to write. I often find it difficult to get the initial idea that will kick off a story so I was a bit grumpy.
In the end, my commissioning editor at Random House said, ‘Well, what are you interested in?’ I said, ‘I’ve always wondered what happened to Rachel and Rebecca.’ They are the twins in the family Kirby is sent to live with. That’s how I came to write I am Rebecca. Then I wanted to find out what happened to Magdalene and the only way to do that was to write Being Magdalene.
- Fleur Beale
Reviews For I Am Rebecca
A psychological thriller out of the top drawer with a stunning ending.
- Weekend Press
Good writing can reveal our prejudices as being the shallow things they are. Really good writing does that and entertains the reader at the same time. Such is the case with New Zealand author Fleur Beale's latest book, I am Rebecca, the sequel to her bestseller of 16 years ago, I am not Esther. ... This is a tension-filled, thrilling read that affirms genuine belief while exposing hypocrisy.
- Rene Nol, Otago Daily Times
This is the sequel to Fleur Beale’s young adult bestseller I am not Esther, published in 1998. I am Rebecca is every bit as good. The story stands alone, however I’m sure once you have read this book you will go looking for the first.
- Linda Hall, Rotorua Daily Post
I Am Rebecca is an indictment of the manipulative power of such cults where the Leaders claim to be instructed by the voice of God, and the members are kept in isolation from the outside world and the opportunity to think for themselves. However, Beale is not disrespectful to those who willingly choose such a life. She is able to enter the minds of the young girls whose lives she is describing and tells of their concerns and beliefs convincingly. Beale's story is compelling and tragic; it moved me to tears.
- Margie Michael, New Zealand Books
This novel is so good I read it in one day. Fleur Beale’s writing is powerful yet so simple. The sentences are short, the chapters are short, the subject is beguiling and the characters stand out like the figures on Mount Rushmore . . . Stunning stuff with a stunning ending.
- Bob Bocherty, Bob’s Books Blog
Fleur Beale has created a detailed and convincing picture of life in a patriarchal religious community, and her characters are well-described and convincing. Rebecca is a sympathetic narrator who finds herself in an intolerable situation. The moral and ethical dilemma facing Rebecca is a genuine one. The closing chapters of this book are some of the most moving passages in New Zealand children’s literature.
- The Source