"We opposed much more than each other. Our skirmish represented much bigger battles: the war against women in the church, a disagreement over the proper location for relics, a conflict over the role of bishops in female monasteries. And nothing had been settled, although much had been ruined."

Rebel Nun highlights the plight of women; as the main character, Clotild, expresses multiple time throughout the book that the three choices for women were prostitution, motherhood, or the cloister. Clotild herself is a complicated character, throughout the book you can see her motivations change and her reasoning for why does what she does shifts. BUT I enjoyed that, it shows real human emotion and actions. Clotild does care for her sisters and wants the best for them. However Clotid can have too much of a pity-party for herself sometimes and I found that to be annoying. Clotild's shifting views of Christianity and 'paganism' and the syncretism that emerges from her was fascinating. I do wonder how many people back then held on to their old ways or mixed them with Christianity. Charlier does a good job of showing the complexities of religion and culture.

The pacing of the story is slow but fast. Time seems to fly while the characters stay in the same place and plight for a long time. I would have liked to see a definitive time keeping going on then just mentioning the weather had once again changed. The writing keeps you wanting to read more. I could not put the book down! Charlier has a poetic style to her writing. I wanted justice and righteousness to prevail. As a reader, you can feel the experience of the nuns, the cold, the starvation, the feelings of hopelessness and of hope. You feel the anger of the nuns as they just want to live a simple life without interference but the church, the thing that they love, is standing in their way. I enjoyed learning more about the Roman Catholic Church pushing women out of roles of leadership, seeing the views of some of the women who were caught up in the difficulties brings it more to life. The ending of the book was a bit rushed after the slow build-up. I did enjoy the ending though.

I appreciated Marj Charlier having a thorough author's note at the end of Rebel Nun where she talks about differing opinions on the account of the historical event, views on the concept of female independence (and how it may be only 21st-century phenomena), and fact vs fiction in her book. Rebel Nun is a well-researched book.
Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for the ARC! All quotes made in this review may not reflect the final copy of Rebel Nun.