3.5 stars.

An interesting blend of historical fiction and magical realism. Centered on the revolution in 1950s Hungary, This Rebel Heart is a YA novel that blurs the lines of reality and is loaded with beautiful symbolism. The plot is full of heavy content and is centered on Csilla, a well-written female protagonist.

The premise for this novel and the concept behind its artistic content is incredibly creative and meaningful and the journey is incredibly emotional and moving. Locke's writing is able to paint the scene so well and dynamically build the atmosphere. Unfortunately the pacing caused some issues with the read. The first half of the is extremely slow and spins its wheels for a bit before getting going. The last half does much better with the pacing, but it isn't enough to create a good balance. The end was something of a whirlwind that ended on the unknown, so it just didn't feel rewarding.

The symbolism is creative and I really enjoyed that aspect of the story, but it didn't feel very well explained or developed through the narrative. It was fairly confusing until the ending of the book when things really started to make sense.

The historical content is fantastically done and introduced a lot of information that I was unaware of. The plight of the people was atmospherically developed and I felt that Csilla was really a beautiful and well-rounded character to deliver the story.

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, but I appreciate the historical lesson that I walked away with.