Book Review Of Rise To Rebellion By Shaara

Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara provides a detailed account of the years leading up to the Revolutionary War and ending one year into the war with the creation of signing of the Declaration of Independence. However, despite the large portions of historically correct information, there simply are not enough records to create a word by word account of the countless conversations leading up to the war. Because of this, Rise to Rebellion is, as it should be, considered to be a work of fiction. The novel mainly follows three main characters, General Thomas Gage, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. However, Paul Revere, George Washington, Sam Adams, and John Hancock also provide a great deal to the story. The book is set up in such a way that each

The book starts out in Boston in the middle of the Boston Massacre. It is in this scene where the main conflict is revealed, that conflict being the colonists hopes of independence from England, and the English’s abuse of their power over the colonists. As the story goes on, we see the Sons of Liberty become a prominent group among the colonists, along with meeting various members of the group. Additionally, the growing fear in England also plays a major role in the story. An interesting aspect of the book is that you can see both sides of the war and the anger. It allows you to understand both sides of the war and gives a much deeper meaning to the war and the people who participated in it. This conflict molds characters in various different ways and even causes some of them to change their viewpoint on independence for the colonies. It is because of these changes and details that make the book such an interesting

I had serious doubts before beginning but less than 5 pages in, I was hooked. Shaara’s imagery and descriptions of the Boston Massacre were both real and exciting, in a sense, to read. From this point on, I was continually kept interested by the various major events, all of which were supported by interesting details that helped make the characters seem real. As the reader, I gained real insight into the private lives of John and Abigail Adams, and their life on their home in the country. By writing this part of the story, even though it does not contribute largely to the main conflict, Shaara makes Adams and his family more likeable and makes him, as a character, easier to understand. However, Shaara’s writing style annoyed me at certain times. To explain this further, he would change between point of views at random points in the story for some sentences, and switch back. For example, there are multiple scenes where Adams is talking and suddenly, instead of the narrator telling you his thoughts, Adams is telling you. This not only made some scenes confusing, but also made it hard to tell whether or not the character was telling you his thoughts, or speaking to another character. Even though this only happens a few times throughout the story, it still made some of the story hard to understand. But still, it did not ruin any part of the story for me. Another part of the novel that I did not like were the chapters