Quiver

by Julia Watts

Set in rural Tennessee, QUIVER, a YA novel by Julia Watts, focuses on the unlikely friendship between two teens from opposite sides of the culture wars. Libby is the oldest child of six, going on seven, in a family that adheres to the "quiverfull" lifestyle: strict evangelical Christians who believe that they should have as many children as God allows because children are like arrows in the quiver of "God's righteous warriors." Meanwhile, her new neighbor, Zo is a gender fluid teen whose feminist, socialist, vegetarian family recently relocated from the city in search of a less stressful life. Zo and hir family are as far to the left ideologically as Libby's family is to the right, and yet Libby and Zo, who are the same age, feel a connection that leads them to friendship-a friendship that seems doomed from the start because of their families' differences.


Through deft storytelling, built upon extraordinary character development, author Watts offers a close examination of the contemporary compartmentalization of social interactions. The tensions that spring from their families' cultural differences reflect the pointed conflicts found in today's society, and illuminate a path for broader consideration.

• ISBN10: 1941110673
• ISBN13: 9781941110676
• Publish Date: 16 October 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Three Rooms Press
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

"I suppose what I'm saying is.. Libby, if you want a different life for yourself one that lives up to the beauty of the name you won't have to leave your country like I did. You'll just have to step outside the door of your house and into the real world."

Quiver is about a family who is super religious. If you've ever watched those big families on TLC or the UP channel you'll know what type of family I'm talking about.
Libby is the oldest in her family is left with a lot of the responsibility of helping her mom with everything. This is a lot for a teenager and its even harder when your family has a lot of rules that add on even more responsibility due to the way her father and her family see religion. When a new family moves in next door the whole family dynamic starts changing as Libby is seeing a different side of the world that she hasn't ever been allowed to learn about.
This ends up causing conflict and along with her mom struggling with things as well due to being pregnant again. Libby's life will change forever in this book.
Overall I really loved this book. Libby is a character I absolutely loved. She was so smart and wanted to learn and take risks, even though she knew her decisions would get her into trouble. These decisions ended up changing the whole family and made her mom start to see things in a new light for the first time since she was in college. This was a big thing and we really started to see the cracks in the family that had been being overlooked. The whole evangelical quiverful movement is very big on the man being the one in charge and the one who makes all the rules and this family lived that.
I really liked the way Watts wrote this, she made you feel like you were Libby and experiencing all that she was. All the emotions and the stress and the turmoil that was happening in this family were done so well. I cannot recommend this one enough if you're interested in seeing the Quiverfull movement from a different perspective.

"I go places. I talk to people. I read books. I watch TV. And thanks to the social worker, we're all in counseling to help us recover from what our therapist says is called "spiritual abuse" and adapt to the real world."