[In Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom] Paterson uses 15-year-old Wang Lee's experiences over a four-year period as a device to express China's political turmoil during the mid-nineteenth century…. [While] Paterson bases her novel on actual history, she fails to take full advantage of the dramatic potential of her material, relying instead on some blatant contrivances to further the plot and letting the narrative bog down amidst sermonic, confusing descriptions of Heavenly philosophy. Nevertheless, Paterson is obviously a serious, polished, and evocative writer and her book holds out for special readers a meticulously fashioned view of another culture and times gone by. (pp. 1333-34)

Stephanie Zvirin, in a review of "Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom," in Booklist, Vol. 79, No. 20, June 15, 1983, pp. 1333-34.