Have I mentioned how much I hate short chapters? Like not in a "they're inherently bad and authors who write them are trash way." Just like, my brain does not work that way. It takes me so long to get invested in a story when I feel like I'm being jolted around every five minutes and it feels like it takes a million years for anything to happen in the story. When the chapters are long, a hundred pages can go by with nothing happening but I'm endlessly fascinated. This book jumped between the present (2002) and the past (1942) pretty much every three pages and I just can't. It's not the author's fault, it's just me. So I figured I'd start with that because that alone pretty much ruined any possibility of the book becoming a favorite.

But it was honestly pretty good. I read it in two days, despite working more than twenty hours between the two. It's pretty short and quick, but I wanted to know everything that happened. And once it stopped jumping to the past (at a point it was entirely focused on the present), I could actually get invested in the main character's life and story.

One thing that did bother me a little bit about this book was that it felt almost purposeless. The main character discovers that her in laws moved into an apartment of a Jewish family who had been rounded up by Nazis, and she decides to track down the young daughter who possibly survived the Holocaust. I get wanting to know what happened, but it didn't seem like the main character really had a good reason for wanting to find the girl personally. Like solve the mystery to know what happened, sure curiosity is a good motive. But she really wanted to talk to the girl and like make it up to her or something. I never really felt like there was a good enough reason for that apart from it needed to happen to propel the plot along.

I loved that this book felt more realistic than a lot of novels. In stories, a lot of times realism is kind of thrown out the door in favor of closure. Even if things don't end happily, they often end neatly or with everything resolved. It's more satisfying to readers that way. But there were a good few times in this book where de Rosnay took a different route and wrote things in a way that was more likely to happen in real life than a story, and I was surprised. Not like big plot twists or anything like that, just the way the story unfolded. It felt more real and personal and painful to me because of that. I love that in books. That alone was enough that I'd want to check out more from this author.

If you like WWII historical fiction, I'd recommend this. If you like people looking into the past to solve mysteries, I'd recommend this. I don't think this will stick with me for a long time, but I am glad I finally picked it up. It was so sad, but also really enjoyable overall (when I convince myself to forget about the short chapters).