This book was surprising, eye-opening, and painful to read. Thank you so much to PenguinTeen Canada for sending me an arc and to the author, K. R. Gaddy, for doing the research necessary to write this incredible story.

I didn't realize this was non-fiction until I actually received the arc and opened to the first page. And then I checked the back and saw a bunch of sources that the author used/referred to while writing this book. I haven't read non-fiction in a while, but this made me really excited. I prefer non-fiction books that are written in a narrative format because not only is it a lot easier to get into, but it tricks my mind into thinking I'm reading fiction. This book did that really well, and because of that I think it would appeal not only to younger readers, but also to older ones. I'd love to see this book as part of the curriculum in university history courses especially.

I had never heard of the Edelweiss Pirates before this book. I had heard of German resistance, but the only other book I read that had mentioned it was The Women in the Castle. I definitely think this is something that should be taught in history classes because it's incredible how young these kids were and what they did to resist Nazi rule. It's inspiring and heartbreaking seeing what these kids went through, the risk they took, the torture and abuse they underwent, all in order to stick to their ideals, whether they were politically or morally inclined.

I liked following all three character perspectives. Gertrude's was probably my favourite because it was interesting to see how many girls were actually involved in the resistance. In The Women in the Castle, it was mostly the husbands of all these women who were part of the assassination attempt on Hitler's life, so I always wondered how many women were involved or wanted to be involved.

I did find Jean and Fitz's povs a little confusing. Sometimes I would forget what happened to which of the two boys because a lot of what they went through was kind of similar, and in some parts their stories overlapped a bit, even though neither of the characters actually met during the war.

There is quite a huge cast of characters and a lot of them go by code names too, so it was a little difficult to keep track. But I don't think it totally detracted from the story itself.

What I really liked about this book was the inclusion of letters and reports and news articles. We saw reports from the Gestapo, the SS, and the Hitler Youth, as well as confession papers and execution notices. There were also lots of pictures of the actual main characters with other members of the Edelweiss pirates and similar groups. I really enjoyed the snapshots we got of their lives before the war really got worse. Seeing them hiking and camping, playing the guitar, singing songs, and just having fun, makes you realize how young these kids were and how they just wanted to enjoy life. But as the story progresses, the pictures got darker and more disturbing and hard to look at. The story itself too became a lot darker. There were arrests and interrogations in the beginning of this book, but in most cases, the main characters were released quite soon after. But by the end, they're being interrogated and beaten and starved for days at a time, and it's a never-ending cycle. It was quite difficult to read and some of the pictures were a little disturbing. This is just a trigger warning for anyone who picks this up later.

Overall, a really great book. Highly recommend for anyone interested in learning more about an aspect of WWII history that was probably not covered in school.