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jenbsbooks 's review for:
Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II
by Alan Gratz
This was just okay for me ... I wonder if I would have liked it more if I was of an age of the target audience? Probably. This does introduce many aspects of WW2 to the younger audiences in an engaging and exciting way. For me though, it was a little too "I'm 13 years old, and it's up to ME to ..." quite a few things, and basically change the course of the world war. Our young MC just happens to have a photographic memory. His parents just happen to be spies, and pull him in to help. Mom happens to be there with chloroform at a critical moment. In the whole huge area, the MC is the one who happens upon the escaped airman. He's just always in the right place at the right time with the right information and abilities ....
There was one death that caught me off guard.
No numerical chapters, instead, descriptive headers. Personally, I love headers, but I still like to have numbers to keep things more organized, and easy to switch between formats (I had this in three formats, physical book, audiobook and Kindle copy, the latter two borrowed from the library). Per usual, the physical book doesn't even deign to provide a Table of Contents. Short chapters, which tended to end on mini-cliffhangers (I can see the appeal, creating the need to keep reading ... but it's also a little annoying!)
I appreciated the author's notes at the end, clarifying what parts were based on fact/real events. I've read about Kristallnacht many times before. Interesting to see a closer (if fictional) look inside the Hitler Youth. Not sure if I'd heard of the Edelweiss pirates or "German look" (glancing to see if someone might be around to overhear). Several other German words/phrases, but a couple were just ones the MC made up.
Words I note: snuck, rifled, roiled, whirling dervish, hedgerow
There was the infamously mocked phrase "let out the breath I didn't know I'd been holding ..."
One chapter header was "In Which I am a Bleeding Genius" ... having just read Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost, in which all chapter headers started with "in which " :)
There was one death that caught me off guard.
No numerical chapters, instead, descriptive headers. Personally, I love headers, but I still like to have numbers to keep things more organized, and easy to switch between formats (I had this in three formats, physical book, audiobook and Kindle copy, the latter two borrowed from the library). Per usual, the physical book doesn't even deign to provide a Table of Contents. Short chapters, which tended to end on mini-cliffhangers (I can see the appeal, creating the need to keep reading ... but it's also a little annoying!)
I appreciated the author's notes at the end, clarifying what parts were based on fact/real events. I've read about Kristallnacht many times before. Interesting to see a closer (if fictional) look inside the Hitler Youth. Not sure if I'd heard of the Edelweiss pirates or "German look" (glancing to see if someone might be around to overhear). Several other German words/phrases, but a couple were just ones the MC made up.
Words I note: snuck, rifled, roiled, whirling dervish, hedgerow
There was the infamously mocked phrase "let out the breath I didn't know I'd been holding ..."
One chapter header was "In Which I am a Bleeding Genius" ... having just read Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost, in which all chapter headers started with "in which " :)