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challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This is a wonderful memoir and I very much enjoyed it. It is written as a means to tell about Trevor Noah's childhood through a blend of personal anecdotes and cultural information about the years leading up to and just following the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
The writing is quite special and Noah's voice comes through clearly in the pages. It was a good balance between his humor and the harrowing circumstances of his youth in South Africa. He is very good at delivering things in a witty way, with a great sense for balancing the dark and serious with wry quips to lighten the impact. This made it easy to read through and grasp the full weight of the issues without the book simply being a depressing slog of a read.
I learned a LOT about South Africa that I was completely oblivious to. The racial disparities were shocking and the dangers of living there as anything other than white were gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.
I love how he wrote of his mother. She is clearly a very strong woman and someone he admires. His positivity, appreciation, and respect for her are genuine, lovely, and not usually what you see in celebrity memoirs.
Because of the structure of the book, the flow can sometimes be nonlinear in places and some of the chapters provide overlapping information. This was a bit confusing or frustrating in places, but easy to overlook for the most part as what was being presented was consistently powerful, informative, and important.
This was a great read told from a very unique perspective. Trevor Noah is an incredibly intelligent individual who clearly has a good heart and an amazing story to tell.
The writing is quite special and Noah's voice comes through clearly in the pages. It was a good balance between his humor and the harrowing circumstances of his youth in South Africa. He is very good at delivering things in a witty way, with a great sense for balancing the dark and serious with wry quips to lighten the impact. This made it easy to read through and grasp the full weight of the issues without the book simply being a depressing slog of a read.
I learned a LOT about South Africa that I was completely oblivious to. The racial disparities were shocking and the dangers of living there as anything other than white were gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.
I love how he wrote of his mother. She is clearly a very strong woman and someone he admires. His positivity, appreciation, and respect for her are genuine, lovely, and not usually what you see in celebrity memoirs.
Because of the structure of the book, the flow can sometimes be nonlinear in places and some of the chapters provide overlapping information. This was a bit confusing or frustrating in places, but easy to overlook for the most part as what was being presented was consistently powerful, informative, and important.
This was a great read told from a very unique perspective. Trevor Noah is an incredibly intelligent individual who clearly has a good heart and an amazing story to tell.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Though admittedly not as action-packed as the first installment, I still quite enjoyed this sequel in the Legacy of Orisha series. The writing is still fantastic and the world-building/magic system are really well done and complex.
The plot was problematic in a few ways that definite pulled down my enjoyment. There were several instances where it felt like things were running in circles. The same conflicts occurred over and over again with no progress in any direction. That grew a bit frustrating as the characters didn't seem to have any changes in opinion or learning from mistakes for a while.
I still really like the multiple POV for this series. Though it does remove some of the intrigue by giving a glimpse into the thoughts of the main characters, it makes things feel deeper and the stakes higher as motivations and feelings grow more complex.
While there was a lot of character development, some of it felt contradictory to what was completed in the first book. This was particularly true for both Zelie and Amari. They felt a bit waffly, not always seeming to have the same goals and values as they had established by the end of Children of Blood and Bone. While I appreciated the growth of Zelie's relationships, her interactions with Roen and her feelings about Iman made her feel flaky and prone to quick love interest--something that conflicted with her often overly suspicious nature. In Amari's case, she lost a lot of her humanity along the way and felt much less powerful as a leader figure by book's end. That was quite disappointing.
Knowing that there is still another book coming has me assuming (hoping?) that some major conflicts of character and unanswered questions about motivations will be resolved. This was still an enjoyable read for me, though it was occasionally a frustrating one. I also highly recommend the audiobook, as Bahni Turpin's narration is amazing as always.
The plot was problematic in a few ways that definite pulled down my enjoyment. There were several instances where it felt like things were running in circles. The same conflicts occurred over and over again with no progress in any direction. That grew a bit frustrating as the characters didn't seem to have any changes in opinion or learning from mistakes for a while.
I still really like the multiple POV for this series. Though it does remove some of the intrigue by giving a glimpse into the thoughts of the main characters, it makes things feel deeper and the stakes higher as motivations and feelings grow more complex.
While there was a lot of character development, some of it felt contradictory to what was completed in the first book. This was particularly true for both Zelie and Amari. They felt a bit waffly, not always seeming to have the same goals and values as they had established by the end of Children of Blood and Bone. While I appreciated the growth of Zelie's relationships, her interactions with Roen and her feelings about Iman made her feel flaky and prone to quick love interest--something that conflicted with her often overly suspicious nature. In Amari's case, she lost a lot of her humanity along the way and felt much less powerful as a leader figure by book's end. That was quite disappointing.
Knowing that there is still another book coming has me assuming (hoping?) that some major conflicts of character and unanswered questions about motivations will be resolved. This was still an enjoyable read for me, though it was occasionally a frustrating one. I also highly recommend the audiobook, as Bahni Turpin's narration is amazing as always.
dark
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Magic Lessons is a good novel with rich historical writing. Hoffman presents a lot of description and historical references throughout along with pieces of magical information. This would have likely served the book very well had it not been a prequel for the Practical Magic series. The other two books are written in a more whimsical and magical style, while Magic Lessons leans more toward a darker narrative and has quite a bit of somber overtones. The clash of these two styles partially made this book less enjoyable. Had I read this book before the others in the series, it may well have been rated slightly higher.
The biggest problem for me with this book was the pacing. While I appreciated the historical detail and attention to description (and I indeed learned some historical tidbits along the way), the writing made things a bit more dense and dragged things to a very slow pace. A flattened plot made it difficult to continue in some places, so I ended up reading a good portion of this book in small snippets.
Maria was an interesting character. She has a lot darker soul than the other Owens women and this made her a bit harder to like and connect with. She is somber and in some places quite intense. Her emotional volatility made her feel slightly distant for the reader. She was a bit of an acquired taste. Again, this would have been totally fine had I not had the preconceived notions of what to expect from Owens witches based on the other novels in the series.
I found this read to be okay. I enjoyed the informational content and did like that the backstory for a character frequently mentioned in the other books was presented. However, I was a bit let down by the flavor of the book.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. *
The biggest problem for me with this book was the pacing. While I appreciated the historical detail and attention to description (and I indeed learned some historical tidbits along the way), the writing made things a bit more dense and dragged things to a very slow pace. A flattened plot made it difficult to continue in some places, so I ended up reading a good portion of this book in small snippets.
Maria was an interesting character. She has a lot darker soul than the other Owens women and this made her a bit harder to like and connect with. She is somber and in some places quite intense. Her emotional volatility made her feel slightly distant for the reader. She was a bit of an acquired taste. Again, this would have been totally fine had I not had the preconceived notions of what to expect from Owens witches based on the other novels in the series.
I found this read to be okay. I enjoyed the informational content and did like that the backstory for a character frequently mentioned in the other books was presented. However, I was a bit let down by the flavor of the book.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. *
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This was a decent and cute middle grade read. It is a very quick story, less than 100 pages. It reads quite simply and is a perfect tale for the younger middle grade set. The story is whimsical and clever, though I do think that the term fantastic may be expecting a little too much. There is nothing terribly mind blowing in the plot, it is just following the foxes as they try to outwit the farmers. I will say that it was entertaining and did have me laughing out loud in a few places. This would work very well as a comfort read and is likely a great choice for a bedtime chapter read with younger children.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"An AK-47 in a white hand has more rights than a Black kid with Skittles."
Amazing! This was one of my favorite reads of 2020 and it hit hard. Reminiscent of The Hate U Give, this read was intensely powerful and hard-hitting. I'm having a hard time gathering up all of my thoughts because this was so impactful. There is so much here to consider and unpack.
This is My America so honestly and unflinchingly delivered thoughts on and examples of systemic racism that explored areas I hadn't even considered. It is an incredibly emotional read and really lays bare all of the ways that our communities, our police systems, our educational systems are biased and unnecessarily more critical of and harsh on those of color. I was absolutely dumbfounded by this book and couldn't read it fast enough. Johnson's writing is beautiful and fully accessible, feeling both comfortable and unsettling at the same time. It made me really explore my own predispositions and recognize the bigger picture. It left me still somewhat reeling and breathless.
Tracy is a wonderful character and the choice to deliver the story from her point of view was brilliant. I love exploring this subject through the eyes of someone who is still developing, still deciding who they should be and how they should approach the world. Tracy is strong, resourceful, and determined. She definitely has things to learn and her age does add some vulnerability. These things serve only to make her a more realistic and sympathetic character. I loved that she had so much education behind her and was used to demonstrate that Black individuals are often having to learn and consider things in their daily lives that go beyond the pale. No one should have to fear for their lives just because they wear a hoodie or walk with their hands in their pockets in a neighborhood that isn't their own.
This is an incredibly important read that needs to be put in the hands of every person. My heart and gut just ached through the majority of this story. It was one of those things where you know this kind of stuff is out there, but it's just so easy to go on with your own life and forget that others have to deal with this kind of disrespect simply because of the color of their skin.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
Amazing! This was one of my favorite reads of 2020 and it hit hard. Reminiscent of The Hate U Give, this read was intensely powerful and hard-hitting. I'm having a hard time gathering up all of my thoughts because this was so impactful. There is so much here to consider and unpack.
This is My America so honestly and unflinchingly delivered thoughts on and examples of systemic racism that explored areas I hadn't even considered. It is an incredibly emotional read and really lays bare all of the ways that our communities, our police systems, our educational systems are biased and unnecessarily more critical of and harsh on those of color. I was absolutely dumbfounded by this book and couldn't read it fast enough. Johnson's writing is beautiful and fully accessible, feeling both comfortable and unsettling at the same time. It made me really explore my own predispositions and recognize the bigger picture. It left me still somewhat reeling and breathless.
Tracy is a wonderful character and the choice to deliver the story from her point of view was brilliant. I love exploring this subject through the eyes of someone who is still developing, still deciding who they should be and how they should approach the world. Tracy is strong, resourceful, and determined. She definitely has things to learn and her age does add some vulnerability. These things serve only to make her a more realistic and sympathetic character. I loved that she had so much education behind her and was used to demonstrate that Black individuals are often having to learn and consider things in their daily lives that go beyond the pale. No one should have to fear for their lives just because they wear a hoodie or walk with their hands in their pockets in a neighborhood that isn't their own.
This is an incredibly important read that needs to be put in the hands of every person. My heart and gut just ached through the majority of this story. It was one of those things where you know this kind of stuff is out there, but it's just so easy to go on with your own life and forget that others have to deal with this kind of disrespect simply because of the color of their skin.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really loved this book. It's a great for giving a little bit of a darker twist on the magical school trope. The writing style is definite developed with the older middle grade set in mind and the movement of the plot and development of the characters match with the intended audience. But there are some dark and slightly more mature pieces that make me think it would be better suited for YA readers.
The plot is fun and twisty with lots of entertaining moments. There are admittedly some annoying quirks to the protagonists and they are delivered in a bit of a heavy-handed way, but I just had a lot of fun reading this. It challenges the typical fairy tale tropes and I think gives a great lesson in not accepting that you have to be what everyone tells you that you are. It's inspirational in that way, but with a very flippant kind of approach. I was caught off-guard by how much I enjoyed this. I need to be grabbing the sequel soon.
The plot is fun and twisty with lots of entertaining moments. There are admittedly some annoying quirks to the protagonists and they are delivered in a bit of a heavy-handed way, but I just had a lot of fun reading this. It challenges the typical fairy tale tropes and I think gives a great lesson in not accepting that you have to be what everyone tells you that you are. It's inspirational in that way, but with a very flippant kind of approach. I was caught off-guard by how much I enjoyed this. I need to be grabbing the sequel soon.
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.5 stars.
This book has NOT gotten enough hype. It is a lovely quirky YA sci-fi that still manages to feel a bit like a YA contemporary. The approach to time travel and the feel of a teenage Groundhog Day was wonderful and entertaining. I loved this story and found it to be super cute.
The writing is quippy and comfortable, it just has a lilting and happy feel to it. Almost jaunty. It's fantastic and make me just fly through my read. It was nearly a conversational feel and I really enjoyed it. The plot was well structured, but did have a bit of a drag to it in the middle. For me that wasn't an issue because I was already invested pretty well in Fi's journey, but some readers who don't connect as quickly to the main character may have a little trouble pushing through certain sections.
The characters are great. Nephele (Fi) is a brilliant young girl with anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. You know...teenage angsty kind of stuff. She feels real and is just super lovable. Her character arc through the narrative is great and I really enjoyed watching her go through so many trials and discovering pieces about herself. The character development and her dynamic nature just made Fi a character that I would like to wrap up in a hug. She's wonderful.
The other characters are good, but Fi clearly shines. Her relationship with Jazz is the cutest friendship and I just loved the way he slowly weaved his way into her life. I also appreciated that Fi's parents were both present, written in a supportive way, and that she had a relationship with them that wasn't constantly at odds. This seems to be rare in YA reads. I will say that these characters were not developed quite as strongly and the parents did feel a bit wispy.
This book was perfect for me at the time I read it. Adorable, uplifting, rewarding, and just a good all around experience.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This book has NOT gotten enough hype. It is a lovely quirky YA sci-fi that still manages to feel a bit like a YA contemporary. The approach to time travel and the feel of a teenage Groundhog Day was wonderful and entertaining. I loved this story and found it to be super cute.
The writing is quippy and comfortable, it just has a lilting and happy feel to it. Almost jaunty. It's fantastic and make me just fly through my read. It was nearly a conversational feel and I really enjoyed it. The plot was well structured, but did have a bit of a drag to it in the middle. For me that wasn't an issue because I was already invested pretty well in Fi's journey, but some readers who don't connect as quickly to the main character may have a little trouble pushing through certain sections.
The characters are great. Nephele (Fi) is a brilliant young girl with anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. You know...teenage angsty kind of stuff. She feels real and is just super lovable. Her character arc through the narrative is great and I really enjoyed watching her go through so many trials and discovering pieces about herself. The character development and her dynamic nature just made Fi a character that I would like to wrap up in a hug. She's wonderful.
The other characters are good, but Fi clearly shines. Her relationship with Jazz is the cutest friendship and I just loved the way he slowly weaved his way into her life. I also appreciated that Fi's parents were both present, written in a supportive way, and that she had a relationship with them that wasn't constantly at odds. This seems to be rare in YA reads. I will say that these characters were not developed quite as strongly and the parents did feel a bit wispy.
This book was perfect for me at the time I read it. Adorable, uplifting, rewarding, and just a good all around experience.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
Upon a Once Time
Anna Fagundes Martino, M. Regan, Suri Parmar, Anna Madden, Jamie Lackey, Kit Falbo, Joshua Gage, Dennis Mombauer, Brent Baldwin, C.J. Dotson, Nike Sulway, Lin Darrow, Maya Chhabra, Mike Morgan, Rebecca E. Treasure, Melissa Mead, N.A. Sulway, Evan Dicken, Cat Rambo, Taryn Haas, Alex Langer, Jude Reid
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love fairy tales and folklore. Retellings are right up my alley. This collection did not disappoint. There are a lot of talented writers who came together in this book and the compilation as a whole was quite fun to read. Short story collections are difficult to find where there is a sort of "flow" from start to end, but this one moved very well. I found myself excited to start each subsequent story.
This was just a wonderful piece of escapism. There is a mix of light and dark, but things are balanced so that the whole book doesn't feel like a black hole. All of the stories were highly creative and wound around a theme of fantasy/sci-fi. There were combinations of various tales and folklore that I found quite interesting to pair and I loved that there were some lesser known tales thrown into the mix with several cultures being represented. The writing was very atmospheric in most cases and a lot of the stories felt like they could easily have been expanded into something bigger. This is the challenge with short stories. The endings are often ambiguous or leave more to be explored. Though this certainly existed within these stories, the majority of them still felt natural as standalone pieces.
Most of the individual stories fell in the 4-5 star range for me. There were a couple that weren't my speed, but these still would've landed pretty solidly in the 3-star range. They all had good writing and the pieces I didn't enjoy as much would likely get higher ratings for those who enjoy their specific subgenres.
This was a really fun read for me and a good reminder that modern short story collections can really be fantastic hidden gems.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This was just a wonderful piece of escapism. There is a mix of light and dark, but things are balanced so that the whole book doesn't feel like a black hole. All of the stories were highly creative and wound around a theme of fantasy/sci-fi. There were combinations of various tales and folklore that I found quite interesting to pair and I loved that there were some lesser known tales thrown into the mix with several cultures being represented. The writing was very atmospheric in most cases and a lot of the stories felt like they could easily have been expanded into something bigger. This is the challenge with short stories. The endings are often ambiguous or leave more to be explored. Though this certainly existed within these stories, the majority of them still felt natural as standalone pieces.
Most of the individual stories fell in the 4-5 star range for me. There were a couple that weren't my speed, but these still would've landed pretty solidly in the 3-star range. They all had good writing and the pieces I didn't enjoy as much would likely get higher ratings for those who enjoy their specific subgenres.
This was a really fun read for me and a good reminder that modern short story collections can really be fantastic hidden gems.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars
This book...well, collection...was not really what I was expecting. I was anticipating a set of short stories that wove together in some way telling the stories of circus performers. That was absolutely not the case. These stories do not really have a cohesive theme, other than being fantastical in nature and having an overall dark tendency. I do like fantasy and I do like dark, so that was good, but there was nothing at all that would lead me to entertain the idea of a circus. I feel that the title and cover (as well as the synopsis and foreword) are wildly misleading. That did put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, as I like to be able to feel that the reader can trust the author and this felt a little bit like trickery.
Despite getting off slightly on the wrong foot, I do have to say that the writing is quite good. I enjoyed the fairy tale feel to the majority of the stories and I found that Yolen's range of creativity is quite expansive. She is incredibly descriptive in her work and she creates a great atmosphere in the stories she creates. There is also an incredible variety present and it's clear that Yolen is no niche writer, her talent expands much beyond that.
As for the stories themselves, it was a mixed bag. There were a few I really enjoyed (4 - 4.5 star level) and a few I really didn't (1-2 star level). The majority were simply average and didn't really sway me either way. I mentioned that I do enjoy dark stories, but there were some seriously overly dark moments that very much turned my stomach and caused me a lot of pause with continuation of the book. I can handle violent, I can handle creepy, but the sexual exploitation of minors is not something I want in my reads. As a whole, the read was a fairly quick one, with none of the stories feeling sluggish or off-balance in terms of pacing.
Short stories are difficult in that fleshing out a solid ending is not in the cards, so I did expect some semi-open endings going in. This was what occurred for the majority of the tales. However, what I got was more choppy and awkward in some cases. The ends were quite jolting, almost feeling like they left off mid-sentence or mid-paragraph. This made those particular stories feel like a waste of my reading time and created additional feelings of frustration with my read. The content just wasn't sufficient. They read more like writing samples rather than actual tales.
While I very much appreciated her writing and her writing style, there was just a lot of awkwardness to the read and too little that gripped me. That left The Midnight Circus solidly in the average rating area for me. Once again, some of the stories did read much better than others (as you would expect in a short story collection), so there are pieces of this book I would rate much higher. There are absolutely readers for this work who will enjoy it more thoroughly from cover to cover.
This book...well, collection...was not really what I was expecting. I was anticipating a set of short stories that wove together in some way telling the stories of circus performers. That was absolutely not the case. These stories do not really have a cohesive theme, other than being fantastical in nature and having an overall dark tendency. I do like fantasy and I do like dark, so that was good, but there was nothing at all that would lead me to entertain the idea of a circus. I feel that the title and cover (as well as the synopsis and foreword) are wildly misleading. That did put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, as I like to be able to feel that the reader can trust the author and this felt a little bit like trickery.
Despite getting off slightly on the wrong foot, I do have to say that the writing is quite good. I enjoyed the fairy tale feel to the majority of the stories and I found that Yolen's range of creativity is quite expansive. She is incredibly descriptive in her work and she creates a great atmosphere in the stories she creates. There is also an incredible variety present and it's clear that Yolen is no niche writer, her talent expands much beyond that.
As for the stories themselves, it was a mixed bag. There were a few I really enjoyed (4 - 4.5 star level) and a few I really didn't (1-2 star level). The majority were simply average and didn't really sway me either way. I mentioned that I do enjoy dark stories, but there were some seriously overly dark moments that very much turned my stomach and caused me a lot of pause with continuation of the book. I can handle violent, I can handle creepy, but the sexual exploitation of minors is not something I want in my reads. As a whole, the read was a fairly quick one, with none of the stories feeling sluggish or off-balance in terms of pacing.
Short stories are difficult in that fleshing out a solid ending is not in the cards, so I did expect some semi-open endings going in. This was what occurred for the majority of the tales. However, what I got was more choppy and awkward in some cases. The ends were quite jolting, almost feeling like they left off mid-sentence or mid-paragraph. This made those particular stories feel like a waste of my reading time and created additional feelings of frustration with my read. The content just wasn't sufficient. They read more like writing samples rather than actual tales.
While I very much appreciated her writing and her writing style, there was just a lot of awkwardness to the read and too little that gripped me. That left The Midnight Circus solidly in the average rating area for me. Once again, some of the stories did read much better than others (as you would expect in a short story collection), so there are pieces of this book I would rate much higher. There are absolutely readers for this work who will enjoy it more thoroughly from cover to cover.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is so intensely emotional. It is a beautifully written story, but it is also immensely heartbreaking. Sepetys has a way of writing history that makes you fall right into the story, despite the hardships, despite the way everything tears your whole being to pieces. I was surprised at the brazen way with which she described the atrocities given that this is intended for YA audiences. But it does present a historical story that needs to be told and understood. There are a lot of WWII historical fiction novels out there, but very few address the Russian gulags. Having the story of the Baltic states presented in such a gripping fashion is an important contribution to literature.
The historical content itself is importantly delivered, but also serves incredibly well for the plot. Nothing felt forced, info dumpy, or irrelevant. Regardless of how bad things got, it was all presented in a way that felt as if it was a realistic representation of actual events and experiences.
The use of Lina as a YA protagonist is such a smart choice. She is smart and accomplished and very strong. The terrors of WWII affected all ages and it is important that the stories are told to all ages. Like middle grade has Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, young adult has Between Shades of Gray.
I kept thinking to myself as I read through horror after horror how impressed I am that people actually survived this. I cannot imagine the immense inner strength and will to live that must have taken. Similarly, I cannot fathom how there is such evil and lack of compassion for other human beings among people out there. How there could have been so many people who allowed these things to take place, who perpetuated the level of violence, starvation, mistreatment, and murder is completely beyond me.
There are some who have been upset by the romantic aspect of the novel, but I found it appropriate for Lina's age. Humans still crave affection in the worse of circumstances. A teenage girl could realistically still be expected to desire that kind of relationship. And there are known stories of individuals who fell in love in concentration camps. In fact, I enjoyed the hope (and maybe normalcy?) that this piece of the novel brought and I think the story line of Lina and Andrius's relationship was handled very tastefully.
The ending does come up quite abruptly. At first, that really bothered me. I needed to know what happened between the end of the main story and the start of the epilogue. However, the more I reflected, the more I decided that this story does what it needed to do. There is a good sense of completion in that way. While I do want to know more, it's really wanting to know more about the actual history. That instillation of curiosity in the reader about historical events is important, especially in cases representing history that we should all learn from. I loved this novel. Thank you to Ruta Sepetys for writing something so immensely touching and important.
The historical content itself is importantly delivered, but also serves incredibly well for the plot. Nothing felt forced, info dumpy, or irrelevant. Regardless of how bad things got, it was all presented in a way that felt as if it was a realistic representation of actual events and experiences.
The use of Lina as a YA protagonist is such a smart choice. She is smart and accomplished and very strong. The terrors of WWII affected all ages and it is important that the stories are told to all ages. Like middle grade has Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, young adult has Between Shades of Gray.
I kept thinking to myself as I read through horror after horror how impressed I am that people actually survived this. I cannot imagine the immense inner strength and will to live that must have taken. Similarly, I cannot fathom how there is such evil and lack of compassion for other human beings among people out there. How there could have been so many people who allowed these things to take place, who perpetuated the level of violence, starvation, mistreatment, and murder is completely beyond me.
There are some who have been upset by the romantic aspect of the novel, but I found it appropriate for Lina's age. Humans still crave affection in the worse of circumstances. A teenage girl could realistically still be expected to desire that kind of relationship. And there are known stories of individuals who fell in love in concentration camps. In fact, I enjoyed the hope (and maybe normalcy?) that this piece of the novel brought and I think the story line of Lina and Andrius's relationship was handled very tastefully.
The ending does come up quite abruptly. At first, that really bothered me. I needed to know what happened between the end of the main story and the start of the epilogue. However, the more I reflected, the more I decided that this story does what it needed to do. There is a good sense of completion in that way. While I do want to know more, it's really wanting to know more about the actual history. That instillation of curiosity in the reader about historical events is important, especially in cases representing history that we should all learn from. I loved this novel. Thank you to Ruta Sepetys for writing something so immensely touching and important.