Reviews

The Historians by Cecilia Ekbäck

Only show reviews with written explanations

jolietjane's review against another edition

With a DNF, there is always a build up for me. You start out by wishing the story would move faster- and at this point, everything slows down for you. So you start skimming, waiting for the interesting stuff....but it never comes, so you keep skimming, and then realize you are waisting your time.

I am rating this 3 years because this is meant for someone, but not me. I did give it the college try and made it 200 pages, a little under half the book. The Historians is fine, but it is VERY slow. The author of the book is clearly very passionate about Swedish history so theres a huge push in it to really comb the fine details of that- as well as talk a lot about Swedish government agencies and such. Basically, this is a history nerds book. The characters are not the strong suit here- interesting as they are on the surface. Theres good bones, but development of the characters and mystery were a snail's pace. The Historians is meant to provide an atmospheric world war 2 experience- and it does this very well.

Patience is a virtue and I am not patient.

danijoy06's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

fallingapple's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is a slow paced book with a lot of characters and politics which usually isn't my favourite but I really enjoyed this. I've lived in Sweden which why this book originally peaked my interest. I knew Sweden was a neutral country in WW2 but had no idea how Sweden played both to the allies and Hitler to keep its neutrality. My only complaint is that the ending felt a bit rushed after such a long slow build.

Content Warnings