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k_shimer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, and War
Minor: Child death, Genocide, Homophobia, and Suicide
aileron's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and War
Moderate: Animal death and Death
Minor: Dementia and Fire/Fire injury
oceanwriter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The book mainly follows Maria's story, an Italian immigrant who moved to America with her mother. At the start of World War II, she is working for Mercury Pictures. This was a turbulent time for Hollywood for a lot of immigrants given the stigma against people coming from countries aligned with the Axis powers. As the war carries on, Maria and the others have to navigate the changes that come with wartime as well as figures from Maria's past.
I loved the concept of all of this, but it fell flat for me. There were too many characters. I couldn't name half of them from memory if I tried. The plot was chaotic, or I should say plots. This felt like two different books. There were some funny lines, so I'll compliment the witty writing (actually, it was well-written altogether). Still, I'm not really sure what the full picture of the book was. There were too many jumps and not enough character development.
Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Misogyny and War
Minor: Genocide and Suicide
ciwanski's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Here are some quotes from the book that I especially loved:
"Uncorrected pages billowed from the crash site where the typewriter had collided with his fingers."
"Her mother still brought a Mezzogiorno mindset to suffering: it was never explicable; it was only endurable."
"The true temptation of fantasy wasn't its outlandishness but its aching plausibility."
"In my experience, when a Christian comes to town to clean things up, it rarely ends well for the locals."
"Joe Breen is as intellectually disingenuous as the thoughts before prayers."
"Every totalitarian knows you cannot change the future, only the past."
"A firework fills **REDACTED SPOILER**'s empty eyes, a molten asterisk in the heavens to which the body on the ground is a footnote."
"Devils must tell themselves they are angels too."
One of the things that really warmed me to this book was that almost every character mentioned was given some sort of backstory, some type of reality, some type of future. To me that represented that even the strangers in our lives have their own, full lives to live, and you never know how they might influence you or how you influence them.
Lots to think about with this book. Lots to say about this book. Definitely recommend it if you have the patience for it.
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and War
Minor: Hate crime and Suicide
unboxedjack's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Minor: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, War, and Deportation
rosa_inverno's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I try to avoid a lot of historical fiction books set during WWII. I find that they are often overly romanticized depictions of how people would like to believe they would have acted if lived then. This story on the other hand, seems to be more of a portrayal of people just trying to survive and in that way it naturally becomes more realistically human than any other historical fiction I've read recently. I'm not sure that makes sense, but read it, you'll understand what I mean.
If that's not reason enough, read it for the pov shifts between characters and time that flow like water. It's rule breaking to be sure, but it's done in such a way that you'll say to yourself "rules are made to be broken." I know the literary rules that run over my own manuscripts in red pen: only one pov per section, it can be a memory or a flashback but it can't be both, etc. But this book breaks all those rules, and the way it's written...it's too good. Honestly.
Graphic: Death and Xenophobia
Moderate: War
Minor: Homophobia and Suicide
hollyd19's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Grief
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicide, Antisemitism, and Gaslighting
Minor: Genocide and War