jsultz3's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
daneed14's review against another edition
5.0
This was a great book. I enjoy books that go back and forth between 2 different characters' view points at two different points in time. I love the sacrifices the mother made for the daughter, even though she never revealed them to her or anyone.
heathernj9's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed the story but I did find the writing to be a bit amatuerish but I guess it is her first novel. There were a few plot holes for me - for example, I don't think a child of a one year would be talking like she was older than one. Overall though it was sad but beautiful story.
milola's review against another edition
2.0
i wanted to love this book, as i was deeply intrigued by the concept of the story. although it was a constant page turner that i couldn't wait to bet back to, the telling of the tale fell flat for me.
i did like the culmination of the journey - even though it was so neatly packaged - it was almost Hallmark-ian in presentation.
i can't help but wonder how this story would have been told had Ursula Hegi written it.
i did like the culmination of the journey - even though it was so neatly packaged - it was almost Hallmark-ian in presentation.
i can't help but wonder how this story would have been told had Ursula Hegi written it.
jggiggle's review against another edition
5.0
Love this book! It was a bit too sexually graphic in some parts & the very end of the book I'm still on the fence about - in both cases it seemed like they didn't fit with the rest of the book. But even with the small negatives, I found this to be well written and hard to put down. An amazing read.
mindyhoffer's review against another edition
4.0
A story of the German experience during WWII and of a daughter's relationship with her mother.
jules1278's review against another edition
4.0
Hmmm. I really don't know how to rate this book. I thought it was very powerful fiction. I believed it was real. I was sort of drawn in by the characters (not as much as I thought I should be.) The author is half German and half Jewish, and she writes about a young woman, Anna, who falls in love with a Jewish man in Germany in the late 1930's and this results in a child, Trudy, who grows up in Minnesota knowing next to nothing about her actual origins, believing her father to be an SS officer, who is pictured in her mother's only keepsake from her early life in Germany. Trudy could never successfully confront her mother about their past, because her mother refuses to speak about anything that happened before they moved to America.
I felt a little jarred by the sudden ending to the story (especially because I thought what led up to the ending was pretty brilliant), the whole of which was told in part during the 1990's and part in flashbacks to the 40's. Some of the wording was literary and beautiful, and some of it seemed a little bit clunky, even when it was trying to be beautiful.
The mother's involvement with the SS officer was absolutely necessary to the story, and especially the Stockholm syndrome aspect. The author was more than successful if her intent was to make her readers feel incredibly squeamish whenever the Obersturmfuhrer is present. *shudders*
I'm giving this book 4 stars (aha, a decision!) but not necessarily because "I really liked it." (Although I did really like most of it, and I definitely rooted for the two main characters.) I thought it was well-written, and just short of amazing, so I can't give it 5 stars, but I don't think I could knock it down any further than 4.
I felt a little jarred by the sudden ending to the story (especially because I thought what led up to the ending was pretty brilliant), the whole of which was told in part during the 1990's and part in flashbacks to the 40's. Some of the wording was literary and beautiful, and some of it seemed a little bit clunky, even when it was trying to be beautiful.
The mother's involvement with the SS officer was absolutely necessary to the story, and especially the Stockholm syndrome aspect. The author was more than successful if her intent was to make her readers feel incredibly squeamish whenever the Obersturmfuhrer is present. *shudders*
I'm giving this book 4 stars (aha, a decision!) but not necessarily because "I really liked it." (Although I did really like most of it, and I definitely rooted for the two main characters.) I thought it was well-written, and just short of amazing, so I can't give it 5 stars, but I don't think I could knock it down any further than 4.
pickett22's review against another edition
DNF 2020
I am thoroughly convinced by these characters. They change like the wind to fit what the plot needs of them, making them unrelatable and often two dimensional.
Not using quotation marks is a ballsy move, especially in a debut novel, and it did not pay off in this case. Everything else has to be airtight for something like that to work, and this book is not airtight.
The prose is unnecessarily dense, using mixed metaphors and complicated imagery that slows down and confuses things.
I'm not going to rate it because, while I have read some historical fiction in the past, I don't feel like it's been enough to be fair about whether or not this one is a good or bad example of its kind. It has a lot of basic problems, like the ones I mentioned above, and I don't feel like it is a very good book, but also I got fewer than 100 pages in. Not my jam.
I am thoroughly convinced by these characters. They change like the wind to fit what the plot needs of them, making them unrelatable and often two dimensional.
Not using quotation marks is a ballsy move, especially in a debut novel, and it did not pay off in this case. Everything else has to be airtight for something like that to work, and this book is not airtight.
The prose is unnecessarily dense, using mixed metaphors and complicated imagery that slows down and confuses things.
I'm not going to rate it because, while I have read some historical fiction in the past, I don't feel like it's been enough to be fair about whether or not this one is a good or bad example of its kind. It has a lot of basic problems, like the ones I mentioned above, and I don't feel like it is a very good book, but also I got fewer than 100 pages in. Not my jam.
hillarya's review against another edition
3.0
I read this immediately after reading Sarah's Key. At times I enjoyed it a little more. It delved into topics that I wanted in Sarah's Key, like, "what were the people on the sidelines doing to allow all of this tragedy?" It was a bit graphic at times. I really enjoyed the way it came full circle in the end, though.