Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

17 reviews

mjwilliamson's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this book, though saying that makes me feel weird. It was very sad and thought provoking. The idea that these were real people, a real place and real stories was probably the most terrifying thing about it all. But that was also what kept me engaged. I needed to know what happened to these people through it all. Their surroundings were so desolate and depressing that it, in a way, made it feel like I needed to protect them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

gemstone's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Excrement, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, and War

Minor: Homophobia and Trafficking

alyssa_simard's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Blood, Antisemitism, and Grief

lostinthelibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad 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? No

3.5

This book has been very hyped and I understand why. It hits so many emotional notes and you can't help but love Dita and the other characters. I like how we hear so many perspectives including those from the Nazi side whose actions are humanised but not excused.

I could tell that this was based on real experiences as it felt deeply personal with all of the different details and threads.

WWII fiction is a slightly oversaturated genre but this stands out as one of the best. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Confinement and Death of parent

valeriabee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 I never understood the desire to be entertained by people's traumas? This book is based on the life of Dita Kraus, and the author took some artistic liberties by fictionalizing parts of her story. For this reason, it is hard to tell what is true and what is not. I have seen people complain that the narration lacks emotion or passion, but I don't see why that emotion needs to be exaggerated when you're dealing with the genocide of a people. Despite being uncertain about the accuracy of the details, I found the book to be honest. You get the sense of dejection, anger, fear, hopelessness, helplessness, rebellion, and perseverance from the prisoners of Auschwitz. The book is honest about deception, it is honest about the desire to be hopeful, the desire to escape, the desire to survive. There were disturbing moments when you realize some prisoners would take advantage of the more vulnerable for their own survival. At the end of the day, they were all desperate to survive. 

I saw someone on GoodReads that they prefer this novel to The Diary of a Young Girl because they found Young Girl to be boring. It is icky to me to desire entertainment from a book about such terrible traumas. I was moved by the honesty of the narrative, independent of the accuracy. It is not five stars because the weird limbo between reality and fiction confuses the narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

antoniarachael28's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

bookishalice's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 I bought this when I finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s journey last year. I wanted to read more fictionalised accounts of survivors from Auschwitz. I wanted to understand more about their lived experiences. On that front, this book did not disappoint and like all war literature, was incredibly emotive. 

The story focuses on Dita, a young girl who is sent to the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I had NO idea there had been a family camp at Auschwitz and so this book provided insight into a part of history previously unknown to me. The book relays her experiences in the camp and introduces the stories of people she meets while imprisoned. 

Although I loved these other stories, I felt that the narrative jumped between stories in a disjointed way that left me feeling a little disorientated. These stories could have been structured as separate chapters, dispersed throughout the main story, which I think would have helped with that feeling. This might also have allowed for a more thorough retelling of people’s experiences. I would have loved to read more about Miriam, Renee, Professor Morganstern and Rudi. 

It might be because of the translation, but the narrative also felt quite stilted. I swear the tense or the person perspective changed a couple of times. I had to reread paragraphs or phrases and on occasion, this made it quite hard to get through. I will admit that at times, I was counting the pages left, which is a shame to admit. 

This falls in the 2 star category due to the narrative structure alone. I found it quite slow paced and hard to get through. But the subject matter really interested me, which pushes it up towards a 3 star! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, and Medical trauma