marissax22's review against another edition
4.0
I’m going to say 3.5 stars. I haven’t seen the movie so no comparison there. I thought all the history tidbits were interesting but the story got lost in too many names, dates, and places that weren’t really relevant.
lsrees12's review against another edition
2.0
This is an amazing story the needed to be told, but the enumerable, tedious listing of unnecessary items was so difficult to trudge through! It felt like I was forcing myself through the book because of all of the useless page fillers.
winona_reads3's review against another edition
2.0
Being honest, this wasn't my favorite. I think the story would have thrived if it were historical fiction listed as based on a true story. I only became interested after the first 200 pages and the ending was a little rough. I liked the facts, but sometimes reading it felt like I was reading an essay, I don't think it flowed properly. I went to the author's seminar and loved hearing her speak, and I would look into her other books as I've heard great things, but this book sadly wasn't what I had anticipated. It wasn't bad and I would recommend it to some, but overall I think even as a non fiction piece, it was very choppy writing.
lucerez's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this, but it suffered from an excessive amount of purple prose and endless distracting descriptions of animals. The nonlinear narrative was difficult to follow at times because it was disorganized both in time and character -- descriptions of a person's backstory would span pages, until you could no longer recall why they were relevant. That said, I was glued to this book for two days straight.
pagesofpins's review against another edition
3.0
A great story, but buried in irrelevant detail. 2/3 stars.
brittniphillips's review against another edition
2.0
Reads like a history book. It has so much potential to be a compelling story but I simply found it boring.
leeleew's review against another edition
2.0
I listened to this on audio. I really enjoy ww2 books
But this book was not interesting at all. Had to skip chapters. Very boring,
But this book was not interesting at all. Had to skip chapters. Very boring,
leslieallyse's review against another edition
2.0
This was audio book that I listened to during a recent road trip. I'll give the writer credit for being VERY detailed in her descriptions of events, but some of the details were a bit monotonous at times and didn't really advance or add to the story. If I would have been reading this on my own, I'm not sure I would have made it through the entire book.
sarful's review against another edition
3.0
There was a lot of super fascinating information, specifically about Jan's involvement in the Underground and how the zoo played a roll; how his wife, Antonia, was so resilient throughout it all. But, overall the book rambles on in tangents about things that never advanced the story. These people were in such crazy times and half the book was about descriptions of animals and scenery.
jlworley's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. It’s a great story but I did not enjoy the telling of it. I think I’d rather have read Antonina’s journals with a footnote to explain context here and there, than this retelling of it all. Read 2/3 then sort of skimmed the rest and read the epilogue to see what happened to everyone.