The Quick Cut: A girl is trying to rebuild her life after the horrors of World War II, including chasing down the man responsible for the horrors she experienced.
A Real Review: Anyone who paid attention during history class in high school can probably remember the horrors of what happened during World War II. Between the Nazi's, concentration camps, and the genocidal regime, it was a terrible time period of pain for many across the globe. Even amongst those who survived what happened, they were left forever changed. If you were a survivor of WWII, how would you move on? For Eva, she would chase down the man responsible for the acts committed against her. Eva is a German girl who has come to America with her friend, Annemarie. Like anyone arriving in the United States, she is looking for a fresh start after her life was turned upside down by World War II. However, a new start isn't the only thing on Eva's mind. She is also frantically searching for the man responsible for the horrors that she experienced. While the CIA may think she is on their side and looking for the Nazi doctor for their own purposes, she plans to make him pay for what he has done. Inge, meanwhile, is a girl with the perfect German family. They are faithful believers in the new world order being created by Hitler and the Nazi regime. These two are seemingly on opposite sides of a historical battle, but will come together in an unexpected way. Will Eva find the doctor and get her revenge? Will Inge find out that her perfect childhood is darker than it looks on the outside? I've previously read this author's work before and was a big fan of her fantasy book, "The Forgetting". It's such a unique story and I found the mystery of it all intriguing. So when my Once Upon a Book Club box selected this historical fiction book that she recently published, I was definitely concerned that her writing style wouldn't translate into a good story in this genre. All my concerns went away fairly quickly as I started to read. Not only is her ability to paint a world still faithfully intact, but she also managed to create fascinating characters while continuing to follow the historical details of World War II. That is not an easy feat and beyond that, she even managed to select a particular topic within WWII that I had never heard about. She clearly not only has the ability to write, but also the ability to research and do her due diligence before writing material. Eva and Inge are the two characters that start out as our narrators - each one narrating a chapter after the other. Soon enough though, their perspectives meld together in a fun way for the reader, but a horrifying way for the characters. They are as opposite as they could possibly be and seeing those varying perspectives come together in an unexpected method made me only want to pay attention to the details even more. It made the reading experience fun on a new level. It also made me root even stronger for Eva to get the new life that she has so richly earned after the unspeakable things that have happened to her. Most importantly, this book is very much one giant trigger warning. Without going into too much detail, abuse occurs throughout with a cruelty that could only have been done by the most depraved minds. Not only were people malnourished and mistreated, they were used as experiments for their own sick purposes. Some of these experiments included mentally abusing people as well. If you're prepared to read this type of darkness on a general level, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. If you aren't ready to read about the type of atrocities that occurred though, I would select a different story that doesn't deal with such horrible acts. A powerful tale that highlights a lesser known horror that occurred during World War II. My rating: 5 out of 5