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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
historical fiction that immerses you into its place of origin and time period
I picked this book up expecting it to be shallow and simplistic, but I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn into the story.
Sarah's Key is written in a casual style that follows with mainstream novels. The characters are interesting, though some of them are a bit flat.
Sarah's Key is written in a casual style that follows with mainstream novels. The characters are interesting, though some of them are a bit flat.
The Holocaust was an absolutely horrific event in human history that should NEVER be forgotten.
That said, Sarah's Key was just... meh.
The alternating chapters between a young girl rounded up in Paris in 1942 and ex-pat-journalist-married-to-a-Frenchman Julia in the present day was an interesting juxtaposition, but once the stories intersected, we were solely granted Julia's POV, and her story just wasn't all that interesting. Or maybe it was just too realistic and depressing.
Several things really bugged me -They all took away from what worked well, which was Sarah's story. I would have liked to read more of her story.
Sarah's story was heartbreaking and compelling at the same time. Julia's story was... not.
That said, Sarah's Key was just... meh.
The alternating chapters between a young girl rounded up in Paris in 1942 and ex-pat-journalist-married-to-a-Frenchman Julia in the present day was an interesting juxtaposition, but once the stories intersected, we were solely granted Julia's POV, and her story just wasn't all that interesting. Or maybe it was just too realistic and depressing.
Several things really bugged me -
Spoiler
Julia's willingness to accept blame for Bertrand's affair (really?), that the characters seemed so stereotypical and flat, the faux-suspense by not divulging Julia's new daughter's name until well after we all figured it out (we all figured out pretty much the entire trajectory of this novel about sixty pages in, didn't we?), and of course, the ending.Sarah's story was heartbreaking and compelling at the same time. Julia's story was... not.
I wish the author had focused more on Sarah’s life. If the entire book had been written from her perspective I would’ve enjoyed it more. I didn’t like Julia from the beginning, and never grew to like her.
I was greatly disappointed with this book. It has been on my TBR shelf for a while and historical fiction is my favorite genre so I was really looking forward to it. The premise behind it is solid and I wish that the entire book had followed Sarah from the beginning to end. I actually learned something new during Sarah's story. Instead, there is a modern story about Julia, a reporter who digs up Sarah's story from the past. Julia, and her husband, Bertrand, are selfish, predictable, one dimensional, tropey characters who are completely uninteresting and most of the book winds up being about them. The writing was also juvenile and dull. It seemed that the author mostly wanted talk about how snobby Parisians are more than anything else. The only reason why I didn't give this book one star is because the repeated theme is "we must never forget", a mantra with which I agree whole heartedly, not just about the Holocaust, but all history, especially in this modern age when we seem to be suffering from memory loss and digressing rapidly. Other than that, this book isn't worth your time.
Very disappointed in the writing style and the fiction of the story. I did appreciate the bits of historical info I got from it, as that was revealing.
Learned a lot, liked the pace, but could have done without all the predictable drama.
Sarah's Key is moving, emotional, informative, and an overall wonderful book. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. The author had a real flare for conveying life in another time and switching back and forth from that time to the present. The way she intertwined two stories was fascinating and done very, very well. Her character development was outstanding. I felt like I knew the narrators like old friends. My only complaint, while reading the book, was that the second half of the book did not use the voice of the person in the past any longer. It bothered me that I was only hearing from the contemporary voice. However, now that I've finished it, I realize this was brilliant. Because in actuality, the voice from the past was cut off from everyone in the story as well. I was feeling the same void that those in the story were feeling and this, to me now, was literary genious!!
Told from two perspectives that alternate chapter by chapter, this book is about 10-year-old Sarah whose family in Paris is torn apart by the Vel d'Hiv roundup of Jews in 1942 and 40-something Julia, a U.S. expat reporter living in Paris who is writing about the roundup for its 60th anniversary in 2002. While it's patently obvious from about the second or third chapter how their lives will intersect, watching it all unfold as you read it is still very interesting.
I really liked the short chapters to this book. It helped me feel like I was flying though it.
It's short a star because I'm just not sure I like the way it suddenly ended. It felt like something was left not said. I understand why, but it didn't give enough closure for me.
As for the story, I loved it. It touched a chord, taught me some history, and will forever stay with me.
It's short a star because I'm just not sure I like the way it suddenly ended. It felt like something was left not said. I understand why, but it didn't give enough closure for me.
As for the story, I loved it. It touched a chord, taught me some history, and will forever stay with me.