Reviews

Weird War Two: Strange Facts and Tales from the World's Weirdest Conflict by Richard Denham, M.J. Trow

verityw's review against another edition

1.0

I remain confused about who this is for. It reminded me of kids history books (like horrible histories but less funny) in some ways but some of the topics covered are not really in that sort of territory. I know it's meant to be quirky facts and humorous and the author said at the start that there weren't going to be sources and citations, but the omission even of a bibliography or a further reading list meant that I felt it lacked factual heft - particularly as the author has a habit of throwing in a big assertion or key fact right at the end of an entry and then just leaving it hanging. Also I think this might have been better served by being grouped by theme rather than alphabetically because it lead to some weird tonal shifts - going from quirkier things (weird ideas for bombs that didn't come off) to the grim (concentration camps) at the turn of a page. I think there's a good idea here - and other people have clearly enjoyed it - I just think it fails in the execution. Also could have used better proof reading and less use of exclamation marks for bad things.

****Copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review

canary20's review

2.0

I am not sure how I feel about this book. I received this book as an ARC for my honest review. It was hard to get through in parts, there were parts that were just fascinating. Felt very jumbled.