Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Forest of Vanishing Stars

Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

19 reviews

erma_z's review against another edition

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4.0

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

I'm an absolute sucker for a Holocaust story, and this one was superb. It's based on real people and events even though the main people are fictional which opens up the door for this amazing, badass main character Yona. She has a birthmark in the shape of a dove and one green eye and one blue (definitely some symbolism going on there) and is stolen from her Nazi parents when she's two by an old Jewish woman who lives in the woods. Yona gives major Katniss Everdeen vibes, teaching the runaway Jews she encounters how to survive in the wilderness on their own but ends up finding family along the way. She truly is one of the most badass female characters I think I've read in a while, and I really appreciated that I don't think anyone, especially the love interests, told her how beautiful she was. The compliments were about how strong, capable, and impressive she is (because she is).

The blurb on the summary says it's great for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but I can assure you this book is LIGHTYEARS better than that monstrosity. It's way better researched and the romance parts are soooo much less cheesy. It's still not award-winning, gorgeous prose, but it moves quickly, and has some pretty great twists near the end. I also absolutely love the symbolism that comes from the book's title.

It's also an aspect of the Holocaust that I knew nothing about and haven't see this perspective before. The author mentions in her author's note that the main group she based a lot of the story on was covered in a 1993 nonfiction book and a 2008 movie, but I've never seen them. Basically, there were thousands of Jews who hid from the Nazis in the woods, and some were really successful, including giant communities. I also haven't learned before about any of the ways that the Jews fought back, so that was a really refreshing change of pace from the other Holocaust novels I've read that are primarily straight up depressing. I love depressing in a book btw, it was just nice to see this population that always gets shit on get some revenge and be shown as more than victims.

Quotes:

She was not Jerusza's--she never had been, and she knew that now. But neither was she her German father's. She belonged only to herself, a dove of the dark forest, the forest that called to her now. (270)
Full dark had fallen, but the sky was clear, and a half moon lit their way, the stars tiny pin pricks of light and a blackening sky. The children all looked up and awe, and even Leon, who at 70 was the oldest among them, side and contentment. "It has been many months since we've fully seen the stars," He said, and the group murmured their assent. "You can hardly make them out above the trees. They disappeared even the forest, don't they?"
"So do we, if we're lucky," Moshe said, and a few of the others laughed.
"Yes," Leon said, tapping his trust, we're once upon a time, the star of David had marked him as a lesser citizen, as a target for elimination. But the forest knew no difference when it came to race, religion, or gender; it smiled and frowned upon all of them in equal measure, sometimes providing protection, sometimes peril. "By the grace of God, maybe we all be vanishing stars." (293)
"Who are you here?" He touched her chest, just above her left breast, and then he left his palm against her skin. She could feel her heart beating against his hand..."You are a warrior. You are a hero, and a fighter, and a savior. You are a caretaker and a lifegiver." (321)
She hadn't it was happening, but somehow along the way, they had all become her family, each and every one of these refugees. She had thought she was teaching them how to live, but now she realized that in many ways, she had been the student all along. (336-37)

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emileereadsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative tense 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? Yes

3.25

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook.

I have three different opinions of this book. The beginning was meh, the middle I liked, and the ending I really liked. So I landed on that I liked this book.

This is a part of WWII history I have not read before. Set in the forest of Eastern Europe, Yona is a young woman who was stolen from her wealthy German parents at a young age and raised in the wilderness. After her defacto mother figure dies, she comes across some Jews fleeing the Nazis and feels the tug to help them survive. I found this premise fascinating. But the back story of Yona felt stilted and I didn't feel connected to her as a character. Once she met the Jews she was trying to save I started to like her more but still I felt that I was lacking a connection to her character. In the end she became more fleshed out and I began to understand her more. Now, I know that the connection to her character progressing like this over the novel is in fact probably a writing choice and acts as symbolism for the growth of the character, but it made me feel disconnected and it was hard to keep reading in the beginning.

The author's note at the end was perhaps the most fascinating part of the book, but I was missing that spark of authenticity until I read that author's note. I think more of that feeling could have been infused in the story.

*Shallow quibble. This title and the cover do not fit this book at all. Great title, but does not work for this book.

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