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sarahflanders's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Antisemitism
Moderate: Child death, Excrement, Murder, Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Death, Genocide, Infertility, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and War
kayladaila's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The protagonist of The Light in Hidden Places is a Christian Pole who hides 13 Jewish people during the Holocaust. This is her story, and the Jews become a plot device to further that story, rather than its focal point. Throughout the novel, Stefania refers to the people she is hiding as “my thirteen,” removing any individual identity they have outside of how it relates to the nonJewish protagonist. These characters are truly hidden from the readers unless Stefania needs one of them.
It is also evident that Sharon Cameron did quite a bit of research on everything Polish, but very little Jewish. At the beginning of the story, Stefania is taken in by a Jewish family and learns some Yiddish. Later on, she tries to provide the people she is hiding with a small Hanukkah celebration, she refers to a Hanukkah lamp. Not a menorah, not a hanukiah. It’s clear which culture Cameron paid attention to.
I’d like to reiterate that if this was Stefania Podgorska’s nonfiction story, I would not have had these issues. It’s only with a fictionalized retelling, where the author could have made an effort to create three-dimensional Jewish characters and actively chose not to, that I take issue.
Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Infertility, Murder, Religious bigotry, and War
Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Death of parent, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, and Physical abuse
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape