Reviews

The Historians by Cecilia Ekbäck

thisismeandme's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

spaghetti75's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

duparker's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 Stars. Really enjoyable historic fiction/mystery. The feel of the book was very Scandinavian. It was sleek and cold with warmth hidden within. Well written and paced.

krobart's review against another edition

4.0

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022/02/08/review-1797-the-historians/

smalltownbookmom's review against another edition

2.0

Not your typical WWII historical fiction - much darker, noir-ish/Scandinavian in tone (think Stieg Larsson). It moves a bit slowly but the mystery does build to a pretty good climax. More of a mystery/suspense book than the usual historical fiction/romance type WWII story that I generally enjoy best.

laure24's review against another edition

2.0

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t. I was interested in learning about Sweden during World War II, but there were too many characters. The plot drags on and I kept expecting this exciting end, but it just never got there. It was easy to guess who the bad guys were and it just wasn’t super interesting.

guylou's review against another edition

4.0

reneesmith's review

4.0

I enjoyed this novel's noir-ish feel, which played out in my head like a 1930s or '40s Hollywood movie. (Think, The Mortal Storm where Margaret Sullavan & Jimmy Stewart play Germans hunted by the Nazis.) This well-researched story realistically portrays the characters' shock & despair as they discover how many folks around them agree with the Nazi eugenics philosophy. Their once-normal world has become a nightmare, where they experience one betrayal after another until a climax that nearly breaks them but also brings them hope. The build up at the beginning was a little too slow for me, but I'm glad I stuck with this quality mystery/thriller.

john_raine's review against another edition

3.0

This book picked up pace as it went along and was an enjoyable historical thriller. Bonus points for being set in Sweden, and I had not read a book set there previously.

jolietjane's review against another edition

With a DNF, there is always a build up for me. You start out by wishing the story would move faster- and at this point, everything slows down for you. So you start skimming, waiting for the interesting stuff....but it never comes, so you keep skimming, and then realize you are waisting your time.

I am rating this 3 years because this is meant for someone, but not me. I did give it the college try and made it 200 pages, a little under half the book. The Historians is fine, but it is VERY slow. The author of the book is clearly very passionate about Swedish history so theres a huge push in it to really comb the fine details of that- as well as talk a lot about Swedish government agencies and such. Basically, this is a history nerds book. The characters are not the strong suit here- interesting as they are on the surface. Theres good bones, but development of the characters and mystery were a snail's pace. The Historians is meant to provide an atmospheric world war 2 experience- and it does this very well.

Patience is a virtue and I am not patient.