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mandi4886's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Sexism, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and War
frenandjen's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Xenophobia, Child abuse, War, Antisemitism, Death, Deportation, Genocide, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Colonisation, and Violence
Minor: Alcohol and Sexual content
lou_ka's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was one of my favorite books this year!
For the first few pages, I was unsure if the story would catch me, but it did and was an emotional story that stuck in my head. The characters were all portrayed as complex individuals without clear-cut good or bad traits. The book effectively conveyed the idea that "good" people can make "bad" choices and that even small actions can significantly impact someone's life (positively and negatively).
While the book adequately described the horrors caused by the Germans during the war, it also showed that these people were not entirely evil but rather human beings who could, under certain circumstances, do good things. The book was not a simple black-and-white portrayal of good versus evil but rather a nuanced exploration of the complexities of human nature. Of course, this does not mean that the good outweighs the bad, and I do not want to defend any of the atrocities committed during the war. I just think that depicting all Germans during the war as evil is easy, but understanding that these people were "ordinary" humans like you and me is harder but actually closer to the truth, and understanding this means understanding it can happen again, and we should never stop to remind and learn from this past and fight fascism.
But back to the book: It was a great story of people the fought the nazis by delivering books to Jewish people no longer allowed to enter the library during that time. It showed that small actions like this might not change the suppression but can positively impact those suppressed. But what I actually loved most about the book was the background story of the author, who worked at the library described in the story and did excellent research to remind us that ordinary people rebel against the regime with small things. Additionally, it adequately captures that relationships, family, friends, and love are complicated, and saying sorry and forgiving is even harder.
For the first few pages, I was unsure if the story would catch me, but it did and was an emotional story that stuck in my head. The characters were all portrayed as complex individuals without clear-cut good or bad traits. The book effectively conveyed the idea that "good" people can make "bad" choices and that even small actions can significantly impact someone's life (positively and negatively).
While the book adequately described the horrors caused by the Germans during the war, it also showed that these people were not entirely evil but rather human beings who could, under certain circumstances, do good things. The book was not a simple black-and-white portrayal of good versus evil but rather a nuanced exploration of the complexities of human nature. Of course, this does not mean that the good outweighs the bad, and I do not want to defend any of the atrocities committed during the war. I just think that depicting all Germans during the war as evil is easy, but understanding that these people were "ordinary" humans like you and me is harder but actually closer to the truth, and understanding this means understanding it can happen again, and we should never stop to remind and learn from this past and fight fascism.
But back to the book: It was a great story of people the fought the nazis by delivering books to Jewish people no longer allowed to enter the library during that time. It showed that small actions like this might not change the suppression but can positively impact those suppressed. But what I actually loved most about the book was the background story of the author, who worked at the library described in the story and did excellent research to remind us that ordinary people rebel against the regime with small things. Additionally, it adequately captures that relationships, family, friends, and love are complicated, and saying sorry and forgiving is even harder.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
ruffian23's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Grief, War, Violence, Deportation, Genocide, Hate crime, Police brutality, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
samantha_bt15's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Religious bigotry
lindsayvale's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
megelizabeth's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
"She crossed the Seine. There was not another soul on the vast Place de la Concorde, not a single car motoring down the Champs-Élysées, France’s grandest traffic hazard. In the liveliest city in the world, she could hear a hairpin drop. The stillness was strange. She’d never felt so alone."
For most of the way through, I was, aside from a few niggles, really enjoying this book. I found both Odile's and Lily's characters interesting and well-fleshed-out, and loved that we get to follow several years in both timelines, so it really feels as if you get sucked right into their lives. There's a great cast of supporting characters too, and I enjoyed following the development of several of the relationships. I particularly loved the strong focus on friendship and community. The book is also rich with historical detail, and provides brilliant and insightful domestic perspectives to both the Second World War and the Cold War. In particular, of course, it shines a light on the American Library of Paris and what went on there during the former war, a chapter of history I previously knew nothing at all about.
However, I unfortunately came away feeling slightly disappointed. Firstly, the blurb misleads you to think there's going to be a prior connection linking Odile and Lily, whereas this link turns out to be so ridiculously tenuous that it's just infuriating. It would've been so much better not to pretend there's such a link in the first place, as the story would've worked fine without it and I wouldn't have gone in with the wrong expectations.
I also really didn't like the way the end of Odile's time in France and decision to move to the US was dealt with. I understand the historical social context and the expectations placed upon women at this time, and the added heightened emotions associated with wartime, but it still wasn't believable to me that Odile would've felt so strongly the way she apparently does, and made the decisions she does. At the very least, these elements could've been addressed in the chapters set in the later timeline, but they aren't and that really frustrated me, especially as the book otherwise contains a lot of great messages (though it does also briefly romanticise adult-minor relationships and is pretty uncritical of the police).
Finally - and this is more of a personal gripe - I didn't know until I read the author's note at the end that Odile's colleagues at the library are all fictionalised versions of real people, i.e. using their real names and known elements of their life stories, and that's something I really don't like in historical fiction and that makes me very uncomfortable. As well as the issues discussed above, this also made me look back on the storyline running through the earlier timeline in a very different way, and consequently I came away much preferring Lily's later coming-of-age story to the story of the wartime Paris Library, which is such a shame as, despite my feelings towards the way it ended, I did for the most part enjoy younger Odile's story, and it has a lot of great elements and is at times very cleverly-told. It's just a shame that things weren't wrapped up in a more fitting and less harmful way.
For most of the way through, I was, aside from a few niggles, really enjoying this book. I found both Odile's and Lily's characters interesting and well-fleshed-out, and loved that we get to follow several years in both timelines, so it really feels as if you get sucked right into their lives. There's a great cast of supporting characters too, and I enjoyed following the development of several of the relationships. I particularly loved the strong focus on friendship and community. The book is also rich with historical detail, and provides brilliant and insightful domestic perspectives to both the Second World War and the Cold War. In particular, of course, it shines a light on the American Library of Paris and what went on there during the former war, a chapter of history I previously knew nothing at all about.
However, I unfortunately came away feeling slightly disappointed. Firstly, the blurb misleads you to think there's going to be a prior connection linking Odile and Lily, whereas this link turns out to be so ridiculously tenuous that it's just infuriating. It would've been so much better not to pretend there's such a link in the first place, as the story would've worked fine without it and I wouldn't have gone in with the wrong expectations.
I also really didn't like the way the end of Odile's time in France and decision to move to the US was dealt with. I understand the historical social context and the expectations placed upon women at this time, and the added heightened emotions associated with wartime, but it still wasn't believable to me that Odile would've felt so strongly the way she apparently does, and made the decisions she does. At the very least, these elements could've been addressed in the chapters set in the later timeline, but they aren't and that really frustrated me, especially as the book otherwise contains a lot of great messages (though it does also briefly romanticise adult-minor relationships and is pretty uncritical of the police).
Finally - and this is more of a personal gripe - I didn't know until I read the author's note at the end that Odile's colleagues at the library are all fictionalised versions of real people, i.e. using their real names and known elements of their life stories, and that's something I really don't like in historical fiction and that makes me very uncomfortable. As well as the issues discussed above, this also made me look back on the storyline running through the earlier timeline in a very different way, and consequently I came away much preferring Lily's later coming-of-age story to the story of the wartime Paris Library, which is such a shame as, despite my feelings towards the way it ended, I did for the most part enjoy younger Odile's story, and it has a lot of great elements and is at times very cleverly-told. It's just a shame that things weren't wrapped up in a more fitting and less harmful way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, War, Racism, Antisemitism, and Violence
Moderate: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Child death
ginadapooh's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Cancer, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, Bullying, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Antisemitism, Grief, War, and Toxic friendship
cranewife's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Rape and Bullying
tojtwl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really love historical fiction, and I love the setting of this book, especially when you go down Odile's timeline. I just found it bothersome that, it switched around many viewpoints. I mean, I get switching between Odile's and Lily's. That's necessary for the story to happen. But then you have some of the characters who only appear once, or the story gets told from their perspective only once, can throw the read off a little bit. Still, it's a good book and one I recommend especially for historical fiction lovers.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Police brutality