Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, Lilit Žekulin Thwaites

8 reviews

tetedump's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation

gohan's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

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As the librarian, Dita is responsible for keeping the books which are an escape in such a dark time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Antisemitism, Death of parent

Moderate: Torture, War

Minor: Medical content

teacupsandfirereads's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Ooof, that was a tough one. It is dark, heavy and very atmospherical/vivid. I understand that this is what may make it so great for some. For me, it was just a bit much. But I one hundred percent understand the privilege I have in saying this. I enjoyed the story and Dita as a character. The story was multidimensional as were the characters. The translation was done very well; it read like it was written in English. What surprises me is that this is listed as young adult. with the writing style, details and description, I would not say it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Torture, Antisemitism

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, War

Minor: Cursing, Rape, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Classism, Deportation

rachjaki744's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, Classism

grandslamdenny's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional inspiring sad 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: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War

Moderate: Suicide, Excrement, Medical content

Minor: Incest, Racial slurs, Sexism, Grief, Sexual harassment

delz's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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It must not be an easy task to write a respectful yet entertaining Holocaust story, but The Librarian of Auschwitz is one such novel. The framework of the story is based on a real Jewish girl, Dita Kraus who was 9 years old when the Nazis started their “final solution.” As a 15 year old, Dita became the Librarian of Auschwitz’s, very secret makeshift library that held 8 books. She was part of a secret school in the only camp that housed children, The Family Camp. It was a “front,” so that if a humanitarian group like the Red Cross were to do inspections the Nazis would show this camp where, they believed they were treating the inmates well. Many times survival was just a matter of chance, but on occasion if you were very clever you could workout a way to survive another day. While people lost faith in god and even their fellow man, someone would come along and surprise Dita in their humanity. This is a powerful story of strength and love, love of family and the power of friendship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Antisemitism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War

enmcurrie's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-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: Complicated

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This was such a powerful and beautiful book. It wasn’t without flaws, but that didn’t matter. The core of the story carried all the way through. The pace is quite slow but it definitely picks up towards the end, and the last 100 pages are definitely the most harrowing. While at times it was a little hard to completely follow along, everything threaded together by the end to create such a bittersweet storyline. It’s based on this young girl, Dita Kraus, or Dita Adler in the book, who ends up running this secret little “library” made up of 8 old books in Aushwitz, in a makeshift Jewish family camp, set up by the Nazis as a front to cover up the atrocious mass murdering they were doing from any visiting foreign representatives. Many of Dita’s peers and Dita herself do end up being transferred or moved around later on though. In the background of the plot, the book also follows a couple of young men in the SS (also real people) who manage to escape Aushwitz and its horrors.
What was so emotive about this book is how of all these poor people (from children to elderly), in the most dire and horrific of circumstances, could find happiness in the smallest of things. I also loved the message that humans simply surviving is not enough, and that we need things like literature to keep humanity alive, hence why 8 old and tattered books in a place as awful as Aushwitz-Birkenau was so important. It was incredibly sad and heart-wrenching throughout, and hard to read at times. The vivid imagery of the concentration camps and the novel’s use of free indirect speech allowing you into the other characters’ thought processes made it incredibly compelling, and knowing that so many of them don’t end up with the freedom they deserve is the worst part. I think it’s a wonderful read and all of the characters were great, but Dita will most definitely stay with me for a long time. I’m very glad she could tell her story, she’s truly remarkable. The ending was beautiful. It left you feeling incredibly sad for all the loss Dita had faced, but incredibly relieved and content that she achieved all that she did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Torture, Antisemitism, Death of parent, War

Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide

risemini's review against another edition

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the cover is like the prettiest i own but nothing is happening im bored so

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Torture, Antisemitism, Medical content, War