Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I would give this 3.5 stars if I could. The writing was ok but it was difficult to get attached to the characters until about 1/2 way through.
Very emotional - need to be silent and breath for a bit after finishing this one
Very emotional - need to be silent and breath for a bit after finishing this one
‘She had cried wolf and the wolf had come.’
July 1940, in the mist of the second world war, eleven year old Lydia, an escaped evacuee, she has returned to her home in a small village on the Suffolk coast. Searching for her family, young Lydia soon finds herself alone in a town that seems nothing like it once did. All the doors and windows are boarded up and there isn’t a soul to be found.
Finding her way home, Lydia soon realizes that her family are no where to be found and that she is rather alone, more so than she had thought. After searching the cottage fully, Lydia soon gathers a few things up and goes to the attic where she shuts and bolts the small door, essentially locking herself away before her mind starts to wonder over things, it doesn’t take long for Lydia to decide that she would return to Wales the next day.
When she wakes the next day, Lydia is suddenly aware of someone moving about the house downstairs, she listens and waits before moving to sit under the window, it’s not long before the attic hatch starts to rattle with the strangers attempt to enter.
As a young girl, all alone, Lydia fears and clamps her hand over her mouth to stay silent until the person’s footsteps returns to the lower parts of the house. It’s not long after that, that Lydia pick the courage up and starts to remove the ottoman covering the hatch and creep out and through the house.
This is where Lydia finds the man, sat in the darkness of the living room, she finds herself suddenly at the end of a pistol which is pointed straight at her before a light lights the room up.
Lydia lies and tells the man that her family would be home any moment, but the man seems to already know that they wont before he orders her to bed, a place Lydia quickly escapes too, afraid and shaking.
It’s the next day when she wakes to the man sitting in her room, his pistol in his hand still and just staring before he flies in to action, grabbing a suitcase and starts to pile her clothing in before dragging her to the door. He pauses and changes his mind, pulling poor Lydia back inside and in a instant Lydia is being held hostage inside her own home.
It quickly becomes clear that the man is a German, he tells her that more men are coming and that they need to prepare the house for them.
Over the next five days, Lydia and the German learn more about each other and it soon appears that the man knows a lot more about Lydia and her family than she first realized. With the German man a constant presence in the house, Lydia takes to watching him at all hours until his motives come true, he’s gathering the papers of Lydia’s father to use as a way of getting across the line.
The adventure to cross goes wrong and both the German and Lydia ends back up at the house, hiding away in the attic where Lydia finally gets to know how the German solider knows so much about her and her family.
The Dynamite Room is a novel which captures your attention and drags you deep within the pages, making you feel almost like you are there in the story yourself. It explores the relationship between a man and a child, a German and a British in a time where they were fighting a world war.
The book is filled with moments of tense and dramatic moments, causing the reader to keep turning the page.
The Dynamite Room is a novel which holds plenty of surprises and enough drama to keep the story from going dry, it’s the perfect novel for anyone who enjoys books set during the second world war.
A true 10/10 stars for the author, Jason Hewitt. The Dynamite Room is his first novel.
‘She had cried wolf and the wolf had come.’
July 1940, in the mist of the second world war, eleven year old Lydia, an escaped evacuee, she has returned to her home in a small village on the Suffolk coast. Searching for her family, young Lydia soon finds herself alone in a town that seems nothing like it once did. All the doors and windows are boarded up and there isn’t a soul to be found.
Finding her way home, Lydia soon realizes that her family are no where to be found and that she is rather alone, more so than she had thought. After searching the cottage fully, Lydia soon gathers a few things up and goes to the attic where she shuts and bolts the small door, essentially locking herself away before her mind starts to wonder over things, it doesn’t take long for Lydia to decide that she would return to Wales the next day.
When she wakes the next day, Lydia is suddenly aware of someone moving about the house downstairs, she listens and waits before moving to sit under the window, it’s not long before the attic hatch starts to rattle with the strangers attempt to enter.
As a young girl, all alone, Lydia fears and clamps her hand over her mouth to stay silent until the person’s footsteps returns to the lower parts of the house. It’s not long after that, that Lydia pick the courage up and starts to remove the ottoman covering the hatch and creep out and through the house.
This is where Lydia finds the man, sat in the darkness of the living room, she finds herself suddenly at the end of a pistol which is pointed straight at her before a light lights the room up.
Lydia lies and tells the man that her family would be home any moment, but the man seems to already know that they wont before he orders her to bed, a place Lydia quickly escapes too, afraid and shaking.
It’s the next day when she wakes to the man sitting in her room, his pistol in his hand still and just staring before he flies in to action, grabbing a suitcase and starts to pile her clothing in before dragging her to the door. He pauses and changes his mind, pulling poor Lydia back inside and in a instant Lydia is being held hostage inside her own home.
It quickly becomes clear that the man is a German, he tells her that more men are coming and that they need to prepare the house for them.
Over the next five days, Lydia and the German learn more about each other and it soon appears that the man knows a lot more about Lydia and her family than she first realized. With the German man a constant presence in the house, Lydia takes to watching him at all hours until his motives come true, he’s gathering the papers of Lydia’s father to use as a way of getting across the line.
The adventure to cross goes wrong and both the German and Lydia ends back up at the house, hiding away in the attic where Lydia finally gets to know how the German solider knows so much about her and her family.
The Dynamite Room is a novel which captures your attention and drags you deep within the pages, making you feel almost like you are there in the story yourself. It explores the relationship between a man and a child, a German and a British in a time where they were fighting a world war.
The book is filled with moments of tense and dramatic moments, causing the reader to keep turning the page.
The Dynamite Room is a novel which holds plenty of surprises and enough drama to keep the story from going dry, it’s the perfect novel for anyone who enjoys books set during the second world war.
A true 10/10 stars for the author, Jason Hewitt. The Dynamite Room is his first novel.
medium-paced
Actually read this on holiday after Covenant of Death. Set in Suffolk, there is a touch of the lost village in Devon when a girl returns from Wales after being bullied as an evacuee. She finds a man in her deserted house which is at the edge of her deserted village. He is a German, but strangely he knows her name and other family details ...
Not strictly, strictly, a crime book I know, but contains more than enough thought-provoking psychological suspense to keep any reader satisfied. With the claustrophobic setting of two completely contrasting characters confined within a contained space for the majority of the book, Hewitt completely immerses us in the issues of morality and loyalty that come into play in times of conflict. By using the setting of Lydia’s home, but carefully interweaving details of the background of both characters, there is much mileage to be had in manipulating and changing the reader’s empathy as piece by piece certain details are revealed- particularly in the case of Heiden’s former experiences. In the characterisation of both, Hewitt more than demonstrates his authorial control, and the pace of this meditative and at times lyrically written plot, carries the reader along effortlessly. With his background in acting, there is a very visual quality to his description, and Lydia’s home in particular is tangible and real, taking on a character of its own. I have one small grievance. I wish that the book had been concluded at the end of the penultimate chapter which was mighty powerful and caused more than a sharp inhalation of breath, as I do have a personal aversion to ‘wrap-up’ final chapters. However, the prose style of the book, which I found very reminiscent of the Irish literary style ( a la Toibin, Trevor etc), the depth of research, and beautifully drawn characters, were completely satisfying. Excellent.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
An interesting premise but I think there were just too many strands that didn't exactly work. It was overly long and not really suspenseful enough to keep my interest. Some of the more interesting allusions, especially around Lydia's brother and Button the refugee, were skipped over, while other parts were dragged out too much when they didn't need to be. I found it difficult to warm to either of the protagonists too and didn't particularly like Heiden at all, especially when the more unseemly parts of his character were revealed.
wow, depressing! The story took simultaneously too long and not long enough to reveal the protagonists' secrets. And I never quite connected with either one.