540 reviews for:

Ground Zero

Alan Gratz

4.35 AVERAGE

emotional informative fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional reflective sad tense fast-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
challenging emotional informative sad fast-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
adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I received an ARC of this book. Alan Gratz has a brilliant way of weaving stories and characters together. This reminded me a lot of Refuge. Middle grade books about 9/11 also sit with me as I was almost 11 when it happened. Similar in age to the characters in the middle grade novels. I appreciated the honesty in this book. Gratz does not sugar coat historical events in his books.
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the_scribe_owl's review

4.5

See this review and more at my blog, The Scribe Owl!

Thank you to Rockstar Book Tours for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4.5/5 stars

Alan Gratz has done it again! The events of 9/11 and all their repercussions were hauntingly portrayed in this stunner of a book. 9/11 was such a huge part of modern American history and seeing it happen like this felt both surreal and all too realistic. Reading the chapters that took place on that date felt a little like something one might read in a sci-fi book. They felt like nothing that could actually happen in our society. But at the same time, it was all too real. I myself was not anywhere near the Twin Towers when they fell, but 9/11 is infamous enough that I have heard much about it. I know enough that I knew what was coming next and cringing to anticipate it.

When reading about such a time in history, especially one so modern, it's hard to believe it's real. But 9/11 is very real, and our country bears the scars to prove it. This book touched me in a way that only historically-based books can. A gruesome and eerie story is one thing, but knowing it actually happened is completely something else and can totally change the reading experience.

On September 11, 2001, Brandon, a 9-year-old boy, goes to work for the day with his dad at the World Trade Center in New York City. When two planes hit the towers, Brandon and his father are trapped inside a fiery nightmare as terror and confusion swirl around them. Can they escape -- and what will the world be like when they do?

In present-day Afghanistan, Reshmina is an 11-year-old girl who is used to growing up in the shadow of war, but through it all she has dreams of peace and unity. When she ends up harboring a wounded young American soldier, she and her entire family are put in mortal danger. But Reshmina also learns something surprising about the roots of this endless war.

I was prepared to be wowed by the 9/11 part, but nothing could have prepared me for the part that takes place in Afghanistan. When thinking about the Afghanistan War, I always do so from the perspective of an American. We're stopping terrorists. We're trying to give the innocents that live there a better life. And that's true. But there is so much more that is happening that we chose not to notice. All the war is terrible for the Afghans, and the Americans are seen as that bad guys. It took me a second to wrap my head around that, but I can definitely see the perspective now.

As always, Alan Gratz hit us with another amazing novel. His books hit hard, and, while reading about terrorism is never fun, I appreciated and enjoyed the experience. This story is one that needs to be told, and I'm glad he did it.
adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

You can't go wrong with Alan Gratz. This book about 9/11 has two separate narratives: Brandon who is with his dad in the World Trade Center and Reshmina who lives with her family in Afghanistan in 2019 and lives in the shadow of the Taliban. This latest book of Gratz's ends each chapter with suspense and neatly weaves the two stories together.

https://maybesbooks.blogspot.com/2021/01/ground-zero-by-alan-gratz.html