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kingserasera 's review for:
The Librarian of Auschwitz
by Antonio Iturbe
I struggled with what to rate this book. I really liked it, for a lot of reasons: I really liked the fact that it was based on a true story about a side of Auschwitz I didn’t know anything about - the family camp created for propaganda to show to international observers, the school for children within the family camp, and the young woman who lovingly protected their library of 8 forbidden booms. I really liked that (unlike the truly terrible book The Tattooist of Auschwitz and many other YA Holocaust novels) this book didn’t flinch away from the true horrors of the camp and described the pain, suffering, terror, and death that the prisoners, even those in the “family camp” were subjected to. I really liked that it told stories of successful and unsuccessful resistance. But, the story felt choppy to me. I think the book tried to do too much, tell too many stories, and be too expository all at once. I think using the omniscient narrator didn’t help, the writing style seemed to swing between factual and prosaic too quickly without any reason. This is also a translated book, so perhaps some of the choppiness is due to the translation. Overall, though it was a really good read and a really important addition to YA fiction about the Holocaust. If this is a continuing trend in the field, I look forward to more successful offerings in the genre.