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A review by lawbooks600
Once by Morris Gleitzman
4.0
Trigger warnings: Death of parents, gun violence, blood depiction, antisemitism, World War Two, near-death experiences, fire
Note that I got this book and now I own it.
7/10, so this is the first book of a seven book series and initially I had no idea of what this book was going to be but other people have enjoyed this and seeing this classified as a war book I knew it was going to hit hard like a truck, and overall I did like the execution and how the author could do so much in not a lot of pages which is impressive. Where do I begin? It starts with the main character Felix and he lives in a Catholic orphanage with other orphans like him and some other orphaned characters however for some reason he believes that his parents are still out there somewhere and they will come back but other children came to that orphanage since their parents died somehow so that was an interesting plot point I guess. And he's Jewish and given the circumstances like the year 1942 it's just a horrible time to live in and it's even worse for him only due to his religion which was disheartening but all too real but at least I liked how every chapter started with the word Once hence the title. That's an intriguing stylistic choice I suppose. Only a few pages later he starts on his journey by first escaping from the orphanage most likely to find his parents, did I mention that I liked Felix as a character since at the start he tells many stories to hide the truth however as I move on this isn't the case. Partway through that he meets another character named Zelda who must've been a victim of an attack that happened recently in her neighbourhood since her house was burned down for some reason and soon enough they get along even though their character dynamic is not perfect I'm sure that choice made the book more realistic in a way. The ending is only ok since there was one action scene but the book was a difficult read and the final pages were just weaker than the rest. Wow. I will surely read the next six books in the series and they might be as good as the first.
Note that I got this book and now I own it.
7/10, so this is the first book of a seven book series and initially I had no idea of what this book was going to be but other people have enjoyed this and seeing this classified as a war book I knew it was going to hit hard like a truck, and overall I did like the execution and how the author could do so much in not a lot of pages which is impressive. Where do I begin? It starts with the main character Felix and he lives in a Catholic orphanage with other orphans like him and some other orphaned characters however for some reason he believes that his parents are still out there somewhere and they will come back but other children came to that orphanage since their parents died somehow so that was an interesting plot point I guess. And he's Jewish and given the circumstances like the year 1942 it's just a horrible time to live in and it's even worse for him only due to his religion which was disheartening but all too real but at least I liked how every chapter started with the word Once hence the title. That's an intriguing stylistic choice I suppose. Only a few pages later he starts on his journey by first escaping from the orphanage most likely to find his parents, did I mention that I liked Felix as a character since at the start he tells many stories to hide the truth however as I move on this isn't the case. Partway through that he meets another character named Zelda who must've been a victim of an attack that happened recently in her neighbourhood since her house was burned down for some reason and soon enough they get along even though their character dynamic is not perfect I'm sure that choice made the book more realistic in a way. The ending is only ok since there was one action scene but the book was a difficult read and the final pages were just weaker than the rest. Wow. I will surely read the next six books in the series and they might be as good as the first.