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A review by jolimelon
Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex: A Collection of Her Short Stories, Fables, and Lesser-Known Writings, Revised Edition by Anne Frank
3.0
I hadn’t realized upon first picking this up that many of the excerpts just came straight from her diary and occupy about half the book but I hadn’t read her diary in quite a long time so I didn’t mind it. She unfortunately didn’t have enough time to write many short stories so it would’ve been a terribly short book without the clips from her diary.
As for the actual short stories, they were very whimsical. It was pleasant to read that, in spite of everything, Ann had a fantastic imagination occupying her mind. Reading her short stories is a sobering reminder of how young Ann truly was, as they do read completely like the short stories written by a girl her age (which is not a bad thing). You can see the potential in her plots and how far she could’ve gone as a writer had she been given the time. It’s a very depressing reminder of just how short her life was cut.
All in all, there were times when it almost felt a little invasive to read this book since it’s all unedited and some are even left unfinished (and I remember how dire creative privacy felt as a 13 year old girl lol). However, I will say that for unpolished works these are still very well done stories and worth the read for anybody who has read Ann’s diary before.
As for the actual short stories, they were very whimsical. It was pleasant to read that, in spite of everything, Ann had a fantastic imagination occupying her mind. Reading her short stories is a sobering reminder of how young Ann truly was, as they do read completely like the short stories written by a girl her age (which is not a bad thing). You can see the potential in her plots and how far she could’ve gone as a writer had she been given the time. It’s a very depressing reminder of just how short her life was cut.
All in all, there were times when it almost felt a little invasive to read this book since it’s all unedited and some are even left unfinished (and I remember how dire creative privacy felt as a 13 year old girl lol). However, I will say that for unpolished works these are still very well done stories and worth the read for anybody who has read Ann’s diary before.