A review by authoraugust
The Silence of Trees by Valya Dudycz Lupescu

5.0

Let this book be an example for all of those who claim I only hate Twilight and Eragon because of the bad grammar and poor punctuation. Lupescu's book was amazing. Normally, historical fiction is not up my alley, because it was how I learned history in my years homeschooling (and was therefore a chore and not a pleasure). However, this book was very much grounded in the emotional journey of the main character, who was startlingly empathetic for being someone I would dislike in real life. And amidst all of the well-researched and well-crafted story, a host of grammatical and punctuation errors lurked. Though I noticed them now and then, it was much less of a distraction than it is when the content of the writing is just as terrible.

I learned a lot from Nadya and her journey. I cried a lot along the way - beware, this is a three-tissue-box book - but I also drew a lot of strength and encouragement from the lessons Nadya learned. This is a perfect example of how fiction can teach so much more than any non-fiction self-help volume.