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A review by alykat_reads
Caging Skies by Christine Leunens
medium-paced
3.0
I initially started reading this because it was tagged for my Storygraph Reads the World 2025 Challenge: Belgium but it doesn't take long to realize this doesn't take place in Belgium at all, but in Vienna, Austria. So I will have to find a different book for that one.. But in any case...
It's sort of eerie reading historical fiction about Nazi times when it has been playing out in real life with those that are currently being like the Nazis were those that were victims of the Nazis themselves. It never ceases to amaze me though how the propaganda is designed to give people such a hatred and disgust of certain classes of people, but then how easily it is for them to 'fall in love' with them. Like it really didn't take long for Johannes to fall for Elsa, especially since he's part of the Hitler youth and was more than delighted to be rid of everyone who wasn't Aryan.
Once everything was said and done and Johannes learns what truly happened to his father and others in the concentration camps, I wish there would have been a little more self-reflection and realization about how he was on the wrong side. I think he took his 'relationship' (read: kidnapping) of Elsa as his ticket that he 'wasn't like that' anymore, but idk. The arc of going from a Hitler youth to him desiring beyond anything else to marry a Jewish girl without ever taking accountability that he did a horrendous thing was just too jarring. It's all told, not shown, so it was hard to feel like there was actually any reformation. Maybe that was intentional since I feel most 'former' Nazis didn't actually change their tune, they just didn't want to be murdered themselves. Much of this seemed improbable, and I'm not really sure how Elsa went from unable to stand or do anything to being healthy again? One minute she's on her death bed from being locked in such a small dark space with hardly any food or water, but then the next minute she's getting plump again. Idk, too many jumps in plot without filling in how we got from point A to B.
It's sort of eerie reading historical fiction about Nazi times when it has been playing out in real life with those that are currently being like the Nazis were those that were victims of the Nazis themselves. It never ceases to amaze me though how the propaganda is designed to give people such a hatred and disgust of certain classes of people, but then how easily it is for them to 'fall in love' with them. Like it really didn't take long for Johannes to fall for Elsa, especially since he's part of the Hitler youth and was more than delighted to be rid of everyone who wasn't Aryan.
Once everything was said and done and Johannes learns what truly happened to his father and others in the concentration camps, I wish there would have been a little more self-reflection and realization about how he was on the wrong side. I think he took his 'relationship' (read: kidnapping) of Elsa as his ticket that he 'wasn't like that' anymore, but idk. The arc of going from a Hitler youth to him desiring beyond anything else to marry a Jewish girl without ever taking accountability that he did a horrendous thing was just too jarring. It's all told, not shown, so it was hard to feel like there was actually any reformation. Maybe that was intentional since I feel most 'former' Nazis didn't actually change their tune, they just didn't want to be murdered themselves. Much of this seemed improbable, and I'm not really sure how Elsa went from unable to stand or do anything to being healthy again? One minute she's on her death bed from being locked in such a small dark space with hardly any food or water, but then the next minute she's getting plump again. Idk, too many jumps in plot without filling in how we got from point A to B.