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bruacioly 's review for:
A Boy in Winter
by Rachel Seiffert
I appreciate what this book was trying to do, but ultimately I don't think it achieved anything other than being yet another WWII Holocaust story. Admittedly, I am not the intended audience for those type of stories, since I have come to learn I am not a fan of Historical Fiction and I am certainly not a fan of WWII fiction (with some exceptions, mainly "classics" of this subgenre like The Book Thief and The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas). I just feel that more often than not these types of books and stories are emotionally exploitive and don't really add anything to the conversation.
I understand it is important to remember and learn from the past, but at the end of the day, I don't need those negative stories in my life (though some of them do end with a hint of hope for the future, this one included).
This book is different than other WWII in the sense that it takes place in 1940s Ukraine, which is a perspective I personally had never seen before, and it follows several characters, some Jews, some Germans, some farmers, some soldiers. It is interesting to see how they all interact with each other. There are the Jews who are marching to their deaths without realizing it until the last moment; there are the boys who ran from the German soldiers and the girl who unwilling helps them; there is the German engineer trying to avoid working for something he despises; there is the soldier boy who is in for something he didn't expect when joining the forces... All of these stories are connected and it is nice to see the pieces falling through in the end.
However, I did not really feel a connection to any of the characters, and throughout most of the novel, I felt that the story was going nowhere. It felt like it didn't really have a point. I don't think the story benefited from the audiobook narration either, it is probably too quiet a story for that. I prefer my audiobooks to be a bit more fast-paced.
In the end, I am not sure I can recommend it, though I know that a lot of people have enjoyed it, so for the right reader, it might be the perfect story. It is definitely well written enough for that. It just wasn't for me.
I understand it is important to remember and learn from the past, but at the end of the day, I don't need those negative stories in my life (though some of them do end with a hint of hope for the future, this one included).
This book is different than other WWII in the sense that it takes place in 1940s Ukraine, which is a perspective I personally had never seen before, and it follows several characters, some Jews, some Germans, some farmers, some soldiers. It is interesting to see how they all interact with each other. There are the Jews who are marching to their deaths without realizing it until the last moment; there are the boys who ran from the German soldiers and the girl who unwilling helps them; there is the German engineer trying to avoid working for something he despises; there is the soldier boy who is in for something he didn't expect when joining the forces... All of these stories are connected and it is nice to see the pieces falling through in the end.
However, I did not really feel a connection to any of the characters, and throughout most of the novel, I felt that the story was going nowhere. It felt like it didn't really have a point. I don't think the story benefited from the audiobook narration either, it is probably too quiet a story for that. I prefer my audiobooks to be a bit more fast-paced.
In the end, I am not sure I can recommend it, though I know that a lot of people have enjoyed it, so for the right reader, it might be the perfect story. It is definitely well written enough for that. It just wasn't for me.