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A review by cabeswaeter
The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew
4.0
I didn't really expect to like this as much as I did. (probably because of the cover)
Anyways, the whole alternate universe is relaly interesting, and it's really interesting to see ho Jessikas opinion on her nation changes. She's 100% Nazi and being fed propaganda all the time, but slowly we see that Clementine manages to turn her mindset a bit and then Jess can figure it out on her own.
This book is very honest. We don't get a happy ending. We get something in between. It's not tragic, she's fine and well there's a lot of stuff in her life that she coul've had if she was born in our world, but she doesn't because she isn't. I think it makes such an impact that the ending isn't fixing everything, because it can't judt be fixed like /that/. Snap. Done. Everything is alright. That's not how it works and this book really shows that. (It's not that I'm against happy endings,but there's never really a revolution in this book so it seems weird to put one into the epilogue and pretend that's how easy it is to overthrow a controlling government. And the author did not do that.)
I also really liked how we have several queer characters. Good representation, and also good for showing how someone feels when they're trying to hide a part of who they are, which people today are forced to.
This is a different WW2 story, but it's not just a picture of how the world would have looked if Germany won the war, it's a picture of how the world looks. Not the same places or the same people, but the same kind of issues.
Anyways, the whole alternate universe is relaly interesting, and it's really interesting to see ho Jessikas opinion on her nation changes. She's 100% Nazi and being fed propaganda all the time, but slowly we see that Clementine manages to turn her mindset a bit and then Jess can figure it out on her own.
This book is very honest. We don't get a happy ending. We get something in between. It's not tragic, she's fine and well there's a lot of stuff in her life that she coul've had if she was born in our world, but she doesn't because she isn't. I think it makes such an impact that the ending isn't fixing everything, because it can't judt be fixed like /that/. Snap. Done. Everything is alright. That's not how it works and this book really shows that. (It's not that I'm against happy endings,but there's never really a revolution in this book so it seems weird to put one into the epilogue and pretend that's how easy it is to overthrow a controlling government. And the author did not do that.)
I also really liked how we have several queer characters. Good representation, and also good for showing how someone feels when they're trying to hide a part of who they are, which people today are forced to.
This is a different WW2 story, but it's not just a picture of how the world would have looked if Germany won the war, it's a picture of how the world looks. Not the same places or the same people, but the same kind of issues.