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A review by jenpaul13
Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen
4.0
Surviving during a war in a country whose leaders would rather see you dead is a tremendous endeavor. For an orphan in Matt Killeen's Orphan Monster Spy, becoming a spy is her ticket to survival.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Fifteen year old Sarah is recently orphaned after her mother was shot and killed at a checkpoint. As a Jewish girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and her mother's lessons on play-acting, Sarah is able to trick her way to safety as she navigates Nazi occupied regions. When Sarah meets a man, whose accent she finds curious, her future takes on a new trajectory as she becomes a spy for him, as he just so happens to be a British spy with a mission he can't complete alone. In working with him, Sarah enrolls in an elite boarding school as Ursula, where her goal is to befriend the daughter of a top Nazi scientist working on an immensely dangerous bomb. As she learns about the school, the girls, and the higher ranking Nazi officials she's observing, Sarah comes to realize the constant danger surrounding her as she strives to survive.
A story of espionage with the perilous background of pre-World War II Nazi Germany, this engaging tale moves at a brisk pace as events unfold. The inclusion of German words or phrases throughout the novel was a good effort to include historical context to the well-researched story, but I found that the method of German word/English word in the text was cumbersome and pulled my attention from the story - even for those who don't read or speak German, contextual clues could have been used to offer the meaning without explicitly stating it. Though intriguing, and the basis of the novel's continued existence, I did find that there wasn't much developed reasoning behind Sarah's hasty agreement to work as a spy for a man she just met. It was an interesting tactic to have Sarah's thoughts function as an internal dialogue between her and her mother, who seems to have been coaching Sarah in her behavior for survival, as it offers a touch of psychological drama to the tension of spying and survival.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Fifteen year old Sarah is recently orphaned after her mother was shot and killed at a checkpoint. As a Jewish girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and her mother's lessons on play-acting, Sarah is able to trick her way to safety as she navigates Nazi occupied regions. When Sarah meets a man, whose accent she finds curious, her future takes on a new trajectory as she becomes a spy for him, as he just so happens to be a British spy with a mission he can't complete alone. In working with him, Sarah enrolls in an elite boarding school as Ursula, where her goal is to befriend the daughter of a top Nazi scientist working on an immensely dangerous bomb. As she learns about the school, the girls, and the higher ranking Nazi officials she's observing, Sarah comes to realize the constant danger surrounding her as she strives to survive.
A story of espionage with the perilous background of pre-World War II Nazi Germany, this engaging tale moves at a brisk pace as events unfold. The inclusion of German words or phrases throughout the novel was a good effort to include historical context to the well-researched story, but I found that the method of German word/English word in the text was cumbersome and pulled my attention from the story - even for those who don't read or speak German, contextual clues could have been used to offer the meaning without explicitly stating it. Though intriguing, and the basis of the novel's continued existence, I did find that there wasn't much developed reasoning behind Sarah's hasty agreement to work as a spy for a man she just met. It was an interesting tactic to have Sarah's thoughts function as an internal dialogue between her and her mother, who seems to have been coaching Sarah in her behavior for survival, as it offers a touch of psychological drama to the tension of spying and survival.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.