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rueluxprince 's review for:
Prisoner of Night and Fog
by Anne Blankman
Spoilders people, you have been warned!
I enjoyed this book less than I hoped and more than I thought. I usually do not care for romance in WWII historical fictions, because everything is horrible and everyone was trying to survive and generally does not have the required energy left for making goo-goo eyes at the opposite gender. But this story really surprised me. I was not disappointed. Prisoner of Night and Fog is lovely, very informative and very enjoyable. The love moments are not sappy, the mystery moments are mysterious, the action moments are action packed, the plot moves in a great pace, and the characterization are all on point.
It was a lovely book. It doesn't really have any fault to it. I just did not get that heart-tripping thing that I usually get when I knew that a book made it to my favorite list.
What I really love is how Gretchen and Daniel's love story played out. There was never insta-love, there's no 'deep pull from stomach.' It took almost 300 pages for them to atually say the words 'I love you.' and it fits into their personality and their characters. Gretchen is a very level-headed character, and there's no 'flinging caution and intelligience out the window the minute she sees a boy!" type of behaviour going on, and it was great!
Blankman does the characterization of every single character beautifully, fictional or not, and none of them feel flat. Nothing seemed rushed or slow. Gretchen was never the dumb heroine that never thinks, she makes plans and she goes through her opions step by step. She thinks before she acts, weighs her options and her obsticles against her abilities and adjust her goals accordingly. Daniel does have that righteous sense of journalism going underneath, but he also adjust regarding his circumstances, and he cares. Very much. Which fits how they are suppose to act in the middle of Nazi Germany.
The book is very well researched, without being all copy and paste and history textbook. You really learn a lot about the Germany before WWII, how it was run. How Hitler came to power and how he kept that power and just what's going on inside his head and what kind of person people thought he was. There was never a dull moment, and we could really see the 1930s, how the people lived, how they fought, how they loved. The inside look to the Nazi Party was morbid but not unwelcome.
Also, this is one of those stories where you have to try really hard to imagine a happy ending for the characters if you are not going to pick up the next book.
I enjoyed this book less than I hoped and more than I thought. I usually do not care for romance in WWII historical fictions, because everything is horrible and everyone was trying to survive and generally does not have the required energy left for making goo-goo eyes at the opposite gender. But this story really surprised me. I was not disappointed. Prisoner of Night and Fog is lovely, very informative and very enjoyable. The love moments are not sappy, the mystery moments are mysterious, the action moments are action packed, the plot moves in a great pace, and the characterization are all on point.
It was a lovely book. It doesn't really have any fault to it. I just did not get that heart-tripping thing that I usually get when I knew that a book made it to my favorite list.
What I really love is how Gretchen and Daniel's love story played out. There was never insta-love, there's no 'deep pull from stomach.' It took almost 300 pages for them to atually say the words 'I love you.' and it fits into their personality and their characters. Gretchen is a very level-headed character, and there's no 'flinging caution and intelligience out the window the minute she sees a boy!" type of behaviour going on, and it was great!
Blankman does the characterization of every single character beautifully, fictional or not, and none of them feel flat. Nothing seemed rushed or slow. Gretchen was never the dumb heroine that never thinks, she makes plans and she goes through her opions step by step. She thinks before she acts, weighs her options and her obsticles against her abilities and adjust her goals accordingly. Daniel does have that righteous sense of journalism going underneath, but he also adjust regarding his circumstances, and he cares. Very much. Which fits how they are suppose to act in the middle of Nazi Germany.
The book is very well researched, without being all copy and paste and history textbook. You really learn a lot about the Germany before WWII, how it was run. How Hitler came to power and how he kept that power and just what's going on inside his head and what kind of person people thought he was. There was never a dull moment, and we could really see the 1930s, how the people lived, how they fought, how they loved. The inside look to the Nazi Party was morbid but not unwelcome.
Also, this is one of those stories where you have to try really hard to imagine a happy ending for the characters if you are not going to pick up the next book.