A review by libraryofdreaming
Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

4.0

I saw this book on Goodreads and it looked so good I decided to preorder it. It arrived on my kindle a few days ago and I absolutely gobbled it up! Most books about Nazi Germany or World War II tend to focus on the peak of fighting and they rarely dare to characterize Hitler. Prisoner of Smoke and Fog sweeps all its precedents away by focusing on Hitler's rise to power, before the war, and his own family circle. The author brilliantly blends history and fiction to make an evocative but believable murder mystery/drama in traditional YA fashion. The book focuses on Gretchen, the petted favorite of her surrogate uncle "Dolf", and through her eyes we see both sides of Hitler, the charming and cruel.

Gretchen's journey from blind follower to disillusioned rebel was totally believable. You feel her pain in dealing with an abusive brother, her fear when she realizes things in the Nazi party are not as they seem, and her hurt when she is betrayed by the man she viewed as father & idol. I thought the romance advertised as "Nazi girl falling for Jewish boy" would be cheesy and overblown, but the growing relationship between them was actually believable and sweet. It is not love at first sight, they both have their own fear and bitterness toward the other, but in the end it becomes absolutely lovely and showed, I thought, the true power of humanity in overcoming prejudice.

I'm so glad I found this book, it was really awesome! I'm now rather interested in learning more about that time period in history, especially about Hitler's half-niece, Geli Raubal. I wish we know what truly happened to her and what she was thinking! In any case, I'll be looking forward to the other books in the series, even if they become more like the traditional World War II books without the focus on Hitler.