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lemoney 's review for:
The Boy with the Star Tattoo
by Talia Carner
A fan of WWII historical fiction, I was looking forward to reading this book, which focuses much on postwar happenings. It weaves together the story of several people. Claudette, a crippled woman who is afraid of being discovered by Nazis in France during WWII and sent away or even killed for her disability. Claudette falls in love with a Jewish man and discovers that she is pregnant after he has left for safety. Just after the war is the story of Uzi, a young man with Youth Aliyah, tasked with bringing Jewish children from war torn France to rebuild their culture in Ersatz Israel. Twenty plus years later and we have the story of Sharon, a young woman awaiting news on her fiancée whose submarine is missing. She is recruited by Danny, a naval captain from Israel, with a secret mission. Sharon discovers a secret having to do with Danny and does a little sleuthing without his knowledge to find out his background story.
I had known a little about the Youth Aliyah but this book certainly gave me new information on the difficult job and how they often had children adopted by loving families who were not Jewish. I’m sure they often struggled with the decision of whether to take these children away from their new families. I appreciate the author bringing a different story to light.
I did however, feel a lack of connection with the characters. I wanted to feel more of what they were dealing with, whether it be the loss of a loved one, or the feeling of fear. There were also many words that I had to try to figure out via context, either French words, or Hebrew words. When that happens often, I lose the flow of the book. I also struggled when I had to put down the book for a while to remember what was happening and who was who, because there were quite a few people in the story as it was weaving between three different things. I decided to just finish the last 40% today so that didn’t happen again! The ending seemed a little abrupt and I would have liked it to tell more about what happened afterwards.
As I mentioned, I did enjoy learning more about the Youth Aliyah which was, quite possibly, my favorite part of the story.
Thank you to William Morrow for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
I had known a little about the Youth Aliyah but this book certainly gave me new information on the difficult job and how they often had children adopted by loving families who were not Jewish. I’m sure they often struggled with the decision of whether to take these children away from their new families. I appreciate the author bringing a different story to light.
I did however, feel a lack of connection with the characters. I wanted to feel more of what they were dealing with, whether it be the loss of a loved one, or the feeling of fear. There were also many words that I had to try to figure out via context, either French words, or Hebrew words. When that happens often, I lose the flow of the book. I also struggled when I had to put down the book for a while to remember what was happening and who was who, because there were quite a few people in the story as it was weaving between three different things. I decided to just finish the last 40% today so that didn’t happen again! The ending seemed a little abrupt and I would have liked it to tell more about what happened afterwards.
As I mentioned, I did enjoy learning more about the Youth Aliyah which was, quite possibly, my favorite part of the story.
Thank you to William Morrow for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.