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A review by happiestwhenreading
One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter
4.0
This was a highly anticipated read for me after loving Hunter’s debut novel, We Were the Lucky Ones. As a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, she writes WWII historical fiction from a personal and emotional perspective. In One Good Thing, she explores the impact of WWII on Jewish people living in Italy under the rule of Mussolini.
This perspective reminded me of one of my favorite reads from last year, The Curse of Pietro Houdini. Both are set in Italy which, for me, seems to be a fairly unique perspective; so much of WWII historical fiction seems to be set more in Germany and Eastern Europe. I appreciate getting to see the war from a different angle (Greece is also mentioned in One Good Thing - another country I haven’t read much about).
One Good Thing was true to what I remembered about Hunter’s style - detailed, researched, and compelling. However, I had a harder time becoming emotionally invested in this story. There felt like a lot of “telling” and not as much “showing”…that always keeps things fairly surface level for me. And, for a story where the main characters were always on the run to save their lives, I didn’t feel the danger. They walked miles and miles and miles, yet didn’t encounter any real threats. The ending was true to reality - a big piece of the puzzle was left hanging without any real conclusion - and while it’s frustrating, it does feel fair to the situation.
Unfortunately, this story made me feel like the war wasn’t that scary and that the characters simply had to endure - everyone who has read a history book knows this absolutely was not the case. Overall, this one just felt too safe for me, and I would have liked Hunter to take more risks and to let the story tell itself. The Italian side of the story was super fresh and interesting and I did learn more from that aspect.
This perspective reminded me of one of my favorite reads from last year, The Curse of Pietro Houdini. Both are set in Italy which, for me, seems to be a fairly unique perspective; so much of WWII historical fiction seems to be set more in Germany and Eastern Europe. I appreciate getting to see the war from a different angle (Greece is also mentioned in One Good Thing - another country I haven’t read much about).
One Good Thing was true to what I remembered about Hunter’s style - detailed, researched, and compelling. However, I had a harder time becoming emotionally invested in this story. There felt like a lot of “telling” and not as much “showing”…that always keeps things fairly surface level for me. And, for a story where the main characters were always on the run to save their lives, I didn’t feel the danger. They walked miles and miles and miles, yet didn’t encounter any real threats. The ending was true to reality - a big piece of the puzzle was left hanging without any real conclusion - and while it’s frustrating, it does feel fair to the situation.
Unfortunately, this story made me feel like the war wasn’t that scary and that the characters simply had to endure - everyone who has read a history book knows this absolutely was not the case. Overall, this one just felt too safe for me, and I would have liked Hunter to take more risks and to let the story tell itself. The Italian side of the story was super fresh and interesting and I did learn more from that aspect.