A review by saroz162
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

3.0

The idea is undeniably intriguing: a modern-day story about a young woman searching for her grandmother's past, with only the tiniest of clues and a fairy tale to guide her. As a pitch, I buy it. Even in the first few chapters of the novel, as it becomes rapidly clear that this will be a Holocaust story, I'm willing to follow Becca on her journey to dig deeper and deeper into a past she doesn't really understand. Once she gets to Poland, however, things become a lot less appealing - not because of the content but because the author's writing style is so limiting. Yolen may have intended this as an adult or adolescent novel, but her writing style keeps the reader from ever buying into it completely. Most of the time I felt like I was reading a book for twelve-year-olds, with brief references to "soft core movies" and "lesbian relationships" to (supposedly) make it feel adult. It's awkward, but as long as Becca stays in America, it's okay. Once she reaches Poland, though, Yolen's style goes into overkill: she seems to feel a relentless need to explain everything that happens in Poland, from names to terms to the truly irritating meta-device of Becca constantly correcting her host's broken English. (It doesn't do anything for your sympathy toward the protagonist, either.) The story of her grandmother's past - once she finds it - is certainly interesting, but it reads like a giant plot online: despite being "told" to the protagonist, the flashback is written in third person, with primarily reported dialogue. That really doesn't do anything to maintain my interest, so while I started the book very intrigued, I limped toward the finish - all the while wishing a more skilled writer had taken on the same story.