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A review by ncrabb
Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen
4.0
Her mother is dead, and she has no papers. Still, she must flee. If you’re 15 and Jewish in Nazi Germany, your only hope is escape. But where? You watched them kill your mother at a checkpoint, and you escaped. Now you’re running, running, and you don’t have a plan.
That’s how it starts for Sarah who, after an encounter with a man whose accent she can’t place, changes her name to Ursula and adopts his fake last name, Haller. Sarah is blond and blue-eyed—the genetic product of a gentile dad and a Jewish mom. She mostly got dear old Dad’s looks, so she can pass for a little Nazi monster in one of the nation’s most elite schools for girls. Her benefactor, the British spy who saved her from capture, needs her to befriend one of the students in the school—a student whose father is developing the ability to create a guided bomb that can level Great Britain with very little effort.
You will read this because Sarah’s character will stand out and be memorable to you. Those who have sensitivity to violence perpetrated against people by people, be aware that there is one scene here where a Nazi teacher savagely beats one of the students. Sarah is also subject to an attempted rape at one point. The final quarter of the book will elevate your heart rate and leave you unable to activate the stop button on your player. Yes, it really is that good.
A quick word, if I may, about the narrator: I normally have an almost-allergic reaction to this narrator. Her angsty style and constant vocal fry are a complete distraction and turnoff. However, she avoids all that depressive angst and nearly all of the annoying-as-heck vocal fry in this narration. You can actually read this and not yearn for a different narrator.
That’s how it starts for Sarah who, after an encounter with a man whose accent she can’t place, changes her name to Ursula and adopts his fake last name, Haller. Sarah is blond and blue-eyed—the genetic product of a gentile dad and a Jewish mom. She mostly got dear old Dad’s looks, so she can pass for a little Nazi monster in one of the nation’s most elite schools for girls. Her benefactor, the British spy who saved her from capture, needs her to befriend one of the students in the school—a student whose father is developing the ability to create a guided bomb that can level Great Britain with very little effort.
You will read this because Sarah’s character will stand out and be memorable to you. Those who have sensitivity to violence perpetrated against people by people, be aware that there is one scene here where a Nazi teacher savagely beats one of the students. Sarah is also subject to an attempted rape at one point. The final quarter of the book will elevate your heart rate and leave you unable to activate the stop button on your player. Yes, it really is that good.
A quick word, if I may, about the narrator: I normally have an almost-allergic reaction to this narrator. Her angsty style and constant vocal fry are a complete distraction and turnoff. However, she avoids all that depressive angst and nearly all of the annoying-as-heck vocal fry in this narration. You can actually read this and not yearn for a different narrator.