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smallicedmocha 's review for:
Those Who Save Us
by Jenna Blum
It may be that I simply enjoy the distraction of a novel during midterm season, but I started the novel this morning and finished it just now. I felt the writing was good enough to keep me flipping despite the fact that I have two tests to take tomorrow, though there are some movie-esque moments that mildly annoyed me here and there (you know, those parts where you feel like it's more a movie script than a novel?). I usually tend to veer towards the three-star rating when a book has those moments a bit too often for my own personal taste.
But what gave it its extra star was the story and the angle taken on this novel. Having recently watched "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the haziness and gray area of a German family during the Holocaust is particularly fresh in my mind. Though depressing and shocking still, there are times in my life when I find myself numbly brushing aside Nazi horrors from having heard of them too often. This novel, however, introduces new horrors that are more internal rather than external. Things such as harboring a multitude of secrets for an entire life, or having to live with the weight of a shameful ancestry.
Another very detailed but noticeable thing was that I kind of liked the lack of quotation marks. Though it was a bit confusing at times when I tried to skim, there was something about its absence that made the plot seem more like an embedded part of the self, the way memories do to each of us and our identities.
Definitely something that I wish someone else would read so that I could discuss it with them. There are so many angles and perspectives that could be taken with this quick novel. What a great way to start studying for my ethics class.
"She can never tell him what she started to say: that we come to love those who save us. For although Anna does believe this is true, the word that stuck in her throat was not save but shame."
But what gave it its extra star was the story and the angle taken on this novel. Having recently watched "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the haziness and gray area of a German family during the Holocaust is particularly fresh in my mind. Though depressing and shocking still, there are times in my life when I find myself numbly brushing aside Nazi horrors from having heard of them too often. This novel, however, introduces new horrors that are more internal rather than external. Things such as harboring a multitude of secrets for an entire life, or having to live with the weight of a shameful ancestry.
Another very detailed but noticeable thing was that I kind of liked the lack of quotation marks. Though it was a bit confusing at times when I tried to skim, there was something about its absence that made the plot seem more like an embedded part of the self, the way memories do to each of us and our identities.
Definitely something that I wish someone else would read so that I could discuss it with them. There are so many angles and perspectives that could be taken with this quick novel. What a great way to start studying for my ethics class.
"She can never tell him what she started to say: that we come to love those who save us. For although Anna does believe this is true, the word that stuck in her throat was not save but shame."