Would probably not recommend this book - it was very easy to read and had several connected storylines, which was good, because the main one was boring on its own! The author used good language, and a good mix of dialogue and description - but I could have done without ‘considerable girth’ being used quite so much as an indicator of a person’s weight.
The characters were dull, stereotypical, and the author didn’t make any attempt to add interesting or unexpected features to them - the men were violent sex-driven and strong, and the women were vulnerable at best, and pathetic at worst - and always in need of saving... by men, of course.
The main storyline itself was not entirely convincing - would any government really care about one child that much? Especially as, up until now, she had not been perceived as a problem. Also, would the Germans have really been that easy to shake off? Lots of conveniences throughout - there happens to be a handy underground hiding place, an empty house at their disposal, and a conveniently timed mystery virus.
The unambitious plot was the main issue for me: the so-called ‘catastrophic consequences’ of this girl’s existence were not properly explored or explained. I don’t believe therefore that the main ‘problem’ of the story was really thought about by the author and was instead just a fairly flimsy way of creating an exciting game of cat and mouse across Europe.
I was left struggling to sympathise for the main characters, and the urgency of saving one child - in a wartime era where millions were dying was entirely lost on me. Why would Hitler’s conscience-lacking supporters care that he knocked up his niece? And Karla wasn’t even a very pleasant character to boot! Further, this storyline gave me an uncomfortable feeling; to portray saving one privileged white nazi child as a world-changing act of heroism, whilst 20 million Jewish people were being killed just doesn’t sit well with me and I couldn’t whole-heartedly root for the success of the mission.
Even the attempt at a plot twist at the end of the story where we’re left to consider that the initials AH could have been for a different father, was not done with any conviction or with any real significance to any of the characters.
This was a fairly shallow, easy-reading, fast paced story, full of action and movement, with boring characters who I did not empathise with. The simple storylines unfolded in parallel to one another and came together at the end, conveniently.
Overall, I was pretty happy when it was finished, disappointed with the ending, and pleased to be moving onto something else.
The characters were dull, stereotypical, and the author didn’t make any attempt to add interesting or unexpected features to them - the men were violent sex-driven and strong, and the women were vulnerable at best, and pathetic at worst - and always in need of saving... by men, of course.
The main storyline itself was not entirely convincing - would any government really care about one child that much? Especially as, up until now, she had not been perceived as a problem. Also, would the Germans have really been that easy to shake off? Lots of conveniences throughout - there happens to be a handy underground hiding place, an empty house at their disposal, and a conveniently timed mystery virus.
The unambitious plot was the main issue for me: the so-called ‘catastrophic consequences’ of this girl’s existence were not properly explored or explained. I don’t believe therefore that the main ‘problem’ of the story was really thought about by the author and was instead just a fairly flimsy way of creating an exciting game of cat and mouse across Europe.
I was left struggling to sympathise for the main characters, and the urgency of saving one child - in a wartime era where millions were dying was entirely lost on me. Why would Hitler’s conscience-lacking supporters care that he knocked up his niece? And Karla wasn’t even a very pleasant character to boot! Further, this storyline gave me an uncomfortable feeling; to portray saving one privileged white nazi child as a world-changing act of heroism, whilst 20 million Jewish people were being killed just doesn’t sit well with me and I couldn’t whole-heartedly root for the success of the mission.
Even the attempt at a plot twist at the end of the story where we’re left to consider that the initials AH could have been for a different father, was not done with any conviction or with any real significance to any of the characters.
This was a fairly shallow, easy-reading, fast paced story, full of action and movement, with boring characters who I did not empathise with. The simple storylines unfolded in parallel to one another and came together at the end, conveniently.
Overall, I was pretty happy when it was finished, disappointed with the ending, and pleased to be moving onto something else.