Matt Eberle

Such potential and opportunity to paint the real life story of love and survival amidst the most atrocious act of mankind, and this is a swing and miss. The pace is so unbalanced. Weeks and months pass by within paragraphs and pages, let alone chapters. Moments of the story that do reel you in fall off a cliff and transition to something completely different without merit. Secondary characters are introduced, and feel as they deserve attention, but then are dropped altogether. One can say this is meant to convey that one never knew how long another person would be alive in that living hell, but I think that's a literary excuse to just be lazy. The dialogue doesn't seem genuine to the era either. I kept thinking it sounds like a modern day person paraphrasing what a conversation would've been like, but with modern terms and tones. If you're looking for an easy, unfulfilling read -enjoy. But if you want something with detail and real literary value, look elsewhere.