Michael Haymore

NOT a book for young readers. It may seem that way early on as the author has a talent for connecting you to the characters, in particular the children, who are the center of the story. They are innocent, bright, and full of potential. But then, after he gets you close to and fond of these innocent characters in the first half of the book, he proceeds to beat, rape, murder and in other ways destroy them in the second half of the book. And he does it all with such vivid detail that you can feel, hear and smell it all happening. That is what is so deceptive. You are enjoying the story and its characters so much that you aren’t expecting the first subtle, then outright, violence and gross violations that proceed. You keeping wanting the characters to overcome their challenges, for good and right to ultimately triumph, but instead it continues to spiral down and down and without much, if any, satisfying conclusions. Indeed, after finishing what I most felt was sick that I allowed the story to take carry me to the end. I am well aware that these sorts of events occurred. I agree that it is good to be aware of them so that we can empathize with others who have experienced these things, and hopefully help prevent them from happening to others. But in my opinion this is the wrong book to achieve that purpose. It simply seems to exploit and sensationalized those events for the purpose of “being a good read.” Not only that, he does it with children. To me it is a continued violation of what they experienced, and for young readers, a violation of their innocence as well. If you are an adult and want one more depressing story about what terrible things people had to endure during the second world war then by all means read away. But for younger audiences, and for those who understand these events well enough to not be drug through them again, feel good about skipping this book