Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Review: Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I didn't love it, but I also enjoyed it a lot at times. A lot of times I found it a bit boring, but I also wanted to know what would happen next. I didn't fully love the writing, but I liked it. I think I connected with the characters. Probably. I loved the time period, but also wished it had been a bit later; as not that much happened.

The title is Prisoner of Night and Fog. And now that I think of it, I kind of imagined the main character to be a prisoner of sorts. Which she wasn't. Sure, a few awful things happens to her. But I also felt like she could leave at any moment. Which she didn't. But I must also admit to liking Gretchen. Though she did do a few things that I did not approve of. Nor do myself.

This book is told from the point of view of Gretchen. Like I said, I liked her sometimes. We learn a lot about her; about how her dad died protecting Adolf Hitler, her Uncle Dolf. Which I found to be the silliest name ever, to be honest. Didn't like when it was mentioned. Sigh. But anyway. We also learn a lot about her brother. Whom I could not stand at all. He was just pure evil. And so mean. But he was also interesting to read about. I just. If someone killed my cat, I would do something about it. I would not let him get away with it. I felt like Gretchen didn't do the things I wanted her to do in this book. Sigh.

I won't say too much about this book, as there isn't all that much to say for me. I liked it, but didn't love it. Which is why I'm rating it with a three star. But I'm also very glad that I read it. I enjoy reading about war-times. Though there wasn't any war in this book. And I wish there had been. Which is a bit strange, I guess. I wish the book had been in the years when Hitler did the even worse stuff. And not just years (?) before, when he wasn't all that awful. But I still hated him in this book. I found him to be creepy.

I must admit to not having read much and Germany and that time and the Jew. I don't know much at all. I know the important things. I know that tons of innocent people died. And they died a horrible death. Which makes me all kinds of sad and ragey. But I also wanted to read about that in this book. But there weren't anything about that yet. Which is probably why I didn't fully love it. Which might be beyond weird of me, but I like reading about awful things that break my heart. Wasn't enough of that in this book.

Anyway. There is a lot of things happening in this book. Despite the fact that I found it a bit boring a few times, I also thought it was interesting and exciting. A lot of things were obvious to me, and it pissed me off a little that Gretchen didn't see things right away. Agh. But yeah. I liked the plot in this book. Though there were too many names. Which annoyed me. Can't remember any of them, or the characters :p But I did enjoy reading about a few of Gretchen's friends. Though I disliked Eva a lot. Agh.

I didn't always approve of the things Gretchen did. I didn't approve of her relationship with Uncle Dolf. I didn't like him at all. And she adores him in the beginning. And I disliked her mom so much. She was just.. a coward, to be honest. And her brother. He did so many awful things. Beyond awful things. Though a few times I didn't care at all.. but it was interesting to read about and it was pretty sad. But anyway. I did enjoy this book. Though I do wish it had been a little bit more. But I liked the time period.

There is a romance in this book. And I enjoyed the romance. I wish it had been more, but it is also very sweet. I think Daniel was an amazing character. And I loved getting to know him. Though I do wish I had gotten to know even more. Hmm. And I do wish he and Gretchen would have gotten more quiet moments together. <3 But anyway. I thought their romance was sweet. It wasn't perfect, but I liked reading about it. It is also forbidden. Which I enjoyed, but didn't love. But it was very interesting.

Huge thank you to Balzer + Bray / HarperTeen for auto-approving me on Edelweiss; so that I was able to download this book. <3 I'm glad that I read it, despite giving it three stars. I have also just pre-ordered my own hardcover of this book, because I do wish to own it. I did think that Prisoner of Night and Fog was a great book. It was interesting and with a good romance. I'm very excited for the sequel, though wonder what it is about. Is it the same characters? Anyway. I think you guys would like this book :)

7 comments:

  1. I'm so very intrigued about this book and I cannot wait for my preorder to download!
    And I'm glad to hear that you liked it enough to recommend it even if you didn't totally love it!

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  2. haha i am so confused by your review.. which means I know how confused you are about how much you liked or disliked this book. I want to read it now just because of your review (plus the cover is beautiful!) and i also would have liked to know a bit of background about what happened exactly and the holacaust. Great review! :D

    - Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

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    1. lol :D It did confuse me, yes. Thank you sweetie. <3 I hope you will like it when you read it :)

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  3. I know this one must have been a hard one to read, because I'm sure a lot of really horrible things happen. But it does sounds like an intriguing story and I'm glad you ended up enjoying it for the most part!

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  4. I think I read that in the sequel there's a time jump, and it takes place just after Hitler gets full control over Germany--pretty sure it'll follow the same characters! I'd imagine that means we'll get to see a lot more of the brutal things the Nazi regime did to the Jews then.

    I'm glad you ended up liking this one in general Carina! I also thought there were dull periods, especially at the beginning, but the story was definitely compelling. :) And yay for the romance! I loved Daniel too. :D

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  5. Seems like this was just a solid, okay book for you! I hated her brother so much and I was happy how his story got it's deserved ending :p

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