Prisoner of Night and Fog

"This book contains Hitler, Antisemitism (clearly not supported by the author), grooming and what felt like it might've been leading up to a rape scene <spoiler> (no rape occurred within the confines of this story) </spoiler> , suicide, two psychopathy diagnoses (one in relation to a child), and probably more things.<br/><br/>The first book I read by Anne Blankman was Traitor Angels, and I really enjoyed it, so I didn't understand why a lot of reviews I read were disappointed. Now I understand. This book was amazing and I could not stop reading until it was over and now it's the evening and I won't have gotten a chance to study much and it doesn't even matter except that I know I can't start book 2 until at least tomorrow evening and it's killing me. <br/><br/>This book had so much tension and I was completely immersed in this specific picture of this specific year in Germany. I'm no historian, but the environment feels accurate. <br/><br/>A thing about this being historical fiction is that you kind of know what's going to happen? Like however much Gretchen realises or how bravely Daniel reports, the Nazis are still gonna come to power and the holocaust is still going to happen. You do not know how hard I was wishing that this would deviate and someone would just bonk Hitler in the head and that would be that (like that would somehow change the fate of the millions who died in real life).<br/><br/>One thing that kind of rubbed me a little was the MC's older brother. He did horrible things, and he was canonically a psychopath. He was diagnosed with this at ten years old, which sure, I'm sure they did that in the 30s, and when the MC learned of this she was kind of like "you let us live in the same house?". Now this is a reaction you can't really object to because, like I said, the brother is horrible, and the mother never did a thing to protect the MC from him when he killed her cat and physically beat her. Yes, this mother really should've protected her daughter, or at least taken the steps to do so once she saw how injured and scared her daughter was afterward rather than hoping to brush it under the rug. But I don't know, the fact that a ten year old could just be inherently bad bumps up against my worldview uncomfortably, mental illness or not. I guess it's fairer to say that he was inherently dangerous. Oh, and the fact that they're freaking out about Hitler's "psychopath" diagnosis like that makes him worse. Like nothing can make Hitler worse, guys, Ok? Like the genocide is definitely worse (I know genocide is in the future on this timeline). But also I understand this because while it isn't fair to say it makes him worse, it *is* fair to say that a potential diagnosis of that sort could help people recontextualize their relationships with him and his actions on a whole so that they finally understand that HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOU. So I don't know about that part but I am tentatively ok with it.<br/><br/>I recommend this book to pretty much anybody."

"This is one of my favorite books and to those who have read it way did you think and who was your favorite character and why"

"I love this book! Totally recommend! 😍"