Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

from goodreads

3 stars

Well, March Break is starting to come to an end. There has been much reading, youtube watching, pig making and scrounging up acceptable snacks. I have enjoyed sleeping in a bit, and not worrying about making lunch. Also it has been a great week because I have had no appointments! No bundling up three kids to sit in a cramped waiting room for me. I call that a win.

But this March Break has made me realize how much I need to make sure I have lots of activities and things planned for the summer. Time to get serious on pinterest and become the awesomest mom ever for the summer! ;)

Synopsis

This is the story of Gretchen, a 17 year old girl who in entrenched in the Nazi Party. She looks up to Hitler as a father figure and even calls him Uncle Dolf. Yet, after meeting Daniel Cohen a reporter and a Jew, everything she thought she new as certain is called into question, and she starts to question whether her father's death was really a tragic accident or murder.

My Thoughts

This was a well researched and rather accurate portrayal of Munich in the early 1930s. She wove the mystery in a way that was able to highlight events and philosophies. It was a really good approach.

What I found week was the narrative. Since Blankman was trying to fit so much history into the book (trying to fit the entire Nazi philosophy in one book is very tricky because it encompasses so much) the narrative really suffered.

There were many times where the timeline of the story was not accurate and this caused some confusion and awkwardness. An example of this was when Gretchen was going to a country house with Geli. She tells her brother that they are going to leave the next morning. Then you turn the page and she spends the whole next day helping her mom clean the house and doesn't really leave for the country house for another two days. While it wasn't major and didn't destroy the plot it was still kind of frustrating. There were other times when the timeline just didn't add up.

I also found things to be a bit repetitive, and seriously, how many times did Reinhard have to catch them. Like really?

In the end it was a mediocre story that strung together historical facts. I did not find it that intriguing, the characters that engaging or the romance that sizzling. Perhaps if I hadn't studied this period extensively in university I would have enjoyed discovering this time and the events a bit more and it would have been a bit more interesting. I do appreciate the obvious research that went into it. It is nice when a historical fiction is well researched.

There is a sequel to this book. I am not sure yet if I will bother with it or not. Perhaps once my to read book has been whittled down a bit more.