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| Value for Money | 8.8/10  |
|---|---|
| Reviewer Rating | 7.8/10 |
| Overall Rating | 8.7/10  |
Full review by
Guest.
on 29th Sep 2008
User Rating : 6
Respect :
0
Good Points: - Excellent detail. You never feel like you're out of the story once it pulls you in. In fact it's hard to stop thinking about it once you get started. - Both worlds (you'll see what I'm talking about) are so life-like and realistic it's almost scary. Every character is someone you could meet. - No sugarcoating, this is reality. - Hilary is very interesting to read about. Actually because of all her imperfections she seems the most human and most easy to relate to out of all the characters. - The past/present scheme of this book is a little odd but somehow it managed not to matter at all.
Bad Points: - Cliched to a point (although to be fair it's hard not to be in this genre). The victims are faithful, compassionate, and can do no wrong. Everyone else who isn't the best of friends with the main characters is a horrible nuisance or a mortal enemy. No exceptions. - This might be just me but a certain character, beyond all logic, simply refuses to die (at the age of approximately 60; in Auschwitz) or act like a human being. It's not a character to be really fond of either, beyond passive and with enough flatness to outdo a piece of cardboard.
General comments: I had some mixed reactions to Han Nolan's If I Should Die Before I Wake. The beginning is very cool. It completely strips away that little thought of yours saying "oh, she'll never kill off that character". What I love the most about this book is that it's not a fairy tale. The wrong things happen when they're not supposed to. Nearly no one is safe from danger. On the other hand it's not any different than other Holocaust books. The ending spoiled the book for me, just a little, since it lost all the realism the previous pages worked so hard to acheive. My advice to you is that if you don't care about technicality or haven't read many Holocaust books this is a definite must-read. It might even become your favorite for a while.
Guest.'s review and ratings | 346 words
Review by
jgurl
on 31st Mar 2008
User Rating : 8
Respect :
0
This book is an interesting twist on the neo-Nazi youth culture and how it relates to the horrific Holocaust of World War II.
jgurl's full review | 23 words
Review by
dyhrdGIANTSfan13
on 4th Jan 2008
User Rating : 9
Respect :
0
loved it
Kept me reading, even though it was for school.
I enjoyed learning how Nolan portrayed her characters
dyhrdGIANTSfan13's full review | 25 words
Review by
MyBabyAngel
on 1st Feb 2006
User Rating : 8
Respect :
-1
I read this book for an English project, and I loved it. Reading this book really made me think about the hold I have on life and what I am doing with it. The way Hilary changed when she woke up in the hospital, how she knew everything that had happened in Chana's life. All the struggles Chana went through. The obsticles put in front of her, she had to overcome. All the stuff she was going through, all the beatings she took just to stay alive. I personaly can't imagine some of the tragedies she ...
MyBabyAngel's full review | 223 words
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