I mean really, this is where we're taking this series?

I don't know what possessed me to read the second book after hating the first book so much, but I really hated this one even more. 

The sex isn't sexy, Gideon isn't all that, oh and by the way....

spoilers ahead....

Really, if I had to sum it up, creepy, dark, depressing and good would just about do it.  I'm not sure if it was just my kindle edition of the book, but most of the dialogue was missing quotations.  At first I thought it was intentional, since it gave everything a very monotone quality in my head, and on the page.  But then I noticed that some dialogue was in quotes, and I started to try to and find some sort of meaning behind it.  At first, dialogue with outsiders was in quotes, but then it seemed kind of random and became distracting.  Not sure what was up with that, but I didn't really like it. 

The book was a bit slower moving than I'd like.  It took about 30% of the book to really get to the "reveal" about what was going on.  And I'm still very on the fence about the ending.  Because really, what happened there?  No spoilers, just.........yeah. 

It was good because I appreciated the POV, and the sense that this could all really happen and isn't all that far fetched, which is especially creepy.  And I breezed through this in a day, so it's not like it was a slog.  I think I was depressed by the depressing tone though.  I would definitely recommend, and would read other books by her too.  Fingers crossed they are not quite as dismal though.

I had a lot of fun with this book.  I don't want to give anything away, but it's about a 39 year old woman who suffers a head injury, and wakes up with no memory of the last 10 years.  So many things have changed for her, including having three kids, none of which she remembers.  Part of the fun of this book is trying to make sense of it all.  What has happened?  Who has she become?  And does she want to be this new person who has developed? 

It was sort of like Before I Go To Sleep except not as dark.  There were a lot of funny moments with Alice, and Moriarty creates a very relatable character through a very unrelatable circumstance.

The premise sounded better than its delivery.

The story is of the Lodz ghetto in Poland, and of the 270,000 Jews that were put in, only 800 survived.  12 were children, and Sylvia (the author's aunt) was one of them.  This is the retelling of her experience as a young child of 4 when the ghetto was established, and aged 10 when they were liberated. 

It's a fascinating premise, and if I retell it here, it makes a great story.  It's written in free verse, each line is 3-5 words, 8-10 lines per "paragraph" and maybe only 3 or 4 paragraphs per event.  Each event is told in chronological order, but are pretty disconnected, jumping from scene to scene.  There isn't much in the way of transition, just a string of memories and events.  Because it's told from a child's perspective, it struck me as very YA.  The book only took me about an hour to read because of the way it's written.  I think it would make a good introduction to WWII for a child who is mature to read about such things.  The YA-nature of the book was really unexpected for me, which is why I gave it the lower score.  If it was a bit meatier, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

This is the first book by Anita Diamant that I've read, and now the TBR grows (again).  I loved her writing, the way she described the environment and surroundings was just enough to paint a clear picture, but not caught up in meaningless details. 

The book is from the POV of Addie, both as a grandmother and as a young woman.  She tells her own story to her granddaughter.  She is from a Jewish Russian immigrant family who settled in Boston, and had no shortage of tragic times before and after the move.  The story that Addie tells reminded me so much of my great-grandmother (my GG).  Addie was born in 1900 in Boston from a Russian family (I don't think they say exactly where), and my GG was born in 1907 in Poland and immigrated to New York in 1921.  There were so many times in this book that I had to remind myself that this is a work of fiction, not a memoir.  Addie's story was told so personally, and so realistically, that it could have been told from my GG's mouth.  It made me think of her a lot, since their experiences would have been very similar.  Some of the things Addie said, I could just hear in my GG's voice. 

"A girl should always have her own money so she's never beholden to anyone."  I said that was very modern of her, but she didn't think so.  "As far as I can tell, common sense hasn't been in fashion for a long time."

and

"Never apologize for being smart."

It's hard to pick out specific quotes, since its really just the whole essence and attitude of Addie that reminds me of her.  But both Addie and my GG were very modern, spunky, independent women.

Although I love the cover of the book, this is a picture of my GG when she got married.

I think she's 18 in this picture.  My great-grandfather died in 1980, just before I was born, and she was never interested in meeting anyone new.  She lived another 25 years, and I am so glad I got to know her like I did.

Personally, I really enjoyed this book.  But, I'm not sure if someone with a different background would be able to relate to this as much.  It would still be an entertaining story, but I don't know if it would strike the same chord.  It was mostly a story of character development, not so much in the way of plot.  But it made me feel like I got to spend a few more hours with my GG, which I loved.

I won a copy of this book through GoodReads First Reads.