Stasha must care for: the funny, the future, the bad.
It's 1944 when the twin sisters arrive at Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather. In their benighted new world, Pearl and Stasha Zagorski take refuge in their identical natures, comforting themselves with the private language and shared games of their childhood.
As part of the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo, the girls experience privileges and horrors unknown to others, and they find themselves changed, stripped of the personalities they once shared, their identities altered by the burdens of guilt and pain. (Pub Date: Sep 06, 2016)
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
This was too poetic to my taste so you might as well disconsider my review if this seems to fit yours. If it doesn't seem, read on.
With many elements similar to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, how could it have gone so boring?
Stasha and Pearl are one pair among the many twins Doctor Mengele experiments with in the Auschwitz Zoo. One is preserved while the other receives every insane test, but that doesn't mean any of them is safe physical or mentally. While we're introduced to the many characters in the Zoo, we can only hope they'll make it alive.
The narration, divided between the sisters, is probably the big thing about this book. It is somewhat inconsistent and that makes for a good show of how their psyche deteriorates as time goes by. At the same time, the author failed to make the reading as interesting for people like me who aren't into more introspective narrations. Also, for half the book, whenever it was Stasha's turn—Pearl's was much more grounded—, she described things so... uniquely? I had no idea what was happening and no will to reread until I understood.
I can't say the characters were all that lovable. I wasn't even sure if I wanted them to get out of there alive, as it became clear they would be safe and sound ever again. One thing this book did well was to depict Mengele's cruelty in depth without being crude. In no moment the story becomes flourished, enchanting or magical but it wasn't anything close to gore. At the same time I don't recommend to the sensitive, I'm sure this could have been much more raw.
The ending wasn't bad but it lacked better explaining. I still wonder how all that was possible, and to be honest I felt a little aggravated by some reveals.
This book isn't so much about the war as an attempt to make something different. I applaud the attempt but not the result. I've seen it go great, as with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but this was a failure in my opinion. Not that easy to read even if the vocabulary is okay and not exciting in any moment, I took days and days and days. I'd have passed this could I go back in time.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
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