Orphan Monster Spy
by Matt Killeen
Hardcover, 432 pages
Expected publication: March 20th 2018 by Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780451478733
NetGalley/ARC
About:
A Jewish girl-turned-spy must infiltrate an elite Nazi boarding school in this highly commercial, relentlessly nail-biting World War II drama!
After her mother is shot at a checkpoint, fifteen-year-old Sarah--blonde, blue-eyed, and Jewish--finds herself on the run from a government that wants to see every person like her dead. Then Sarah meets a mysterious man with an ambiguous accent, a suspiciously bare apartment, and a lockbox full of weapons. He's a spy, and he needs Sarah to become one, too, to pull off a mission he can't attempt on his own: infiltrate a boarding school attended by the daughters of top Nazi brass, befriend the daughter of a key scientist, and steal the blueprints to a bomb that could destroy the cities of Western Europe. With years of training from her actress mother in the art of impersonation, Sarah thinks she's ready. But nothing prepares her for her cutthroat schoolmates, and soon she finds herself in a battle for survival unlike any she'd ever imagined. (Goodreads)
Rating:
This book was pegged as being a historical thriller/mean girls story. The beginning of the book started out exciting, but by the time our main character, Sarah, gets to the school the spy thrill kind of putters out. Yes at school there is a “mean girl” element, but it’s weird. It’s like the author tried too hard to add to much to the story and overshot the mark making the book unbelievable.
I could get behind a teen spy. I could even get behind the get the invite to the German girl’s house to steal information (sounds like a typical spy book). But I couldn’t get behind all of the “mean girl” elements. I get that there’s a group of girls “ruling” the school. But the fact that they can physically hurt other girls who are supposed to be rich or belong to high ranking Nazi families seemed a little much.
Then there’s the creepy music teacher. I see how he comes into play at the end, but I feel like he was just an added weirdo thrown in to give the story a twist.
Then when Sarah finally gets the invite and makes it to the house, the creepiness of the Father is just yuck! That part was especially too much.(I don’t want to go into detail and spoil anything for anyone so I’m just going to leave it at yuck).
The spy part of this story is where it gets points. Sarah is a decent spy and I really wonder how she would have fared throughout the rest of the war. The un-needed flash backs that could have just been the start of the book instead, hurt the book in my opinion. The creepy grownups… just because they were Nazis doesn’t mean they were all heartless and rapists… also hurt it. The mean girl aspect was a little much. Overall, just a meh historical fiction story. I you have older teens who are really into historical WWII fiction and are willing to expend belief a bit they might like this one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment