As I mentioned before, in June, I won my first Goodreads Giveaway, a paperback copy of Counting Lost Stars by Kim Van Alkemade. This book was published on July 18th, so you can get a copy now. I would give this book 4 stars. Here are my thoughts on it, including an explanation of why I don’t feel that it’s a 5-star book.
Book’s Premise
Overall, I enjoyed reading this story. It takes an interesting approach to World War II Holocaust history, taking a different route than other stories that I’ve read. While you do know that people are dying, I feel like this story focuses less on death and more on survival than most Holocaust novels. This book takes place in alternating chapters, mostly alternating between World War II (1941-1944) and 1960. Toward the end of the novel, the story is only set in 1960.
Potential Controversial Topics
While this book doesn’t focus on death as much as many other similar novels, it does address some issues that might be controversial, especially for the time periods when this story takes place. There are some same-sex intimate relationships happening both in 1941 and 1960, which would have been pretty scandalous at the time. There’s an unmarried woman who has recently given birth in the 1960 part of the novel. As a warning to readers, one character attempts suicide. While we don’t get the graphic details, it might be difficult for some readers to handle.
This book does have some swearing. Fortunately, the level of violence is surprisingly low considering the book’s subject matter. Some readers will find the sexual content mild, but there was one scene (maybe even two) that I ended up skimming over because it felt like it might head in a too-graphic direction for me. Because of the swearing and scene (or 2) that were a bit too sexual, I would not consider this a “clean” novel.
Why It’s 4 Stars
The main reason that this is not a 5-star book for me is that things feel too happy. Maybe, that sounds weird, but it just feels like things fall into place a little too easily considering the subject matter of the book. For example, everyone who knows about the same-sex relationships seems 100% fine with them, which really doesn’t feel realistic for that time period. I don’t want to ruin the book, so I won’t go into details with this, but there are also several events that just seem a little too convenient. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this book. To me, it just felt a little surface-level considering the seriousness of the subject matter.
Overall, this was a good book if you are a fan of World War II novels. Just be aware that it is not entirely clean.
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