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rballenger's review against another edition
5.0
Type of read: Commuter.
What made me pick it up: Suggested in a weekly email from my library or found on Goodreads, can't remember.
Overall rating: This book is heartbreaking. I don't know if I have words to describe how much I felt the story and emotions of 'This Light Between Us.' The narrators of the audiobook version I enjoyed, Emily Ellet and Greg Chun, were absolutely fantastic and truly made the story come to life. I would absolutely recommend 'This Light Between Us' and think it could be read and enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences. It's a beautiful historical fiction that pulls you in.
What made me pick it up: Suggested in a weekly email from my library or found on Goodreads, can't remember.
Overall rating: This book is heartbreaking. I don't know if I have words to describe how much I felt the story and emotions of 'This Light Between Us.' The narrators of the audiobook version I enjoyed, Emily Ellet and Greg Chun, were absolutely fantastic and truly made the story come to life. I would absolutely recommend 'This Light Between Us' and think it could be read and enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences. It's a beautiful historical fiction that pulls you in.
muppetymelody's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Antisemitism, Blood, Gore, War, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Death, and Racism
Moderate: Confinement, Deportation, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, and Hate crime
jwinchell's review against another edition
4.0
This is really an amazing feat- managing to connect Japanese internment in the US with the Holocaust. Fukuda does it seamlessly, weaving together French Jewish Charlie with west coast Japanese American Alex. There are 3 parts, which makes this an ambitious novel and not for the faint of heart. Life in Bainbridge Island as Pearl Harbor happens and the beginning of the pen pal relationship that starts when they are in elementary school. Part two is in Manzanar, the internment camp. The uprising that really happened there is depicted. Part three is war, when Alex enlists and fights in Italy and Germany and liberates Dachau. The 442nd Japanese American regiment is real and they really did that and free a regiment of Texans held by the Nazis. The yearning Alex and Charlie feel for each other is real and holds the story together. For WW II aficionados, this book really delivers. Beautiful if a bit long.
that_crazy_fangirl's review against another edition
5.0
When I tell you I almost cried after reading this…
Keep in mind, I don’t usually get teary over books. So the fact that I was so close to crying and the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I was in public is a big deal.
This book broke my heart in the best way. It’s such a wonderful story. I have to respect the author, because this is truly amazing.
If you’re about to read it, all I have to say to you is get some tissues. You’ll need it.
Enjoy!
Keep in mind, I don’t usually get teary over books. So the fact that I was so close to crying and the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I was in public is a big deal.
This book broke my heart in the best way. It’s such a wonderful story. I have to respect the author, because this is truly amazing.
If you’re about to read it, all I have to say to you is get some tissues. You’ll need it.
Enjoy!
missmary98's review against another edition
5.0
This covered yet another side of WWII that I'd never read about before, and dang did it do a good job.
miraswan's review against another edition
5.0
Shaking and crying on campus as I read this. It was so good and so sad and so... so many things I can't put into words right now. The way Alex and Charlie captured me in the first few letters was an incredible feat of writing because the two worked so well with each other. I loved seeing the balance between them.
In many ways, Frank and Charlie played similar roles to Alex albeit in different ways. Both were a counterweight to Alex's... almost accepting defeat ways? I don't believe he did accept, and that he tried to fix things / survive things in his own way! His anger and pain was very real, and I fault no one for simply trying to survive through trauma. I only bring this up because Frank was protesting and sharp and adamant and Charlie had a fire in her that led to her defiance in everything. I noticed Alex was content to follow along in their wake -- and his turning point was the lack of Charlie and Frank in his life which we see most notably in part three. It's when he unfolds as a character in some ways - and crumples in others.
I feel as though Alex lost many things in this war. His dreams of the future were one of them -- he let go of his belief in Frank fixing everything, in the US realizing their mistake, in becoming a comic artist, in meeting Charlie. It was... painful to witness the way this happened. The light in Alex most certainly dimmed. And yet the ending was so hopeful. I want him to hold onto that. I'm glad he found the light. I'm glad he found hope again.
Anyway I cried.
In many ways, Frank and Charlie played similar roles to Alex albeit in different ways. Both were a counterweight to Alex's... almost accepting defeat ways? I don't believe he did accept, and that he tried to fix things / survive things in his own way! His anger and pain was very real, and I fault no one for simply trying to survive through trauma. I only bring this up because Frank was protesting and sharp and adamant and Charlie had a fire in her that led to her defiance in everything. I noticed Alex was content to follow along in their wake -- and his turning point was the lack of Charlie and Frank in his life which we see most notably in part three. It's when he unfolds as a character in some ways - and crumples in others.
I feel as though Alex lost many things in this war. His dreams of the future were one of them -- he let go of his belief in Frank fixing everything, in the US realizing their mistake, in becoming a comic artist, in meeting Charlie. It was... painful to witness the way this happened. The light in Alex most certainly dimmed. And yet the ending was so hopeful. I want him to hold onto that. I'm glad he found the light. I'm glad he found hope again.
Anyway I cried.
linesuponapage's review against another edition
5.0
Description from the Publisher:
"For readers of The Librarian Of Auschwitz, This Light Between Us is a powerfully affecting story of World War II about the unlikeliest of pen pals—a Japanese American boy and a French Jewish girl—as they fight to maintain hope in a time of war.
“I remember visiting Manzanar and standing in the windswept plains where over ten thousand internees were once imprisoned, their voices cut off. I remember how much I wanted to write a story that did right by them. Hopefully this book delivers.”—Andrew Fukuda"
My review:
This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda absolutely broke my heart. I had previous knowledge of the numerous Japanese Internment Camps and what the people went through because I have an older friend who was three years old at Manzanar Relocation Center with his six family members. He refused to take the Reparation from the government because he was serving in the military when President Reagan signed the bill to give Compensation to all the survivors of the camp. He told me his story back in 2001. He is a patriotic man who wrestled with the two sides of his history just as Alex did.
The physical descriptions of the center, the treatment of the Japanese people was hard enough to read than Mr. Fukuda throws in a penpal friendship between Alex and Charlie, who is a Jewish girl residing in Paris. Between the Relocation Centers in the States and the Concentration Camps in Europe as parallel settings, the story gets even more impressive and traumatic. I have to be honest, I took a few weeks off reading this book because my empathetic heart broke so many times and I just needed a break from the pain. I am lucky that I can do such a thing since Alex and Charlie didn't have that option.
The anger, the pride, the hatred were papable characters of their own and this story although aimed at YAs is a must-read for all age groups. I can't give Mr. Fukuda enough praise for his style of writing. The Epistolary style is my favorite writing methods and sometimes in other books I've read, it doesn't cover enough of the sense of smell, feelings, relationships, and setting. This book did not let me down. It is up there with The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn; Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society written by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. I know it is going to be a best-seller! I also think it would make a great movie.
I want to give an example of a paragraph that was a description in top-notch form. Let me set the setting: Alex and his family (his mother and brother, Frank,) are entering the Internment Camp along with the other first wave of prisoners and they see bleak tarpaper shelters in the middle of a near-empty desert: “Never judge a book by its cover. This is what they tell themselves. But once inside, their worst fears are confirmed. The book is worse than the cover. The walls are just wood sheeting, splintery and thin. No paint or insulation or plaster covers them. The floor is composed of wood planks with large knotholes slapped together. No linoleum covering. Placed around the room are seven army cots, metal skeletons. None with a mattress or a pillow. An oil furnace in the corner, standing cold as a tombstone. No desk, no chair, no running water, no toilet. Only a single bulb, unlit, hangs from a cord dangling from an overhead beam. Beneath it, coarse army blankets are thrown in a pile. Frank walks to far side. The wall—no more than a thin partition—doesn’t reach the peaked roof, leaving a three-foot triangular space.”
Can you see it? Do you feel the promise of a cozy shelter? Nope, neither did I. This one paragraph (which I hope the author didn't change) is just one of so many paragraphs that are even more detailed than this but I didn't want to use any of them as they would ruin the story. Trust me. This book is filled with brilliance for such a sad, sad, part of our history.
This Light Between Us has some romance, and fun in it too because like in all situations of life there ebbs and flows, highs and lows and somehow you have to lighten the load just to continue living. This is definitely a must-buy-to-re-read novel so that you can find other tidbits of truth in it. I am giving this a 5 star even though I feel it has earned more than that.
Thank you to Netgalley, Andrew Fuduka, and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read this beautifully written book in lieu of my honest review.
"For readers of The Librarian Of Auschwitz, This Light Between Us is a powerfully affecting story of World War II about the unlikeliest of pen pals—a Japanese American boy and a French Jewish girl—as they fight to maintain hope in a time of war.
“I remember visiting Manzanar and standing in the windswept plains where over ten thousand internees were once imprisoned, their voices cut off. I remember how much I wanted to write a story that did right by them. Hopefully this book delivers.”—Andrew Fukuda"
My review:
This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda absolutely broke my heart. I had previous knowledge of the numerous Japanese Internment Camps and what the people went through because I have an older friend who was three years old at Manzanar Relocation Center with his six family members. He refused to take the Reparation from the government because he was serving in the military when President Reagan signed the bill to give Compensation to all the survivors of the camp. He told me his story back in 2001. He is a patriotic man who wrestled with the two sides of his history just as Alex did.
The physical descriptions of the center, the treatment of the Japanese people was hard enough to read than Mr. Fukuda throws in a penpal friendship between Alex and Charlie, who is a Jewish girl residing in Paris. Between the Relocation Centers in the States and the Concentration Camps in Europe as parallel settings, the story gets even more impressive and traumatic. I have to be honest, I took a few weeks off reading this book because my empathetic heart broke so many times and I just needed a break from the pain. I am lucky that I can do such a thing since Alex and Charlie didn't have that option.
The anger, the pride, the hatred were papable characters of their own and this story although aimed at YAs is a must-read for all age groups. I can't give Mr. Fukuda enough praise for his style of writing. The Epistolary style is my favorite writing methods and sometimes in other books I've read, it doesn't cover enough of the sense of smell, feelings, relationships, and setting. This book did not let me down. It is up there with The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn; Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society written by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. I know it is going to be a best-seller! I also think it would make a great movie.
I want to give an example of a paragraph that was a description in top-notch form. Let me set the setting: Alex and his family (his mother and brother, Frank,) are entering the Internment Camp along with the other first wave of prisoners and they see bleak tarpaper shelters in the middle of a near-empty desert: “Never judge a book by its cover. This is what they tell themselves. But once inside, their worst fears are confirmed. The book is worse than the cover. The walls are just wood sheeting, splintery and thin. No paint or insulation or plaster covers them. The floor is composed of wood planks with large knotholes slapped together. No linoleum covering. Placed around the room are seven army cots, metal skeletons. None with a mattress or a pillow. An oil furnace in the corner, standing cold as a tombstone. No desk, no chair, no running water, no toilet. Only a single bulb, unlit, hangs from a cord dangling from an overhead beam. Beneath it, coarse army blankets are thrown in a pile. Frank walks to far side. The wall—no more than a thin partition—doesn’t reach the peaked roof, leaving a three-foot triangular space.”
Can you see it? Do you feel the promise of a cozy shelter? Nope, neither did I. This one paragraph (which I hope the author didn't change) is just one of so many paragraphs that are even more detailed than this but I didn't want to use any of them as they would ruin the story. Trust me. This book is filled with brilliance for such a sad, sad, part of our history.
This Light Between Us has some romance, and fun in it too because like in all situations of life there ebbs and flows, highs and lows and somehow you have to lighten the load just to continue living. This is definitely a must-buy-to-re-read novel so that you can find other tidbits of truth in it. I am giving this a 5 star even though I feel it has earned more than that.
Thank you to Netgalley, Andrew Fuduka, and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read this beautifully written book in lieu of my honest review.
linesuponapage's review against another edition
5.0
This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda absolutely broke my heart. I had previous knowledge of the numerous Japanese Internment Camps and what the people went through because I have an older friend who was three years old at Manzanar Relocation Center with his six family members. He refused to take the Reparation from the government because he was serving in the military when President Reagan signed the bill to give Compensation to all the survivors of the camp. He told me his story back in 2001. He is a patriotic man who wrestled with the two sides of his history just as Alex did.
The physical descriptions of the center, the treatment of the Japanese people was hard enough to read than Mr. Fukuda throws in a penpal friendship between Alex and Charlie, who is a Jewish girl residing in Paris. Between the Relocation Centers in the States and the Concentration Camps in Europe as parallel settings, the story gets even more impressive and traumatic. I have to be honest, I took a few weeks off reading this book because my empathetic heart broke so many times and I just needed a break from the pain. I am lucky that I can do such a thing since Alex and Charlie didn't have that option.
The anger, the pride, the hatred were papable characters of their own and this story although aimed at YAs is a must-read for all age groups. I can't give Mr. Fukuda enough praise for his style of writing. The Epistolary style is my favorite writing methods and sometimes in other books I've read, it doesn't cover enough of the sense of smell, feelings, relationships, and setting. This book did not let me down. It is up there with The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn; Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society written by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. I know it is going to be a best-seller! I also think it would make a great movie.
I want to give an example of a paragraph that was a description in top-notch form. Let me set the setting: Alex and his family (his mother and brother, Frank,) are entering the Internment Camp along with the other first wave of prisoners and they see bleak tarpaper shelters in the middle of a near-empty desert: “Never judge a book by its cover. This is what they tell themselves. But once inside, their worst fears are confirmed. The book is worse than the cover. The walls are just wood sheeting, splintery and thin. No paint or insulation or plaster covers them. The floor is composed of wood planks with large knotholes slapped together. No linoleum covering. Placed around the room are seven army cots, metal skeletons. None with a mattress or a pillow. An oil furnace in the corner, standing cold as a tombstone. No desk, no chair, no running water, no toilet. Only a single bulb, unlit, hangs from a cord dangling from an overhead beam. Beneath it, coarse army blankets are thrown in a pile. Frank walks to far side. The wall—no more than a thin partition—doesn’t reach the peaked roof, leaving a three-foot triangular space.”
Can you see it? Do you feel the promise of a cozy shelter? Nope, neither did I. This one paragraph (which I hope the author didn't change) is just one of so many paragraphs that are even more detailed than this but I didn't want to use any of them as they would ruin the story. Trust me. This book is filled with brilliance for such a sad, sad, part of our history.
This Light Between Us has some romance, and fun in it too because like in all situations of life there ebbs and flows, highs and lows and somehow you have to lighten the load just to continue living. This is definitely a must-buy-to-re-read novel so that you can find other tidbits of truth in it. I am giving this a 5 star even though I feel it has earned more than that.
Thank you to Netgalley, Andrew Fuduka, and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read this beautifully written book in lieu of my honest review
The physical descriptions of the center, the treatment of the Japanese people was hard enough to read than Mr. Fukuda throws in a penpal friendship between Alex and Charlie, who is a Jewish girl residing in Paris. Between the Relocation Centers in the States and the Concentration Camps in Europe as parallel settings, the story gets even more impressive and traumatic. I have to be honest, I took a few weeks off reading this book because my empathetic heart broke so many times and I just needed a break from the pain. I am lucky that I can do such a thing since Alex and Charlie didn't have that option.
The anger, the pride, the hatred were papable characters of their own and this story although aimed at YAs is a must-read for all age groups. I can't give Mr. Fukuda enough praise for his style of writing. The Epistolary style is my favorite writing methods and sometimes in other books I've read, it doesn't cover enough of the sense of smell, feelings, relationships, and setting. This book did not let me down. It is up there with The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn; Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society written by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. I know it is going to be a best-seller! I also think it would make a great movie.
I want to give an example of a paragraph that was a description in top-notch form. Let me set the setting: Alex and his family (his mother and brother, Frank,) are entering the Internment Camp along with the other first wave of prisoners and they see bleak tarpaper shelters in the middle of a near-empty desert: “Never judge a book by its cover. This is what they tell themselves. But once inside, their worst fears are confirmed. The book is worse than the cover. The walls are just wood sheeting, splintery and thin. No paint or insulation or plaster covers them. The floor is composed of wood planks with large knotholes slapped together. No linoleum covering. Placed around the room are seven army cots, metal skeletons. None with a mattress or a pillow. An oil furnace in the corner, standing cold as a tombstone. No desk, no chair, no running water, no toilet. Only a single bulb, unlit, hangs from a cord dangling from an overhead beam. Beneath it, coarse army blankets are thrown in a pile. Frank walks to far side. The wall—no more than a thin partition—doesn’t reach the peaked roof, leaving a three-foot triangular space.”
Can you see it? Do you feel the promise of a cozy shelter? Nope, neither did I. This one paragraph (which I hope the author didn't change) is just one of so many paragraphs that are even more detailed than this but I didn't want to use any of them as they would ruin the story. Trust me. This book is filled with brilliance for such a sad, sad, part of our history.
This Light Between Us has some romance, and fun in it too because like in all situations of life there ebbs and flows, highs and lows and somehow you have to lighten the load just to continue living. This is definitely a must-buy-to-re-read novel so that you can find other tidbits of truth in it. I am giving this a 5 star even though I feel it has earned more than that.
Thank you to Netgalley, Andrew Fuduka, and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read this beautifully written book in lieu of my honest review
blodeuedd's review against another edition
3.0
I knew it would come a time when this would turn sad, and I kept on hoping that there would be light at the end of that tunnel.
Two 10 year olds become penpals. A world apart, and they will come to mean everything to each other. Alex is Japanese-American, who grows up on a strawberry farm. Charlie is Jewish and lives in Paris.
They keep on writing and the years go by. Charlie sees how people change, soon there are Germans in the streets, but nothing bad could ever happen, right?
For Alex is happens faster. Pearl Harbor, growing tension, interment camps.
People are stupid, people are evil. Why weren't every German American or Italian American in camps then too? I guess there had to be on evil enemy that did not look like the rest. I guess one has to be grateful that everyone was just not killed outright.
And I kept wondering about Charlie. Since there are no more letters due to obvious reasons we have no idea knowing what happens to her.
The cover does tell that he will enlist. And of course he will search for her, and break my heart.
The narrator was great. He sounded familiar, but I have not listened to him before. He did well with their different voices and I felt I was right there, on suicide hill.
A good book, that would make a really good movie. Oh this is really one of those that needs to be a movie too. Especially in these times.
Two 10 year olds become penpals. A world apart, and they will come to mean everything to each other. Alex is Japanese-American, who grows up on a strawberry farm. Charlie is Jewish and lives in Paris.
They keep on writing and the years go by. Charlie sees how people change, soon there are Germans in the streets, but nothing bad could ever happen, right?
For Alex is happens faster. Pearl Harbor, growing tension, interment camps.
People are stupid, people are evil. Why weren't every German American or Italian American in camps then too? I guess there had to be on evil enemy that did not look like the rest. I guess one has to be grateful that everyone was just not killed outright.
And I kept wondering about Charlie. Since there are no more letters due to obvious reasons we have no idea knowing what happens to her.
The cover does tell that he will enlist. And of course he will search for her, and break my heart.
The narrator was great. He sounded familiar, but I have not listened to him before. He did well with their different voices and I felt I was right there, on suicide hill.
A good book, that would make a really good movie. Oh this is really one of those that needs to be a movie too. Especially in these times.