Reviews with content warning for Racism - City of Thieves

This book is part of that tired, old genre, “Oh, You Thought WWII was Bad? You Have NO Idea.” Yes, truly horrifying, awful things happened in WWII, but here they’re played for shock more than anything else, as if cannibalism and torture and rape were less tragedy and injustice and more spectacle and opportunities for shallow, serendipitous “heroism.” Not to mention, the prologue frames the book as a fictionalization of events in the life of the author’s grandfather, which one must actually google to find out is it’s own fiction. In short, a fairly self-focused and self-exultant perspective.

I will say, the story was plotted and paced well, even gripping in spite of the exploitative use of fictionalized historical pain and tragedy. And I loved the absurdity of a mission to find a dozen eggs. But the main characters felt flat, as did my feelings toward them; it was hard to care one way or another about their success. And such a non-empathic depiction of human suffering, especially with regard to historical events, was off-putting.

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semi's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.25

I only finished this book out of pure spite. It started off fine, but I couldn’t get behind the dark humour, crassness, and how the male characters treat woman as sex organs that should be ready to please them at their will. The characters felt flat to me and I ended up feeling like I knew nothing about them in the end. The book also has a very detached feeling, so it’s not the kind of book that is meant to pull at your heart strings and make you feel the despair of war. It feels more like you’re passively watching two characters go on an adventure.

Also there was one scene that really rubbed me the wrong way. The two main characters played a part in “freeing” these young girls from being raped from German soldiers. But right after they were making comments about which girl they wanted to “have dibs on.” Like it just felt very tone deaf to for these guys (16 and 18) talk about wanting to be sexual with these girls (around 12-14) right after hearing all the sexual trauma they JUST went through. There was also a part where Kolya asked why the girls didn’t leave or why they chose to say…As if they had much of a choice.

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