Denise

But it doesn't take courage to die. That's easy. It takes courage to live.

I had never heard of this book before I saw it on NetGalley. It won the National Book Award and Open Road Media is now publishing it in ebook format. I love reading books that take place in WWII and I can't really remember reading many that have some sci-fi or fantasy aspects to them, so this was like a new spin to a theme that I love reading about.

I love that this book included pronunciations of certain character names. My pronunciations would have been way off without it and it made reading this book easier as I didn't have to stumble over the names. As far as the characters themselves are concerned there was one that really stuck out for me and that was Vörös. I liked him throughout the book and was constantly curious about him (almost as curious as Kicsi was in the beginning). There were times when I felt so bad for Kicsi but there weren't many times when I really liked her that much. Her personality went from one extreme in the beginning to another towards the end. Her journey was heartbreaking but I didn't really manage to connect with her the way that I connected with Vörös.

I liked that this book had a great balance between the fantasy aspects and the horrors that are WWII. I was definitely interested in reading about both and was glad to see that neither of them really hogged the storyline from the other. I would definitely recommend this book if you want to read about WWII but like some fantasy as well. Thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Media for the galley.