Book Review: The Wrong Boy

I've been reading a lot of books lately. Well, actually, only two -- but it feels like a lot. Mostly because they've been the kind of book that pulls you in and doesn't let you leave the couch all day. Except when you brave the cold and sit on the wet trampoline just to breathe in some air. Even then, the book follows you.

Jasper Jones, well I must say, I was expecting something more. I kept waiting, waiting -- but I was disappointed. I mean, yes, it was amazingly written and what not -- but after a friend told me how unpredictable it was... well, I predicted it all with the mindset, "What would be unpredictable?" So yeah. I found it depressing. Empty. It didn't leave me pondering or smiling or anything. Just kind of empty.

But I'm not reviewing that book. Because I just read another 'couldn't put it down' book and it was brilliant. The Wrong Boy, by Suzi Zale, is about a Jewish girl called Hanna. Last year, we spent a lot of time learning about the Holocaust, and reading the book, I was taken back -- not so many years ago, surprising to many of us -- to the camps, the guards, the rations and the barracks.

And love. Given the title, which turns out to be pretty self-explanatory (Although I didn't pause to think about it -- trust me, you'll be glued to the words and 'a movie will start playing through your head' from the first sentence).

I nearly started crying. I liked this story because it was different to all the other stories I read, movies I've watched. This book was honest and captivating and, reading the words written by the author, I have to share these words Suzi Zale wrote:

Only by remembering can we prevent the past from fading. By reading about the Holocaust and trying to understand it we can make sure it never happens again.