After a month of trying to get through this book, I’m calling it quits at just about half way through. While the story itself is important, this book was just not the right delivery method for this story for me. I hope to read the autobiography that was published by the main source, Dita, at some point.

The book is written simply, at least in the translated to English version, and it didn’t hold my attention well. I know this is geared towards high school students, but it’s more middle grade level reading. It assumed the reader had no knowledge of what went on in the camps, which depending on the age of the reader might not be a bad thing.

The character perspectives can shift without much introduction. Certain parts seemed jammed in and didn’t make sense given the timeline of Auschwitz. I respect that they were likely added to give a full overview of the horrors of the camp, but I wish it had stuck with one perspective as opposed to one main perspective and a dozen others.

Also, it has the unintended downside of a non-Jewish cisgender man writing as the voice of a Jewish teenage girl - for obvious reasons, this made it feel very much like the author didn’t fully connect with his subject.

All in all, it is not a bad book and has plenty of good information, but be wary of non-Jewish people writing Jewish stories - or any individual outside of a marginalized group that acts as a marginalized group’s voice. Amplify those voices, don’t speak over them.