The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow

 Genre: Historical Fiction

Publishing Year: 2011

Publisher: Harper Teen

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

Fourteen-year-old Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew. But to the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin, it doesn’t matter that Karl has never set foot in a synagogue or that his family doesn’t practice religion. Demoralized by relentless attacks on a heritage he doesn’t accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth to everyone around him.

So, when Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German national hero, makes a deal with Karl’s father to give Karl boxing lessons, Karl sees it as the perfect chance to reinvent himself. A skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but as Max becomes the mentor Karl never had, Karl soon finds both his boxing skills and his art flourishing.

But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: protector of his family. Karl longs to ask his new mentor for help, but with Max’s fame growing, he is forced to associate with Hitler and other Nazi elites, leaving Karl to wonder where his hero’s sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his dream of boxing greatness with his obligation to keep his family out of harm’s way?

Review:

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when I finished it. Karl has taken definitive steps toward manhood by this point but in many ways, he is still a frightened boy. I feel that this book is more of a coming to age novel, than historical fiction.

 Still there is something to be gleaned from its pages. I have heard the stories of several Holocaust survivors in person and still many more that I read about in school. My World History class in high school went over the causes of WWII in detail and of course, the Holocaust came up multiple times. Whenever Nazi Germany was brought up, the conversation immediately turned to either the concentration camps or Kristallnacht. 

There was never much discussed about what led up to Kristallnacht, and I think that is where a good deal of this book’s power lies. It answered many of my questions. I always wondered if there were Jews who had abandoned their faith before the Nazi party rose, and if those Jews existed, where they still identifiable or could they slip under the radar. Every book about this time focuses on the Jews, but what about the homosexuals and the Gypsies, among others. Where they treated the same?

Karl is a nonobservant Jew and most others; he has none of the stereotypical features. Still his heritage is eventually revealed and he is expelled from his school. I didn’t encounter a Gypsy character in this book although they were mentioned but there were two homosexuals. The Countess and Fritz. Fritz turns out to be a weak character but I genuinely like the Countess, and his bravery on Kristallnacht. The book didn’t go into much detail about his own hardships although it is hinted that his business is beginning to suffer. Still he ends up risking himself to help Karl and his sister, Hildy. He is a strong character and extremely likeable. 

This novel spans about four years and I felt the transitions were a bit rough. One minute Karl is fourteen and the next he’s sixteen and having his heart broken and then he’s seventeen and his father is finally treating him like a man. Otherwise the story did flow well and I found it to be a good read. 

The ending left me dissatisfied even as I realized that it was much more realistic than any happy ending would have been. Hildy and Karl are on their way to America leaving their parents behind in Germany and once in America they will be split up. They have hope but their difficulties are hardly over. Maybe their parents will join them in America or maybe their father will be sent to a concentration camp and likely that their mother will fall back into her manic-depressive state. I am not a happy camper at the moment. 

For everything negative, I’ve said about this book there is a upside. I could not put this book down for all its faults. Sharenow is a wonderfully powerful writer and when I was reading this book, I was in the book. As I read I made several comparisons of this novel to the Rocky series and I think any reader who is familiar with them will notice similarities as well. 

I won’t be rereading this book, but it did serve to stir my interests in the Nazi-era again so I consider my time spent reading this book well worth it.

Question: When choosing a historical fiction novel to read do you prefer books with a heavy focus on war and soldiers or those that do not?

Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer

 Genre: Mystery

Publishing year: 2006

Publisher: Miramax

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Fletcher Moon has never been like other kids. For one thing, he first had to suffer the humiliating nickname “Half Moon” because of his short stature. But the real reason Fletcher is different is that ever since he was a baby, he’s had a nose for sniffing out mysteries. And after graduating at the top of his Internet class, he is officially certified as the youngest detective in the world. He even has a silver-plated detective’s badge to prove it. Everything is going along fine until two things happen: a classmate hires him to solve a crime, and his prized badge is stolen. All signs point to the town’s most notorious crime family, the Sharkeys.

As Fletcher follows the clues, evidence of a conspiracy begins to emerge. But before he can crack the case, Fletcher finds himself framed for a serious crime. To clear his name, he will have to pair up with the unlikeliest of allies and go on the run from the authorities. Fletcher has twelve hours to find the guilty party-or he is the guilty party.

Review:

I’ve always been a fan of Colfer; you can see this in my review of one of his latest releases The Reluctant Assassin here. I feel like this book may have been targeted for a younger audience, but I was unable to find a recommended age on the cover. While this can’t confirm my suspicion, it’s actually a tick in the pro column for this book. It just bothers me when I read a book that has an age range on it, and I don’t fall in that range. The cover is almost telling me to grow up. As if that’s ever going to happen.

Now about this book, I enjoyed the character development. This sounds like something I would put in an English essay but is in fact true. Fletcher, or Half Moon as I prefer to call him, seems to be a bright and likeable child. He just spends more time with detective work, bordering on obsession than he does with other children his age. Not too horrible, upon first look, but then I realized that he wasn’t merely withdrawn he had no friends. He had a solitary informant, who is never to be mentioned again after the first few chapters of the book, but he has no friends. What brought an excellent close to this book in my opinion wasn’t the solving of a case, but more on that in a minute, it was this quote.

“You’ve already been thinking about this haven’t you? You already have a name. Let me guess: Moon Investigations.” I grinned at my new partner. “You’re half right,” I said.

He has a partner, a friend who shares his hobby and that sounds absolutely cheesy and overdone, but I think it was a sweet ending. The tie in to the title was nice as well.

Another change I saw in Half Moon was by the end of the book he has learned that grey areas exist, whereas before he saw everything in black and white. Spending time as a runaway and fugitive with a crime family helped to give him a new perspective. 

Okay the case solving could have been complex, this is what leads me to believe that a younger audience was intended, but even with the answer becoming apparent quickly, this is still a marvelous book. A small irritant was the pro-Apple comments that kept popping up. It was an iPod that was stolen not simply an mp3 player, and Half Moon uses an iBook to search the internet not a nondescript laptop. As I said irritating, but really a minor concern. I give it a four out of five because I could find no other fault. Truly a quick, easy, and happy read.

Question: Have you ever had a hobby that drew your focus away from everything else? Did your friends and family support or encourage you to pursue this hobby or did they frown on it as Fletcher’s parents and classmates did?

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: The Demon’s Lexicon Trilogy #1 

Publishing year: 2009

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Rating: 5/5

 Synopsis:

Nick and his brother, Alan have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick’s mother stole-a charm that keeps her alive-and they want it badly enough to kill again. Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon’s mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase…and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is desperate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long. Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians’ Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all. This is the Demon’s Lexicon. Turn the page.

Review:

I picked this book up on a whim at the library. I didn’t think I would like it but I was short on time to pick another and needed something to read the next day. How many times do I need to be told that first impressions are misleading? Sure, this book started out a little weak, and I rolled my eyes about Mae’s references to the occult and Wicca. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of talismans either. This book was reading like dozens of others…and then it changed.

The main protagonist Nick is the kind of character I don’t encounter often. He was so cold, but not maliciously cruel or even manipulative. Well later, he was a tad manipulative concerning Alan and Mae and he did torture someone so maybe he’s cruel too.  To clarify, he was without any emotion aside from anger, or at least that’s all he knew how to convey. 

I like how the plot twist at the ending snuck up on me. It was a quick and stunning realization. In other words, it was a duh moment. All the little oddities that had been poking my brain with a sharp stick had piled up and then suddenly they were explained and for equal measure tied up with a neat purple bow. Now for those oddities.

1.      The differences between the two sets of siblings in The Demon’s Lexicon were interesting to me since I’m an only child. I didn’t find it odd that Nick was emotionally unavailable to everyone, his personality just screamed antisocial. Whenever he avoided contact with his brother, Alan it came off as unusual to me. Expressly when Mae and her brother Jamie arrived on the scene and I saw their casual displays of affection. Mae would ruffle his hair or place a light kiss on the top if his head in passing and earlier in the book Alan had tried similar actions only to have Nick edge away.

2.      Nick’s relationship with his mother was downright chilling. Their situation is unusual but for most of the book the hostility and distance between them goes unaddressed. I thought it might be because he wasn’t really her son, or something along those lines. I was close but no dice. Several times Nick remarks to Alan, that he shouldn’t pursue whatever plan he’s currently formulating because if anything happens to Alan then Nick won’t take care of their mother. He even says he’ll kill her a time or two. And he meant it.

3.      Nick’s amulet burns his skin. This doesn’t happen to Alan, Mae or Nick’s mum. For a second I considered the possibility that he might be a magician, but the mum is a magician and her charms don’t burn. This was a nagging mystery throughout the book.

4.      It isn’t supposed to be easy to summon a demon. At the Goblin Market, volunteers dance hoping to summon a demon successfully to make a deal. For example, to remove the demon mark placed on Jamie. However, even if the ceremony is done with flawless precision, it isn’t always a success. In my terms, I would describe demons as very fickle creatures. Still Nick has never had trouble summoning Anzu or Liannan, the two demons who have given their names to him. At a later point in the book, he even summons Liannan without the required dance, just as a magician would.

All the clues were there, and I felt like smacking myself at the end. If I had been paying better attention I might have been able to guess the ending but that doesn’t change how much I love it. I started out without favoring any one character, not even Nick. By the end though I can say I am fully engrossed with this character and the subtle changes he made by the end of the book.

“He felt grounded and at home already under his brother’s gentle human hands.” That is the last sentence of this book and I have strived diligently not to give away any plot spoilers. Except maybe one. As you can tell from the quote, Alan is touching Nick, and for once Nick is not edging away. Alan is stroking Nick’s hair to comfort him and it is working. At this point, I honestly believe that Nick is capable of feeling emotions other than anger.

Question: Do you feel that sibling relationships are portrayed accurately in fiction? Can you think of two examples, one that captured it perfectly, and another that was off the mark entirely?