Book: One Last Hope

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One Last Hope: A Voyage to Escape Nazi Germany
Roberta Kagan
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I'm sorry, I had to give up on this book. I'm about 20-30% in.

There were such good reviews on this book, that, what's the saying, got me hook, line, and sinker.

This was one of the more difficult reads. Not for anything, just for the bad writing.

This will be spoiler-heavy.

Other authors can do flowy prose and all that. In this book, it's like a kid is writing sentences.

The characters aren't developed. It's like, Guy A met Guy B. Together they met Girl A and Girl B. They had dinner. Guy A and Girl A are chatting and hit it off quite good. Guy B likes Girl A so is mad with Guy A.

The things that happen are just stupid. Girl A goes out to look for a job. Almost gets mobbed. Luckily, Guy A followed and saved her. Next thing you know, Girl A does the same shit again.

Oh, and the coincidences! Guy A wants to get away from Girl A's family. Oh look, next chapter, Girl A's family all die in a fire because Girl A's uncle smoked a cigar that, hey all along it WASN'T mentioned, Guy A had given him as a gift.

My brain couldn't take it anymore when throughout the book it kept saying Guy A and Girl A can't speak English. OK, I know that since this is an English book so they have to write it in English. What I mean is, it states they are not good in English. They speak German, French, and Yiddish. Then, in a scene, Girl A gets to meet with another Italian girl (not Jew, so no Yiddish I suppose), yet they hit it off and become good friends. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just wondering, how were they communicating to be such good friends. And the conversation was literally like this:

"Hey, there's no one here, let's be friends. Talk about yourself."

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

OMG, I just can't take it anymore.

I'm kind of thinking those 5-star reviews are paid reviews. I think even an ESL student can write better than that!

I had to give this up. I'm reading another book.