The Stolen Ones – Vanessa Curtis {YA Book Review}

The long weekend, but a distant memory now, but I’ve already set my sights on the Easter Weekend coming up! Long weekends are totally made for reading…right? Okay, enough day dreaming about the long weekend, today is Friday, which means its #BookReviewFriday. Today I’m reviewing a book from the Young Adults section, titled The Stolen Ones. I had actually requested this for my niece, Alyssa to read, but I was so intrigued by the synopsis, that I started reading it myself.

Guys, fun fact….I literally just discovered a week ago that Young Adult books, just mean that it is written from the perspective of a young person. I was feeling so offended….like why can’t I read this book? Are us oldies being discriminated against? ha ha. I am so embarrassing sometimes….but better late than never to learn right?

What is The Stolen Ones about?

My name is Inge. I am sixteen.

I live with Mama and Papa in Munich. Food is still rationed, though the war ended over ten years ago.

My boyfriend is Jewish. I have to hide this from my parents.

Sometimes I think they are hiding something from me, too. Letters arrive every year on my birthday, but they are not addressed to me.

They are for a girl named Kasia.

This is her story…

My Opinion

Doesn’t the synopsis just sound so intriguing? I think this is why I just picked it up and started reading. The story is set after World War 2 in Munich, Germany. Inge has always been a daddy’s girl. She knows her dad was in the army, but she doesn’t really know anything else about the war. The book starts very early on with the Inge being curious about a visitor that arrives at their door, the letters, and discovering secrets that her parents have been keeping from her.

Emotionally, this was a really complex story….so many characters, with so much at stake. As a mom, I felt my heart go from empathising with one character, to empathising with the other. I think the only thing that was missing for me with the book…as a mom, I wanted to read from that perspective, the mom’s. Which obviously is not the point of the book, this is Kasia’s story.

The thing I loved most about this book, is the history of the war and what the Germans/Jews/Polish/etc went through and experienced. I don’t mean love per se, because that was an awful awful time, but to broaden my knowledge about what took place, as a lot of the information in the book, is based on fact.

The Stolen Ones is a book about truth, questioning, empathy, struggle…..deceit…. but a story told in the simplest way, that doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed with information. It wasn’t predictable at all, which is a good thing. Every time I thought I knew something, I’d find out something else. The book is a very easy, quick read and I felt while reading it, that this was written for a younger audience.

Rating and Pricing

The Stolen Ones has a Goodreads rating of 4.1/5 stars. I personally won’t be adding my rating, because I feel like, because this was such a light read, aimed at a younger audience, I wouldn’t be able to rate it fairly. I however would recommend this to a younger reader.

This books retails for around R150 and is available from all leading book retailers.

PS In case you missed yesterday’s thrilling review on Darkest Truth, you can check it out over HERE.

Thank you Penguin Random House SA for sending this over! As always, all opinions and reviews are my own.