Honor by Susan McClelland and Nataliia Mariichyn

Book Synopsis:

Told from dual perspectives, this remarkable true story for YA readers recounts the tale of two individuals—a Ukrainian teen in the early 2010s and a Jewish boy in hiding during WWII—whose lives are entwined through a box of letters.

Nataliia, a teenager in Ukraine, is at home when she makes a puzzling a box of letters written from a Jewish boy, Eliezer, about his experience during the Holocaust. At first, Nataliia doesn't understand why her family possesses Eliezer's letters. But as she reads through them, she is able to piece together a fascinating connection—her ancestors were the ones who sheltered Eliezer during the war. Decades later, Nataliia and Eliezer’s family find each other in the same orbit again—as the world faces conflicts anew.

This is the incredible true story of two families brought together through war and a girl’s discovery of her family’s past—and what it means for the future.

My Review:

Note: I received an ARC through NetGalley

"We do what we can with the little we have, but to live a long life doing nothing is to not have lived at all."

4/5 stars. I love WWII historical fiction. I enjoyed this one, but I wasn't invested in the modern time period that went along with the historical one. It started out slow, and it wasn't nearly as compelling as the other. I liked how it all connected in the end, though, although I figured out the connection way before the character did. Another thing I enjoyed about this book was the little bits of Ukraine's history I learned. I love when a historical book teaches me something new, and Ukraine's relationship to the Soviet Union was something I was unfamiliar with. One other thing to note is that this book had a lot of typos and comma errors, which I hope will be fixed in the final release.

Nataliia's story was not very interesting at the beginning. Her first couple of chapters were almost all exposition about her life and Ukraine's history all at once. I was bored by it, and it made it harder to get into the story. Another reason I was less invested in Nataliia's story compared to Leizer's is that the stakes were so much lower. I was a lot more sympathetic toward "a boy on the run from Nazis who could kill his family," than "mean girl at school." At times, Nataliia's chapters felt less like a story and more just the bridge between the two lives. I understand it's based on a true story, but I didn't enjoy her sections nearly as much.

Leizer's story, however, is what keeps this rating higher. His wasn't too similar to typical WWII stories in that it didn't show Jews at concentration camps. Instead, it focused on his family and other Jewish families hiding in caves and seeking shelter with non-Jews willing to risk their lives to hide them. That was very interesting. His chapters were exciting and intense, and the ending was bittersweet.

Speaking of the ending, the way that Nataliia's story was connected to Leizer's in the end was good, which is always the thing you have to do well in dual-timeline stories. However, I don't know if it was supposed to be some great mystery, but I figured out the connected almost immediately, so there wasn't as much suspense or wonder.

This book had a lot of great themes about standing up to what's right and the power of saving lives, as well as hope and how to keep going. Here is an excerpt from a section I loved:

"We fight for more than survival. We fight for a future we may never see but someone will. A future where a child can speak the Shema without fear. A future where no one is hunted for their name or their faith. If we hold on to truth and kindness and to each other then we carry that future with us even now...our strength is not loud. It sits inside us like a candle in a cellar. It shakes but it does not go out. Every song we still dare to sing, every story we pass to each other, is a blow against those who want silence."

Content:

Language: slurs/offensive language against Jews

Sexual Content: none

Violence/Gore: genocide, death, blood, wounds, torture, typical WWII stuff, but nothing described in super high detail

Drugs/Alcohol: poison, smoking cigars