B.R. of "Someone Named Eva"

So while I work on my book and use writing techniques that I know, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite books and review them in a Book Review type fashion. This way I can provide you guys with not only what I think our entertaining and gripping books, but books you can learn from as I talk about some of the strengths and weaknesses of the stories.

The first book that popped out as I was going through my personal library was a little historical fiction novel called, 'Someone Named Eva'. It takes place around the time of World War Two in Czechoslovakia and focuses on the story of a young girl as the Germans slowly move in to her country. The story focuses more on the psychological aspects of the war as the Germans separate the girl from her family and attempt to turn her into, "a perfect German girl." Over time we see them educate, abuse, comfort, and reconstruct her, attempting everything they can to change her and make her forget her past. It really is a brilliant book, having good themes and a touching story as we indulge ourselves with Eva's story.

But, from a purely analytical approach, what makes this story so good? One, it has a classic archetype of corrupting innocence as the young girl we first meet is transformed into Eva and forced to take part in German culture. In my opinion it's a archetype you can't go wrong with, and even though it's a pretty common one it seems to be one people are always willing to see. This leads me into my second main point; how great her character building is. Throughout the book we see lots of people come and go, and yes some of them are pretty flat, that's inevitable, but Eva herself is amazingly built up. In any book where we actually get to see someone's personality change and fluctuate is amazing, it's a real sign of life and avoids making what my favorite author would call, "another bag of bones." It really hits home the impacts of the German's attack as we see her transform from innocent, kind, and free spirited to polite, bitter, and introverted. My last point would be the realism of the book, which kinda spreads of many things. What I mean is it's a culmination of many things that give the book a sense of nonfiction instead of fiction. The first would be the great context of the story, created by the authors well done research into her topic. Secondly, it's raw, yet not over dramatic. It has that perfect balance that creates a life like feeling while reading, as you'll see in many well written nonfiction books. Lastly, the characters and dialogue are very real. The dialogue always fits the relationship between the characters, ranging from formal and stiff to colloquial and lighthearted.

All in all it really is a great book, especially if you're fascinated with World War Two like I am, or are just a history buff in general. It'll suck you in and next thing you know the story's over and you're sitting there wondering where the time went! If this isn't really up you're alley however, don't worry I'll be doing some more book reviews soon, peace!

-Ink