Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I wasted a whole train journey reading this. Why did I dislike this book, you ask? Well, let's just say I wish I had left it on public transport.

Well, for one, the characters, for the most part were awful. There were three varying degrees of characters in this book.
Stage 1: Oh wow, these characters have substance! I feel for them, and at times they are pretty complex. These two characters Krysia and Georg Richwalder. I really appreciated how Jenoff tried to make Richwalder into somebody rather than a stereotypical Nazi.
Stage 2: These are the majority of the characters in this book. They had little or no character development, likewise, little or no character and yet they are meant to be important characters. For example, Jacob, Marta and Alek. I didn’t really have much of a strong opinion on them.
Stage 3: The most annoying character in this book was Emma. She had no real personality apart from the fact that she was incredibly innocent/ naive and stupid. She is constantly dropping things and jumping around the place. I was at a loss how she ever became a member of the Resistance – with such a vital job – as she was sure to give the game away.

Another thing which was badly done was the writing. It was so full of clichés it was hard to digest and it felt far, far too modern for 1939-1941. Emma kept saying Okay. No, this was not okay.

The plot, above all, was predictable, which I suppose was ok as I could read it quicker.I was pretty interested in it as often I couldn't put it down. However, the ending was ridiculous, silly and melodramatic.

I would say that the passing of time in this book felt that it should have been slower. A lot of time was spent reading about passages about how a month had passed since the last chapter. I suppose, I thought those months that passed could’ve been filled with foreshadowing, character development or what have you.

There was another thing that irked me. It was a blatant historical error. It is 1940-’41, when Germany is doing well in the war. Yet, Richwalder tells Emma that Germany was doing badly in the war… well, at that point they weren’t.


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