From the moment I cracked open (okay, downloaded) the first page of this novel, I was totally obsessed. Like take-the-escalator-instead-of-the-stairs-so-I-can-get-in-two-more-paragraphs type of obsessed.
Beside the fact that I was Stress Reading (as in, the state of stress in which one frantically reads through a book in order to not have your loan end mid-chapter on your library e-book), I was a little scared about the length of the book as it was displayed on my Kindle. Basically, for those who don't know, the Kindle gives you little dots that indicate the length of the book you're currently reading. This book had almost as many dots as the width of the screen - gasp! - so I knew I had to put the pedal to the metal to crank this puppy out.
Well, like I said, this book was fabulous (well, it was actually very, very graphic in its depictions of the absolute horror of POW camps in Japan during the Second World War) and I was so excited - and frankly, a little perplexed - when I realized I was 75% of the way through and the story seemed to be winding down. WHAT was going to happen? Did the Japanese come to the US and steal Louis Zamperini back? Was he going to win that elusive Olympic medal?! OMG OMG!?!!
Op...nope, well lookie there, there are about a hundred pages of footnotes. Boo. Why was this disappointing? I didn't want the story to end! It was so good - wah, I'm still sad I'm not reading it anymore.
So, how to rate this? Well, I don't know that I can really use our typical YA scale so perhaps a little "free balling" here to liven things up:
- Historical Accuracy: Um, check out aforementioned novel-within-a-novel of footnotes. 10!
- Level of Harry Potterness: Bang on writing - 25!
- Awesomeness: 9
- Amazing Epicness: 9
- First Member of the Official Goosie Mama Book Club (Oprah who?)? YUP!
On to the next!
Good to see you keeping with your nonfiction/angel binary, Goosie Mama :-)
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