Mrs. Kijek was one of my heroes. Honestly, Solovey was one, too. As for Tolya and Mykola, they both broke my heart. (My sister told me she had nightmares about poor little Mykola.) For example, even though I subsist off of candy and pizza, like a child with credit card access, I really am a big fan of brussels sprouts. There are also a lot of twists in the novel, however, each twist is important, and I think it helps develop the story as a whole, rather than detracting from it. I was invested in the characters, and the twists that occurred made me even more curious about what would happen next. I think the dual POV really worked well too, which kept up the tension and my developing interest in the story.

Traitor - Macmillan

I had no idea. I had no idea of the hostility between Poles and Ukranians, or of the betrayals and massacres. I had no idea what a struggle it was just to stay alive when so many people wanted revenge for so many evils. And to retain compassion and loyalty in these circumstances surely required a special sort of heroism. The history of Lwow is so complex that trying to put all those names and what they stand for or for whom, or who is against whom, is very overwhelming.

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight this is a dual perspective historical thriller set in an eastern european city during world war two with ukrainian, polish, russian, and german words and names, which i read half as a physical copy and half as an audiobook. In short, I was confused way more than I wasn’t. And it didn’t take long for me to give up on trying to orient myself and just...force myself on. Poland, 1944. After the Soviet liberation of Lwów from Germany, the city remains a battleground between resistance fighters and insurgent armies, its loyalties torn between Poland and Ukraine.

Traitor - Fierce Reads Traitor - Fierce Reads

Also, the fate of the Jewish citizens in Poland is certainly alluded to, and described pretty graphically in one scene, but it is not a major concern of any of the characters, so the book does not center on it. So, although it is a novel about WWII Poland/Ukraine, it is not a Holocaust narrative. A new perspective into the layered facets of WWII. This story focuses on Poland and it's struggles between the Soviet Union, Germany and it's own internal fighting. As a writer, I tend to be attracted to characters who have both internal and external conflict going on. And for me, the easiest way to do that is to write a character who represents two different sides or two conflicting identities. So Tolya, my main character, is representative of the whole conflict in the novel [because he is] both Polish and Ukrainian. He’s a microcosm of this conflict that runs throughout the novel. So his identity crisis is the same identity crisis [that runs] through the book. Traitor tells us the story of Tolya and Solovey, both of whom are fairly reluctant participants in this battle. I found my heart breaking for these young men, and all of those who experienced life in this hellscape, frankly. They were so young, and thrust into a situation so desperate, it was hard to wrap my mind around. I don't want to say too much about the actual story, because it's very twisty (as you'd imagine by the title, who knows who, if anyone is trustworthy!), but it definitely highlights the trials the young men are facing. We also see quite a bit of the war and the effects of it, as it switches POVs, alternating between 1941 and 1944. So not only do we see how the situation developed, but we get to see the ramifications of the fighting, and the toll it took on the people too. Traitor is a debut YA military thriller set in 1940's Poland- on the Eastern Front of WWII. Told in two timelines, each with a different POV character, this is fast paced, brutal, and clearly very well-researched. Both storylines are compelling and they weave together in interesting ways, although I did find the transitions between them to be quite jarring and pulled me out of the flow of what was happening. That said, the world the author weaves is darkly fascinating and we learn a lot about a part of the war that is often glossed over- one that is messy without clear heroes and villains.The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2. Amanda McCrina's Traitor is a tightly woven YA thrill ride exploring political conflict, deep-seated prejudice, and the terror of living in a world where betrayal is a matter of life or death. But perhaps it is the characters that really made this a five star read for me. McCrina created incredibly realistic people, ones that I could have known in school, with their flaws, mistakes, and disappointments, but also with a piercing sense of honor, loyalty, and boldness. They constantly question what is right vs what is expected of them, the changing landscape of loyalty from one person and one cause to the next, and, indeed, what and who makes a traitor. Each character had his or her own personality, humor, and way of dealing with these questions that made the events not only entirely believable, but probable. Tolya crouched on his heels, holding his rifle across his knees. He moved his finger off the trigger and held up his hand, palm out, to show peace.