Traitor: A Novel of World War II

Product Information

Four different nationalities have been battling for power in the war-ridden city of Lwów. Seventeen-year-old orphan Tolya is half Ukrainian, half Polish, and has seen no other option but to join the Soviet Red Army to stay alive. When he shoots his political officer, he’s pretty much doomed. But then he’s rescued by a group of Ukrainian freedom fighters led by Solovey. Solovey claims the group needs Tolya’s sniper skills. But Toyla doesn’t trust him, and being half Polish, he certainly doesn’t trust the Ukrainians will let him live once he’s executed the group’s mission.

Traitor - Macmillan Traitor - Macmillan

Occasional strong language includes "bastard," "bitch," "whore," "s--t," etc. Ethnic slurs and anti-Polish, anti-Ukrainian, anti-Russian, anti-German, and anti-Semitic language. McCrina knows her history, her weaponry, the complex regionalisms involved, and even her natural world, and this shines through in her writing. She also doesn’t pull the punches when it comes to revealing what two boys likely went through during the gut-wrenching loss of their society. Plus all the secondary characters (the women, basically) bounced in and out of the storyline so randomly that I couldn’t remember who was who. It didn’t help that a few of them showed up in both timelines to thoroughly confuse me about who knew who. You do, eventually. Sort of. In that, it's a satisfying resolution, but one that grapples with the complexities of our identities -- for example, Tolya is half-Polish and half-Ukrainian and fought for the Russians. Whose side is he really on? Whose side does he *want* to be on, when every side is so flawed? I wanted to like this very much, as it’s about a unique part of history that isn’t written about often. And in the moments when I had a single clue, it was often immersive and convincing.

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. 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.

Traitor | Amanda McCrina | FSG Books for Young Readers

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight Secondly, the pacing was. Strange. It felt like the climax happened way too early (or at least the most exciting part did), and by the end I felt surprised when it had ended without any other real action. 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.

Traitor is a novel that takes place in WWII, following half Ukrainian and half Polish seventeen-year-old Tolya Korolenko. After shooting his unit’s political officer, he’s saved by Ukrainian freedom fighters, including squad leader Solovey. However, a betrayal sends them both running, and a traitor can be an enemy or savior, or both. The immediate concern was the clomp, clomp, clomp of boots coming toward him down the street—boots and voices, Russian voices. Fans of Wein’s Code Name Verity won’t want to miss this powerful story about the desperate actions we take in the name of loyalty and survival.” — The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books