I don't read a lot of historical fiction. I don't have anything against the genre, it's just not something I'm usually into. However, Mom has been telling me for years how good Sarah's Key supposedly is, which prompted me to finally check it out. Spoilers ahead.
We meet Julia, a journalist living in France who is trying to get to the bottom of the history of the people who used to live in the house she and her husband moved into. A key historical character in this is Sarah, a Jewish girl who during Word War II was taken away with her parents by the French police in order to be taken to Auschwitz. She manages to escape, however her life hereafter soon becomes a mystery Julia has to unravel.
Honestly a really strong book, especially the first third. The rest is good, too, but I was just really interested in Sarah's POV chapters, which stop about a third into the book as from there on the audience joins Julia on her quest to puzzle together what became of Sarah.
Julia's chapters are also good, however, I prefer it when they focus on Sarah. I know that a book like this needs subplots, but I honestly couldn't care less for the whole subplot between Julia and her husband. I really didn't like that a lot of chapters focused on the relationship between them, when the focus the audience wants is on Sarah, not Julia's home life. Julia is a fine character and I do wish her happiness, but I just felt her chapters were at their best when her quest to find out more about Sarah, and not her bickering with her husband who quite frankly is a pretty big asshole sometimes.
One thing I really liked about this book is how lightning-fast and short the chapters are. There's no beating around the bush. Some chapters are only two-three pages long, with I think four-five being the average. This took some getting used to as I'm used to reading longer chapters, but I honestly got used to it super quickly and it actually read quite pleasantly. I'm one of those people who cannot simply put a book down but need to stop reading the current chapter or at least the current paragraph, so I liked these fast chapters. Things do move very quickly between Sarah and Julia in the first third, but the other two feel a bit more relaxed as we focus solely on Julia and her struggles to learn about Sarah's further life and fate.
The book is pretty damn brutal at times, so definitely don't check this one out if you're faint of heart. The ending was rather heartwarming, though, so that was pretty nice.
Overall I really good book I do recommend you check out if you can handle the content matter.
Rating: 4/5
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