Author: Jennifer Epstein
Pages: 384
Published: 2013 (first published 2012)
Genre: Historical
Challenges: Historical
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library
Description: Fifteen-year-old Yoshi Kobayashi, child of Japan’s New Empire, daughter of an ardent expansionist and a mother with a haunting past, is on her way home on a March night when American bombers shower her city with napalm—an attack that leaves one hundred thousand dead within hours and half the city in ashen ruins. In the days that follow, Yoshi’s old life will blur beyond recognition, leading her to a new world marked by destruction and shaped by those considered the enemy: Cam, a downed bomber pilot taken prisoner by the Imperial Japanese Army; Anton, a gifted architect who helped modernize Tokyo’s prewar skyline but is now charged with destroying it; and Billy, an Occupation soldier who arrives in the blackened city with a dark secret of his own. (via Goodreads)
Thoughts: I struggled with this book and had to basically force myself to finish the book, but it was odd because once I was into reading the book, I really got into the story lines, even though they felt very confusing as to how they all related to one another. Despite the fact that the book was well written, it felt disjointed and as though I couldn't place myself wherever the story was going, even though by the end, I really wasn't really surprised at all what had supposedly happened had in fact happened.
Bottom line: Due to my ambivalence to the book and that at times I just wished it would end, I don't know who I would recommend the book to. It is well-written and there were chapters that drew me in more than others and if you enjoy literature that deals with World War Two, I would recommend it to you. Recommended.
Rating: 3/5
Pages for 2013: 7064
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