Aliza in Naziland by Elyse Hoffman; Thought Provoking Graphic Holocaust Dark Fantasy Draws The Line Between Vengeance and Justice

 Aliza in Naziland by Elyse Hoffman; Thought Provoking Graphic WWII Dark Fantasy About Hatred, Revenge, and Drawing The Line Between Vengeance and Justice

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Elyse Hoffman’s previous books like The Book of Uriel weave the stark graphic reality of the Holocaust with fantastic elements borrowed from Old Testament scripture, Jewish folklore, and European myths and legends. These books use these fantastic and dark elements to comment on the challenging themes of mortality, prejudice, Antisemitism, courage, sacrifice, faith, maturity, despair, rebellion, anger, and hatred.

In what is probably her darkest volume yet, Aliza in Naziland, Hoffman takes that combination of Holocaust reality and dark fantasy up to eleven with a novel that asks questions about hatred, revenge, retribution, and punishment.

16 year old Aliza Aueman is a Holocaust survivor living in 1950’s Beth-Hadassa, Maryland with her adopted father and sisters. The family is trying to adjust to living in America and dealing with school, interests, and family dilemmas while also suffering from PTSD, Anxiety, and other problems manifested from their time in Europe. They also have to deal with hateful organizations like the Anti-Semitic Black Sun Brotherhood planning a demonstration. Aliza likes her new life better than the old one, but she still has problems with obeying authority, restraining herself from getting into fights, and feeling powerless. 

One day she receives a mysterious note and a visit from a suspicious looking stranger. He says that his name is Ha-Satan and he is “the Heavenly Prosecutor.” He has a proposition for Aliza. Because Hell has grown too big and there are way too many souls to punish, he has decided to separate Hell into different sections, called Zones, and has appointed random mortals to punish the souls within them. There are specific zones called Naziland. 

Aliza is appointed Master over Zone N-1, the most coveted Zone because it contains the souls of prominent Nazis like Herman Goring, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Hitler himself! All Aliza has to do is order something to happen to them, no matter how humiliating, torturous, painful, or destructive.The punishment is temporary and all she has to do is return every day to inflict it again. 

Aliza gets a thrill out of this chance to inflict pain on her one-time torturers and takes full advantage of this opportunity. But what starts out as fun and games, albeit violent fun and games, becomes more serious when other people get involved and the hatred of the outside world in Maryland bleeds into the inside world of Zone N-1. 

Aliza in Naziland is an interesting premise that asks a lot of tough questions. Questions like how far is too far when you want to seek vengeance? What is the line between justice and revenge? Do the truly hateful deserve everlasting torment and what gives one the right to inflict it? At what point does the victim and survivor become just as heartless and ruthless as their one time persecutor? 

This book doesn’t provide any easy answers so much that it asks the Readers to investigate their own feelings about the matter, and imagine what they would do if they were in this situation. It provides a scenario of what this traumatized troubled outspoken young girl did as she inflicts punishment but also weighs the consequences of that punishment to herself, her own psyche, her family, her community, and her victims.

Aliza is written as someone who has deeply suffered by the hands of the Nazis, of that there is no doubt. Her birth parents were murdered and she was sent to a concentration camp called Fox Farm. She had been tortured, abused, malnourished, and assaulted. Her memories of her birth parents diminished and were replaced by those of Nazis shouting, beating, and shooting prisoners. She can't even remember her life before the Holocaust because it seems so far away and remote. 

The only positive in Aliza’s life since then had been her new family. Her adopted father, Amos smuggled Jewish orphans out of Europe and adopted four girls, including Aliza, who lost their families. Amos looks after his young charges with firmness, kindness, humor, and strength becoming the father figure that they desperately needed. Aliza also formed a family with her newly adopted sisters, Ute, the quirky animal expert, Shaina the dedicated athlete, and Heidi the sweet tempered beauty with Aliza as the outspoken tomboy. 

Aliza and Heidi's relationship is particularly notable throughout the book. Unlike the other three girls who came from Jewish families and suffered persecution, Heidi's father was a Nazi. Her mother and sister were members of a resistance group and were arrested for treason. Heidi became a prisoner in Fox Farm abused by one time colleagues of her father's. While in Fox Farm, Aliza and Heidi bonded and declared themselves sisters even before Amos found them and made their relationship official. 

Heidi refuses to acknowledge her original family and identifies as Jewish, since she converted but there are many in the neighborhood who won't let her forget where she came from.

The abuse in Aliza's past, the anxieties and trauma that the Aueman family still have to live with, the bullying that Heidi receives, and the arrival of Holocaust denying hate groups would make even the most devout pacifistic milquetoast person want to punish those who wronged them especially if they were truly as soulless and hateful as the Nazis. 

At first the punishment chapters are humorous in a dark comic way. Aliza tells the Nazis to shut up and their mouths are sealed. She makes Goebbels bite his tongue. Himmler holds his breath until he suffocates. Goring hangs himself by piano wire. Hitler bashes his head to the ground and breaks every bone in his body and Heydrich carves out his own heart with his knife. 

From this first example alone, we see Aliza has a dark twisted outlook and doesn't mind inflicting it on the Nazis that she is put in charge of. The more time that she spends in Zone N-1 the more grotesque, graphic, and painful the punishments become. She soon acquires a sadistic delight in torturing the men who caused great suffering and whose actions made her miserable after all these years. 

However, Aliza’s conscience gets the better of her at times. She dials back on punishments concerning the Nazi’s families. She doesn't want to put their children through that mental anguish because they had terrible fathers and were often too young, brainwashed, or victimized to fight back. She remembers Heidi's past and doesn't want them to suffer guilt by association.

Aliza begins to question her role in Hell when a classmate reveals that they are also a Zone Master and their punishments are too severe even for her to contemplate. The turning point occurs when she learns that there is a personal connection between one of the tortured Nazis and her own family. Suddenly, things like humanity, compassion, remorse, and real justice occur as she has to weigh the consequences of their actions and her own.

It is important to note that this character evolution is granted to Aliza and not the Nazis themselves. They made their choices in life and are now simmering in their own vile hatred. They are incapable of change becoming vile and pathetic as they cling to their racist and Antisemitic views. They are the defeated bullies who can't do anything else but whine in retreat and insist that they were right.

Aliza herself has to go through this change. She has to know when enough is enough. She is the one in danger of losing herself to hatred and revenge. She has to remember her own humanity and to emerge as a better person who doesn't get swallowed up by the hatred that poisoned her enemies. 

German But Not German by J.C. Berger; The Parallels Between Past and Present

 German But Not German by J.C. Berger; The Parallels Between Past and Present 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: For obvious current Presidential Administration-sized reasons, many people are reading and studying various times of dictatorships, how those under them rebelled and fought the system, the ways and means that the ideals and values that propel such action are spread, and most crucially of all how the dictatorships were overthrown and the important steps to be taken afterwards to rebuild the country and not make the same mistakes of the past and fall under the spell of another dictator.

One of the most obvious examples because it has been shouted out so frequently lately is The Holocaust under the genocidal tyranny of Adolf Hitler. One of the books that illustrates what life was like under that tyranny is J.C. Berger’s German But Not German about a German-Jewish family whose world implodes because of the reign of a former paperhanger and failed art student with a destructive and fatal vision for the continent in which he lived.

Inge Schoenberg is raised in Germany in the 1920’s-’30’s by her frivolous mother, distant father, bickering but charming uncles, and her stern but loving grandparents. Their internal conflicts of changed jobs, school worries, and a frequently absent and eventually estranged wife and mother become minimal as Hitler begins his reign of terror. Many Jewish families are stripped of their rights, detained in mass arrests, forced to obey dehumanizing laws, and are deported somewhere never to be seen again. The Schoenbergs are left with a very important decision, should they remain and stick things out or should they emigrate.

Let's get the elephant in the review out of the way first. Yes, there are a lot of eerie comparisons between what is happening in the book to what is happening right now. Berger not only gives us a deeply personal story about the Holocaust, he expands it by showing how Hitler got his reign started and how it quickly engulfed the entire country, continent of Europe, and threatened to destroy the entire planet. 

Throughout the book, we are given updates about what is going on in a historical context throughout the book. Berger offers not only the historical dry facts, but the perspectives that many had at the time. For example, the publication of Mein Kampf concerned some with the Antisemitic rhetoric but many simply saw it as the ravings of a lunatic, a nobody, someone that no one can or should take seriously. They were wilfully ignorant of what Mein Kampf really was: Hitler's biases for his hatred, goals that he wanted the country to do, and most importantly a master plan of how he wanted the country to accomplish this. It was not the rantings of a madman, it was a cold methodical plan of a hateful person who studied the character of others, knew what buttons to press and what to say to influence them, and a willingness to use other people to carry out those desires. Dare I say it, it was the work of an evil genius that was only recognized as such in hindsight. 

I'm sure many might feel the same about Project 2025, and let's be honest with ourselves, Art of the Deal. Readers didn't take them seriously. They dismissed them. They thought the detractors were exaggerating or part of some conspiracy meant to make the preparers and fans look bad. They didn't want to admit that Art of the Deal point blank explains Trump's behaviors and justifications for his later behavior as a President, someone filled with avarice and heartlessness who only looks at gain for themselves, never apologizes or accepts blame, attacks the critics and accuses others of what he himself is doing, thinks that everything is for sale, and never takes no for an answer. 

These are traits that Trump still inhabits and is often surrounded by Elon Musk and others who also exhibit those traits. We saw and read for ourselves what Trump was really like and instead of seeing Trump as a potential dictator and autocrat, we simply just saw him as an example of 80’s excess. Someone who had power for a time but is now outdated. Others actually took him to be a savvy businessman and thought that his views were admirable. But we didn't see the long term implications that those characteristics that he extolled for business were later used in politics to shape, transform, and change the country to his liking.

Project 2025 was the blueprint for what Trump and his cronies, particularly The Heritage Foundation wanted to accomplish. Many of us read it, recognized it for the plan for dictatorship that it was, and warned people. We highlighted the passages that were particularly problematic and sent messages through social media. We endorsed Harris and other politicians, even Republican ones like Liz Cheney who spoke out against it. We helped people register to vote and made them recognize the importance of voting. We talked about it, warned about it, made videos about it, shared it, and voted against it. 

Unfortunately, we became Cassandra in Greek mythology, gifted with the power of prophecy but unable to make opposing forces listen to or believe us. Most people didn't want to believe it. They told themselves that checks and balances would prevent it. They told themselves that we survived Trump's first term (though not everyone did), so how bad could it be? Maybe some wanted it to happen to gain power for themselves by dehumanizing and criminalizing others. Instead of investigating for themselves, understanding our fears, and working towards keeping it from happening, they chose willful ignorance and the whole country is paying the price. If you don't believe me, then I challenge everyone reading this review to read Project 2025’s manifest for themselves and point by point match their goals and what has already been accomplished. You will see that not only is the Trump Administration following it, it is already looking to exceed the Heritage Foundation's initial expectations. Keep in mind, this is only February, the second full month of the current Administration.

There are other obvious parallels as well. The dehumanization and mass arrests of Jews during the Holocaust can be seen in the dehumanization and mass arrests of immigrants. DOGE’s closures of departments is similar to the Nazi Party reshaping the central German government to make their actions possible without accountability. That also can be parallel to the legislative and judicial branches having a Republican majority to make Executive Orders easier to enforce. Trump chose a Cabinet and advisors that are inexperienced sycophants with criminal and unethical reputations like Hitler chose his inner circle. There are comparisons between the Beer Hall Putsch and January 6 and their aftermaths in which the leaders became convicted felons but served little to no time and still became leaders. Even some parallels between the Reichstag Fire and the Gleiwitz Incident resonate alongside the assassination attempt on Trump. Unfortunately, history runs in cycles and we can either learn from it or make the same mistakes. 

Because of this parallel situation between the past and present, it is very easy for Readers to identify with and understand Inge’s plight. Sure, we may have had familial problems as she did, or other issues related to work or relationships. but they were our individual problems. Under the weight of the traumatic stress of living in a dictatorship, those issues are often cast aside for larger political concerns. 

It is easy to see the confusion, terror, and anxiety when everything around you from schools, to stores, to media, to arts and entertainment sources, to friends and family change to fit the new normal. You don't recognize the world anymore and feel like somehow you landed in some other world. There's a lot of denial and a lack of acceptance clinging to the hope that it will be over soon.

It's also perfectly understandable why it takes so long for Inge and her family to decide to emigrate and for Inge to become proactive in the fight against the Nazis. It's easy to stand on the outside thinking “If it's so bad why don't you just leave.” But then other factors have to be considered like cost, obtaining paperwork and passports, finding employment, living in a new country and getting used to its culture and language, keeping from being stranded in this new place, trying to make new friends, and reuniting with friends and family. They also have to weigh the possibility of whether it's better to remain and fight on the inside, trying to find and retain the values that they once held, even if it means facing prison, institutionalization, sent to a concentration camp, or death. 

Emigration and outright rebellion are not easy decisions to make and this book explores those options. Inge and her family are put through tremendous stress and trauma and some members don't make it. Some have a hard time adjusting to the changing world around them, even when they are safe in another country. They still stand out and have high levels of anxiety and PTSD. Also the older characters are often set in their ways and don't want to adapt. They can only hold onto old times and a nostalgic past while younger characters, like Inge, at least try to find a new path in their current home. In adapting, Inge finds the anger to strike out at those who hurt her family and former country and the courage to serve in the RAF and take a real blow towards those who perverted the world in which she lived.

In reading about the past, Readers can find parallels with the present, recognize the warning signs, learn how to live under such a system, and most importantly become inspired to find ways to fight and rebel against it. I found my way through reading and writing. Now it's time for you to find yours. 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider; Speechless in Achten Tan (Book 1 Of The Sands of Achten Tan) by Debbie Iancu-Haddad; Slumber Nevermore by R.J. Garcia

 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider 

This is a brief summary of my review. The main review can be found on LitPick 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider is reminiscent of many coming of age books like Anne of Green Gables and The Little House books. It's not long on plot. It prefers instead to focus on various individual conflicts in Gittel’s life that test her character and teach her various lessons.

13 year old Gittel Borenstein is part of a Jewish family that emigrated from East Europe because of a pogrom to Mill Creek, Wisconsin with 12 other Jewish families. The book focuses on various events in Gittel’s young life such as bullying from Antisemitic classmates, conflicts with her more traditional Orthodox family, a budding romance with a local boy, and her participation in a Chautauqua.  

The book is strong on character, time, and place. The Borensteins emigrated for their safety but still feel out of place in this rural American country. Gittel has to suffer from insults and threats from other students, particularly Karl Leckner, whose religious Antisemitic father takes every opportunity to compare them to demons. Gittel shows her strengths by using witty comebacks and verbally challenging her antagonists. She even describes her mouth as the sharpest weapon that she and her friends, Irene and Emily, have.

Gittel struggles with not only societal conflicts but those within her own family. Gittel is a maturing young woman who is fascinated with the American way of life while her traditional Orthodox family mostly clings to the tight-knit Jewish community around them. Gittel makes gentile friends, develops her interests in singing, dancing, and reading, and uses her talent in public speaking during a Chautauqua. She nurtures aspirations to continue her education and become an actress or writer despite some of her family's concerns and soft objections. 

The most heartwarming moments are when Gittel and her family come to an understanding about her aspirations and interests and she recognizes their own adaptability as well as her own. She recognizes loving bonds which while hidden and not always expressed out loud, but are always felt. 

Gittel is the Yiddish word for “good” which is a decent description of the book. However, it's more than good. Gittel is great.

Speechless in Achten Tan (Book 1 in The Sands of Achten Tan) by Debbie Iancu-Haddad

This is a brief summary of my review. The main review can be found on LitPick. 

Speechless in Achten Tan is a Fantasy novel that will appeal to YA and Adult Readers with its captivating lead character and her search for her personal power.

 Mila, a mute cavern gnome, goes through a test to be considered worthy to study magic. After she fails the test, her mentor, Nora, sends her to the desert world of Achten Tan to study magic under Gerwyn, a wise and powerful witch. While in Achten Tan, Mila finds romance and friendship, becomes involved in a power struggle against the despotic Bone Chief Opu Haku, and discovers her strength and voice.

After her test, Mila is in despair because she doesn't conform to what her community believes are their standards of maturity. She is deprived of the ability to speak and to practice magic. She cannot ascend in their world so she is deprived of her agency. The dramatic irony is the reason behind her failure. Mila’s brother, Turosh, drowned over the same waterfall where she was being tested. She was temporarily overcome with grief, lost control, and failed the test. A moment of emotion remembering a traumatic event that shaped her youth and motivated her to continue studying ended up becoming a barrier in her pursuit of magic and full acceptance into her society.

As with the heroes in many legends and books in the genre, Mila is sent to continue her journey elsewhere. She has to leave to continue her studies. Her journey to Achten Tan also allows her to connect with her past, present, and future. Her boyfriend from the village, Geb, is also in Achten Tan to train as a healer. He provides an emotional center and keeps Mila focused as her abilities increase.

She also befriends Kaii, son of Opu Haku, the Bone Chief. Mila's friendship allows the son to step out from his father's tyrannical shadow and fight against him. Mila widens the scope of her magical pursuits to make long lasting changes with other kingdoms including her own. 

Mila is even able to reconcile her grief over Tarush’s death. She comes to terms with the loss and its aftereffects. While death and loss are still painful for her, she is able to set them aside and move forward on her path to maturity.

This is a Fantasy novel that many, especially young people, will relate to as they follow their own paths, discover their own abilities, and gain their own voices.

Slumber Nevermore by R.J. Garcia

R.J. Garcia knows how to keep Readers up at night. With the anthology, Slumber Nevermore she crosses genres to give the Readers a full effect of dark twisted tales that deliver on chills, ominous energy, and unforgettable mental images. 

There are seven stories but the best are:

“The Stolen Child”-This story is a Dark Fantasy that plays on those frightening magical creatures: Fairies.

Garcia refrains from the wholesome fairytale Disney image of fairies and focuses instead on the variations from myth and legends where they are powerful, capricious, demand to be respected, and should be kept at a safe distance. 

Mae is anxious about her sister, Emmie, who disappeared right in front of her. She has this sensation that they had been watched and out of the corner of her eye, she thinks that strange figures appear and disappear. She always suspected that there were fairies in the woods. Could she be right? Spoiler Alert: She is.

The fairies are written as ominous and secretive. They appear as orbs of light, shrill whistles, or silhouettes. Mae isn't sure if they are dreams or if they are real. Then when she finally talks to them, she isn't sure if they are good, evil, or neutral with their own moral code. They could go either way. Their ambiguity is their strength and while she is with them, Mae is completely at their mercy. As long as she is in their world, they could do whatever they want to her and no one would know about it. 

“The Stolen Child” is a modern fairy tale told to a Horror loving audience. Anyone who reads fairy tales knows that fairies can be sinister or helpful but are rarely the main antagonists. Instead the real villains are often a lot closer to the protagonist’s home than that. Those villains are cruel, malicious, and bring the worst misfortunes. 

“Lipstick”-This story is a Paranormal Horror that should not be read by anyone with coulrophobia. 

10 year old Billy sneaks out one night to see a carnival. The night of rickety rides, junk food, and fun to be scared thrills turns to terror when he encounters a demonic looking clown. The clown not only makes a formidable impression but makes him an offer that haunts him for years.

Dark carnivals might be cliched and scary clowns even more so, but they are used so often because they work. Carnivals can give off a sinister vibe when one thinks about it. These places of supposed amusement contain rides that are quickly put together by people who might have dubious reputations and are certainly in a hurry. A guest’s safety depends on them. Is it any wonder that they inspire fear? If you read books like Something Wicked This Way Comes or saw movies like Freaks or Carnival of Souls among others, you know what I am talking about.

Then there are clowns. They hide their true faces, come up close and face to face with children, seem impossibly cherry, and wear garish makeup. Lest we forget fictional clowns like Pennywise or real ones like John Wayne Gacy who certainly had dark sides. A clown can be terrifying. A carnival can be spooky. A clown in a carnival is frequent but also can give you that instant chill down the spine, the chill that warns you that maybe you should have stayed home.

Billy ignored that chilly warning and ultimately paid a huge price for it. This brief moment changes his life in many disturbing ways that leaves him traumatized and alone. The final paragraphs show the complete impact that this demonic clown had over his life to the point that Billy can't separate himself from him.

“Sister Witches”-It’s rare to have a Horror short story told from the point of view of the monster, but this story does and turns a story that would normally herald fear for the victim instead invites pity and regret for the monster. 

Cassandra is one of three witches. The other two are her sisters, Sheba and Celeste. The trio kill mortals and absorb their youth to remain forever young and beautiful. Their latest victim is Tommy, an aging man who is residing in a nursing home. 

The witches' goal is to preserve their youth. Their absorption of others’s essences is graphic but is comparable to an addiction rather than an unexplainable supernatural or demonic force. It ruins the mortals but also the witches as well.

Cassandra and her sisters absorb the essence not because they want to, but because they think that they have to and are unable to survive without it. This takes a toll on Cassandra in particular. She has become someone who isn't terrifying or frightening. Instead, she's weary and tired of life. She is ready to die but is unable to. 

In a way the fear doesn't come from an outside source, but from within. If we compare their immortality to an addiction, the fear comes from feeling forced to get that immortality and what it would be like to live without it. Cassandra fears what they have done, what they will do, and what would happen if that eternity would end. She is simultaneously longing for death and afraid of what happens if it comes. 

“The Axeman Among Us”-Of the stories, this is the most realistic. Instead of Dark Fantasy or Supernatural Horror, this is more like a Psychological Thriller. It features an infamous real life serial killer. The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer who murdered mostly Italian immigrants or Italian-American men from 1918-1919. Most notably, a letter allegedly from The Axeman said that he would not kill anyone on a certain night in homes where jazz played. Musicians played in hundreds of homes that night. The Axeman was never identified and no arrests were made.

Vincent and his friends, Mikey and Dupree are startled one night by the sound of a scream and a dark mysterious figure hastily leaving a building with an ax in hand. They suspect that he might be the Axeman. The trio become obsessed with the case and go to extreme lengths to stop the Axeman's reign of terror.

This story’s tone and atmosphere are on point. The Axeman is certainly human but he carries a demonic aura. He haunts Vincent's dreams and is described more of as an otherworldly presence than an actual human being. He invites the possibility that he might not be human at least in this version. But the fact that he is, somehow makes him even more chilling. He has a human way of planning and analyzing how to commit the murders without getting caught and an inhuman desire to hack a human body to pieces.

There are some interesting twists to the story. Since it is set in New Orleans, we get motifs like voodoo and jazz. Voodoo presents the only supernatural link in the story and even that might just be within the minds of those who believe in it. It also makes sense that in absence of any physical legal help to stop the Axeman, the boys would turn to more esoteric means. Voodoo is a large part of New Orleans life but it is also held in suspicion by non-practitioners. There is something supernatural and eerie about it, the type of thing that would draw someone like the Axeman. The boys are using one unusual potentially dark path to capture one unusual dark person. 

Jazz music also plays a large part most prominently practiced by Vincent's brother, Peter. It not only plays into the physical location but the time period as well. Jazz is improvisation mixed with deep emotion like pain, anger, sadness, and love. While popular, it was also controversial and considered an outsider’s choice of music like rock or rap would be later. The kind of music someone who stands on the outside fringes of society would listen to.

It's also worth noting that Peter is a WWI veteran. This is the time of the Lost Generation, when soldiers returned home with deep trauma. Where flappers and college kids decided to live freely without a care. It was a time where people were aware that life could end at any moment, so might as well grab all that you can. This deep emotion is played by someone who saw death up close and killed people because his government told him to. Maybe Peter feels a disturbing connection to the Axeman, an understanding about what it's like to live on the outside fringe, with longing and emotions that he can't express openly, and living with a violent and bloody past. 

These stories deliver scares to the characters and the Reader making their sleep a truly unpleasant one.

Weekly Reader: In Freedom's Light by Sharon Gloger Friedman; Moving Historical Fiction About Prejudice and Freedom

 

Weekly Reader: In Freedom's Light by Sharon Gloger Friedman; Moving Historical Fiction About Prejudice and Freedom 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Sharon Gloger Friedman’s Ashes has long been a favorite book of mine since I began this blog. In 2019, it came in second in the inaugural “New Book Alert” countdown and has led to an ongoing interest in reading detailed historical fiction novels about strong independent women fighting to make their voices heard during difficult circumstances and time periods that did not always welcome a woman’s voice or perspective. In Ashes, Miriam, a Jewish immigrant flees with her family from a Russian pogrom, to New York City. She finds work and gets involved in labor unionization during the time of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Miriam’s journey from dutiful daughter to labor activist is compelling as is the terrifying imagery of the fire and the lives lost because of management indifference and negligence.

Friedman set such a high standard for herself that her next book would have to be something else to match Ashes. Luckily, her follow up, In Freedom’s Light, is that something else. While it also tells the story of a fictional Jewish woman emigrating to America and captures a distant time period with great description and detail, it differs in terms of storytelling and characterization. Ashes tells of a tragic event in American history from the point of view of an individual who is greatly affected by the great sweeping changes around her. In Freedom’s Light tells of various events that capture the minutiae and reality of everyday life through several decades and how the characters struggle with conforming or challenging those circumstances. 

In 1785 Valencia, Spain, Anica Amelsem put herself, her husband, Efren and her daughter, Isabel in big trouble for refusing a cut of pork in the marketplace. She is a converso, part of a Jewish family that was forced to convert to Christianity. This practice began during the Inquisition under the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and even in the 18th century, suspected Jews can get arrested or even executed. (Friedman’s notes state that this was retained into the 19th century). Efren’s family had long ago converted with no ties to Judaism, but Anica’s family continued their rituals and beliefs in private, so private that Anica never even shared them with her husband until now. The gossip and rumors are enough to worry the Amelsems and they decide to flee for America, with Isabel and a loyal servant, Mariana in tow, to find work and live with Efren’s uncle Philip  in Charleston, South Carolina. They are nervous but excited. After all, America just won a war declaring independence from Britain and it is a country of liberty and equality where everyone can worship at any altar they choose and is free to live how they want. Right? Right?

Well wrong. Upon arriving in South Carolina, Anica and Efren discover the less rosy side of the United States when they see Philip’s plantation of slaves. The couple befriend the slaves and speak out against the cruel institution and the abuse inflicted by Philip, his family, and overseer. Anica and Efren discover that the promise of freedom and equality  aren’t evenly handed out to everyone so they intend to use their status to help others receive the benefits of that promise as well. 

It is important that Anica and Efren would understand the slave's plight. Having been marginalized and treated as second class citizens in their country and forced to hide parts of who they are because of prejudice and Anti Semitism, they recognize the racism, hatred, malice, and hypocrisy in a country that does not permit equality to many of the people living there. Sometimes it takes a fellow outsider to understand the problems of the people around them and shine new light when locals are desensitized, apathetic, or actively participating in such problems. 

Anica and Efren immediately show kindness and treat the African-Americans humanely, something that angers Philip and his overseer, Jesse. They only see workers that they bought and now work for them while Anica and Efren see fellow human beings. They take the time to learn their names and relationships and bond with them as friends. For example, when a young boy, Daniel, is beaten by Jesse, Efren physically defends him and makes sure that Jesse will never hurt him again. Efren becomes a father figure to Daniel and he begins to understand his purpose living in his uncle's plantation.

Anica and Efren are in a difficult situation. Since they don’t own the plantation, they can’t free the slaves. They can defend the slaves from abuse, but Philip doesn’t care. He mostly gets drunk and goes to the city to hang out with prostitutes. They could leave, but who would protect the slaves then? Things would be just as bad if not worse than before, because there would always be the fear that they would run to the Amelsems for safety. The only thing that the couple can do is remain for now, befriend the African-Americans at the plantation, defend as many as they can from physical and sexual abuse, agree to turn a blind eye if they escape, and let them know that there are at least two white people that care about them. Efren makes plans for him, his family, and as many new friends as they can, to leave by creating a shipping business independent of Philip’s interests.

One of the most touching relationships in the book is that of Anica and Ruth, one of the housemaids.

Anica befriends Ruth and their bond is so intimate that she shares her Sabbath rituals of lighting candles with her. This bond continues to the point where the two women end up becoming best friends and their young children, Hannah and Benjamin become close friends as well. Even after the Amselems finally leave the plantation, Ruth comes with, not as a slave, servant, or a maid. Instead, she is a free woman,family friend, and honorary sister to Anica. 

It is telling that the book takes place between 1785-1845, between the Revolutionary and Civil War. Through the experiences of Anica, Efren, Ruth, and others we see that transition between 

the United States winning its independence and being torn apart. We see the daily lives of the people and how things like the Fugitive Slave Act, the eventual publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and various other things would eventually lead to the Civil War. None of these things have happened yet, but Friedman’s book provides the fertile ground and environment in which such events could occur. The fertile ground that Isabel, Hannah, and Benjamin's generation will have to struggle with.

Through the characters of In Freedom’s Light, we see a world that is on the brink of having such terms as “freedom,” “liberty,” and “equality” questioned and how within a few decades of the book’s end, there  will be  explosive results between people who are unwilling to recognize freedom in others and those who will defend them. The actions of Anica, Efren, and others show that freedom can be more than words on on an old document. They can be felt, meant, and understood by everyone. 

Lit List Short Reviews: Bashert by Larry G. Goldsmith; How to Survive Ghosts, Cats, and Psychopaths: A Delia Sanchez Mystery by Diana K.C. Gill; Spawn of My Error: Eve's Odyssey: A Story of Biblical Eve in Modernity by Griff Johnson

 Lit List Short Reviews Bashert by Larry G. Goldsmith; How to Survive Ghosts Cats and Psychopaths A Delia Sanchez Mystery by Diana K.C. Gill; Spawn of My Error: Eve's Odyssey A Story of Biblical Eve in Modernity by Griff Johnson

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Bashert by Larry G. Goldsmith

Bashert by Larry G. Goldsmith

Larry G. Goldsmith's Bashert is a moving emotional story about a Jewish attorney meeting the love of his life at Woodstock and reconciling his faith with her more traditional family.

The plot begins when attorney, Michael Goldman, attends the famous 1969 outdoor concert where he encounters an 18 year old student named Shira Leifkowitz. It's a sweet tender moment that illustrates the Meet Cute convention in the backdrop of a time period that was considered the embodiment of free spirited and unconventional. 

The chapters of Michael and Shira's romance and early married life are stuffed with the minutae of everyday living in which couples try to navigate their compability and relationships with family and with each other. After a whirlwind romance ends in Shira's pregnancy, Michael proposes to her. The couple get the approval of friends and family, particularly Michael's widowed mother and Shira's orthodox Rabbi father. Goldman's married life starts with the usual struggles of money, conflicting schedules, differing opinions, and early childhood with the birth of their son, Ben. 

The book veers from romance and family drama to a more political novel about the effects of the Cold War on Russian Jewish immigrants. What was a personal story becomes political as Michael's father in law is arrested because of a scandal involving money being illegally distributed to aid immigrants fleeing the Soviet Union. Michael agrees to represent his father-in-law but has to find out some uncomfortable truths about his wife's family and his own views. He finds that people that he was once close to and were held up as unimpeachable pillars of the community have ulterior motives and are taking advantage of people who only wanted a better life for themselves and their families.

Bashert means "spouse" which is how Shira refers to Michael. It almost is a synonym for soulmate. That's what this book has, a lot of soul and a lot of heart.

How To Survive Ghosts, Cats, and Psychopaths: A Delia Sanchez Mystery by Diana K.C. Gill

Diana K.C. Gill's, How to Survive Ghosts, Cats and Psychopaths: A Delia Sanchez Mystery is a fun, entertaining, spooky, and at times moving supernatural mystery.

Former police officer turned mystery author, Delia Sanchez is recovering from the death of her mentally challenged brother. She becomes interested in buying Loring Mansion,  an old house and when other buyers mysteriously drop out leaving her with the best and only offer, she gets it. She learns the mysteries of the mansion when she gets it and all that comes with it, including ownership of two cats, Esmeralda and Zoeth Vander Loring that are the house's true heirs as well as Elise Vander Loring, a human ghost that haunts the place.

This book goes through several emotions. It has some humorous moments particularly between the more skeptical Delia and Dora, Delia's cousin, a believer in the supernatural with a very eccentric psychic on retainer. She also has some cute moments when she adjusts to the very furry real home owners who now have a human servant.

Delia's encounter with the ghost of Elise is terrifying because she has the ability to transform into other people. She changes to someone's late wife or former boyfriend leaving them to fear the familiar person performed by someone unfamiliar.

There is also some real drama and tension that compliments the supernatural elements. Delia still mourns for her deceased family members and strives to protect others including a new friend hiding from her abusive boyfriend.

This book is a fun, scary, and moving good time.

Spawn of My Error: Eve's Odyssey A Story of Biblical Eve in Modernity by Griff Johnson

Griff Johnson's Spawn of My Error: Eve's Odyssey A Story of Biblical Eve in Modernity is an interesting concept which features the Biblical Eve coming to the 21st century and seeing her future progeny for herself. Unfortunately, it is formatted so poorly that it's hard to follow and the great idea gets lost in the writing

Johnson describes Eve as his muse and artistic inspiration. This book is a dialogue heavy short novel in which the Narrator meets the Biblical character. She proves to be a bright and witty character who wants to share her point of view with the world so she befriends the Narrator's girlfriend, a news reporter and her colleague, a traffic reporter. After all, Eve's story has been translated and interpreted by the Bible and its many scholars, mostly men. She feels it's about time that she spoke for herself.

Eve is the highlight of the book. She uses "ME" (Mother Earth)to refer to herself and has a very almost childlike way of expressing herself. ("Just because ME never had a mother doesn't mean you have to fill in as Mr. Mommy to Eve.") She is bright and curious about modern society, everything from fashion to doughnuts. 

Eve also isn't without her criticisms for the modern world. Much of it is focused on the so-called religious right, the people who quote the Bible but withdraw love and charity to the people around them. The people who use God and biblical doctrine as an excuse to justify their prejudice, hatred, and biases. The hypocrites and charlatans who use all the buzz words to attract a gullible audience and believe that God's will is for them to live in tax free prosperity far from the rabble who donate to them.

The book is a brilliant concept and it makes the most of its lead character, however its format and length are difficulties that keep the Reader from experiencing and fully immersing themselves in the book as much as they could. It is all dialogue with no description, no internal thought, and no salutation over who said what. That makes the plot incredibly confusing when with the exception of Eve, everyone else's dialogue is written the same way. It's hard to tell who said what.

Also some incredible things happen throughout the book, such as when Eve and the Narrator disappear into a world called Alternate Eden. This passage would come off so much better with descriptions of Alternate Eden, The Narrator's confusion, and his friends anxieties over where he is and what they witnessed actually meant. Instead, it's just talked about between two characters making the scene somewhat shallow and only to be comprehended on a surface level. If ever a book needed the advice "show don't tell," it's this one.

Eve is a great character and this book could do so much better for her. However, a great idea falters if it doesn't have the writing style to back it up.

New Book Alert: The Book of Uriel by Elyse Hoffman; WWII Novel Mixes Reality, Fantasy, and Love Between Surrogate Father and Son

 

New Book Alert: The Book of Uriel by Elyse Hoffman; WWII Novel Mixes Reality, Fantasy, and Love Between Surrogate Father and Son

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: When it comes to books about the Holocaust and World War II, Elyse Hoffman's The Book of Uriel is more reminiscent of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief or Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay than many of the other World War II books that I have recently read like Dana Levy Elgrod's The Resistance Lily, Kit Sargent's Women Spies of World War II, Malve Von Hassel's Tapestry of My Mother's Life: Stories, Fragments, and Silences, Warren Court's The Aubrey Endeavors Spy Novels, Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan's Home Front Girls, Barbara Davis' The Keeper of Happy Endings, Melissa Muldoon's Waking Isabella and Eternally Artemisia, Nikki Broadwell's Rosemary for Remembrance, Ronald H. Balson's Eli's Promise, Mae Adams' Precious Silver Chopsticks: A True Story About a Korean Noble Family, John Hersey's Hiroshima, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, Samuel Marquis' Soldiers of Freedom: The World War II Story of Patton's Panthers and The Edelweiss Pirates, Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls, Jeanne Mackin's The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel, and Caroline Moorhead's A Train in Winter: A True Story of Women, Friendship and Resistance in Occupied France.

Unlike most of these books, the darkness and brutal reality of this deadly time is present but in The Book of Uriel, it is mixed with an engaging fantasy that carries a sense of darkness as well. Between the strange dualities of reality and fantasy lies a stirring moving story of a surrogate father and son on opposite sides but drawn to each other by bonds of love.

Uwe Litten is a linguist and translator for the German army. He's not a soldier but his fluency in Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew, and other languages comes in handy for Major Gunter Brandt as he sends his troops destroying one village after another (assuring Uwe that they are just "capturing enemies of the Reich" of course. Never mind that those enemies seem to be from specific religions, countries, or just about anyone at all). Uwe questions Brandt's tactics but is too concerned about his own safety and his place in the chain of command, which is none at all, to outright object. 

While marching through the Polish forests, Uwe, Brandt, and the German soldiers come upon Zingdorf, a Jewish village completely devastated by Polish forces. Brandt simply looks at the scene as a typical scene of war. Uwe looks on with despair especially when he sees the corpse of a young boy holding a golden notebook. Uwe gently picks up the notebook, reads the boy's name "Uriel", and accompanies the other soldiers on their way while reading Uriel's fantasy and religious stories and sketches of his home life.

After the soldiers leave, something unusual happens. Uriel is brought back to life by the angels, Gabriel and Raphael who have an assignment for him. God's second, the Archangel Michael has been held prisoner by his rival, Samael the Angel of Death. Samael and Michael's rivalry has been ongoing since Biblical days when the two took competing sides with twins, Esau and Jacob. (Samael was Team Esau and Michael was Team Jacob.) However, Michael, protector of the Jews, is missing and the angels don't know where he is. They need Uriel to locate him. Uriel is not the likeliest choice for a hero. He was born mute and can only communicate through writing but he has a second sight that can see angels and otherworldly creatures. Using a stone which grants invisibility, Uriel follows the soldiers. No one can see him but Uwe with whom he begins to bond.

Both Uwe and Uriel are tested in their own ways. Uwe encounters Jewish rebels and Polish partisans who are without food and weapons. He has to decide whose side he is really on. Meanwhile, Uriel meets up with Samael who is not an unreasonable sort of Angel of Death. He will tell the boy where Michael is if he accomplishes five tasks for him. Much of Uwe and Uriel's stories are connected by the various passages that Uwe reads to the young boy from his notebook.

There is so much going on in this book and so much of it done well. The fantasy combined with realism works because the fantasy isn't a light hearted distraction from the starkness of the rest of the book. Neither the fantastic nor the realistic hide the death and hatred that surrounds the characters. Uwe has to deal with the prejudices between the Polish and Jewish groups and their unwillingness to cooperate with each other or Uwe to fight the army that seeks to exterminate them. He has to gain their trust by providing food and finding and sharing a hidden cache of weapons.

Meanwhile Uriel has to deal with some very disturbing images during his tasks. When he is told to get a Book of Blood, he has to pick up the most hateful book that he knows, Mein Kampf, a copy which sheds actual blood on the pages. Another assignment involves him getting the waters from Sheol, while demons of the underworld and his own sins haunt him. Neither Uwe or Uriel's adventures are easy and require great strength and courage. 

The story between Uwe and Uriel anchors these two separate and compelling plots. In some ways, they remind me a great deal of Din Djarin and Grogu from The Mandalorian. (Uriel is especially reminiscent of the nonverbal, courageous, mischievous, but destined for greatness Baby Yoda.) They are a father and son who found each other and filled that aching lonely need in the middle of great political conflict and strife. 

Many of their moments together are heartwarming particularly when Uwe reads from Uriel's book and learns about the boy's former life with his parents, sister, and brother in law. The pages describing Uriel's time in Zingdorf and his stories of God, angels, and folklore characters show the bright, imaginative, curious kid that he is and how he views the world with a maturity that sees more than most kids would. 

Uriel and Uwe's bond as well as their separate journeys are brought together in a suspenseful and tear jerking conclusion. The Book of Uriel is the type of book that brings fantasy and reality together to frighten and disturb Readers. Then they make them cry and warm their hearts.

New Book Alert: Eli's Promise by Ronald H. Balson; Tense and Moving Novel About Death, War Crimes, and Revenge

New Book Alert: Eli's Promise by Ronald H Balson; Tense and Moving Novel About Death, War Crimes, and Revenge

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews





Spoilers: Surely many have it right from the French Revolutionaries to the Klingon Empire that revenge is really a dish best served cold. Though sometimes that cold dish is not served by choice. Sometimes the recipient of that revenge slips away leaving the accusor to spend many years, even decades, of hunting down the person that they hold responsible.


The cold dish of revenge and belated justice is the main theme behind Ronald H. Balson's Eli's Promise, a tense, gripping, andstrong novel. It takes the Reader from 1940's Poland to 1960's Chicago covering twenty-five years, a Polish town, a temporary displaced person's camp, various American businesses and high rises, and two wars before said justice and revenge are finally carried out.

Eli Rosen is a construction worker in Lublin, Poland when the Nazis come blasting their way in. Suddenly, the life he knows is turned around on its head. Jews are moved to a ghetto. Women like his wife are forced to work as seamstresses at a factory. Place names are changed to reflect the new order. Then many people disappear under mysterious circumstances and certain words like "resettlement", "special handling", and "labor camps" carry extremely ominous overtones.


Eli's family including his wife, Esther, father, Jacob, and son, Isaak are under the dubious protection of one Maximilian Poleski, an opportunist and war profiteer. He claims to protect the Rosen Family but only so they serve his purpose. Eli and his brother work under his now proprietorship. Max makes arrangements for favors such as Esther to work in the factory in exchange for money and obtainining young girls. If possible, Maximilian is less likeable than the Nazis. He is a character who is seemingly charming but is really nothing more than a snake looking out for number one.

Eli and his family reluctantly work and barely survive under Maximilian's so-called protection until Eli is temporarily separated from his family. He returns to find his father beaten and his wife and son missing. He is eventually reunited with Isaak but Esther remains missing. It doesn't take much for Eli to realize that Maximilian arranged Esther's departure and even though Eli and Isaak are put into a concentration camp until the end of the war and then placed in a temporary holding place for displaced persons afterwards, Eli never lets go of his desire to reunite with Esther and get retribution towards the man that he considers the author of his misery: Maximilian.


Eli is an extremely heroic character. The more unlikeable that Maximilian is, the more we are rooting for Eli to take him down. We are also rooting for Eli to find his own place and to get his life back together. In the DP camp, Eli shows leadership capabilities by helping the other refugees, ultimately becoming the leader of their community. He is also a devoted single father to Isaak. He soothes the boy's fears, nurses him through Illness, encourages his talents in music and athletics, and tries to heal his trauma. Even though Eli makes a female friend, Esther is not far from his mind. When by chance, he learns that Maximilian is not only still around but up to his old tricks by selling forged U.S. visas, Eli is determined to confront his old foe and find out the truth of Esther's whereabouts.


The plot takes a unique twist into the 1960's just as America's involvement in the Vietnam War begins to escalate. Mimi, an intrepid young journalist from Chicago becomes curious about her suave new boarder, guess who, Eli Rosen. Turns out Eli now works for the State Department and is investigating a corrupt Congressman who also happens to be the father of Mimi's best friend, Christine. Even though this case is half a world and twenty five years away, it puts Eli right in the path of his old arch enemy. The private war between two men that represented the opposite sides of the Holocaust becomes a very public war when it also involves others including Mimi, Christine, their friends and family, and eventually the United States government.

Eli's Promise is a nail biting suspenseful novel as Eli strives to capture Maximilian and or learn the truth only for him to slither away because of his contacts, influence, and charm. It becomes a victorious climax when the two are reunited once more and Maximilian is deprived of any means of escape and Eli finally is able to get justice rained down on the slime.


Eli's Promise is the kind of book that shows that revenge and justice can take awhile, but when they do, they are that much sweeter.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XII) by Philippa Gregory; Fictional Protagonist Sees Reign of Queen Mary I Up Close

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Queen’s Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XII) by Philippa Gregory; Fictional Protagonist Sees Reign of Queen Mary I Up Close


By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: Of Philippa Gregory's The Plantagenet and Tudor Court books, The Queen's Fool has a peculiar legacy. It is the only one of the entire series that tells the book through the eyes of a fictional character.

The advantage of this unique volume is that the fictional character is just as well-written and developed as her real-life counterparts.

The fictional character is Hannah Verde, also known as Hannah Greene, a young Jewish woman. Hannah has fled Inquisition-era Spain with her father and Daniel Carpenter, her betrothed. They now live in an England that is reeling from the death of King Henry VIII and ascension of his frail son, King Edward VI.

Hannah tries to settle into life in England by working in her father's print shop making and selling books and not looking forward to her upcoming wedding. One day three men stroll into the shop. Two are Robert Dudley, the son of John Dudley, King Edward's regent and the most powerful man in England, and John Dee, astrologer and advisor to the king. However, the third man gets the most attention when it is revealed that only Hannah can see him and no one else can. Dee reasons that she must have seen an angel and that Hannah possesses clairvoyant abilities, called the Sight.

Seeing a distinct advantage to having a psychic friend, Robert begs for Hannah's services as a fool to King Edward. Hannah finds herself acting as a fool to Edward then after his death to Edward's sister, Queen Mary I. Hannah then is recruited as a spy and go-between among Mary and her younger sister, Princess Elizabeth. She then finds herself caught between worlds:. Raised Jewish but forced to conform to the religions that the Royals practice, arranged to marry Daniel but falling in love with Robert, and becoming a close confidant and unofficial advisor to both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth.

Hannah is a fascinating protagonist in that she is completely different from the other narrators of these books. For the first time, we see the court through the eyes of a commoner with no noble or royal distinction. It's interesting reading about how the average working person lived and survived in Tudor England.

We also get to see what it is like to be an outsider and minority in this era. Hannah and her friends and family have to hide their Jewishness from the outside world. They practice their religion in secret by celebrating the High Holy Days in dark rooms behind locked doors and closed drapes. They whisper Hebrew prayers and only privately call one another by secret names that reveal their religion. They hide all of their Torahs and Hebrew language books away from curious customers. It gets to the point where Hannah is ashamed of all of this hiding and becomes dismissive of her religion. She later recants these feelings to the point that she proudly insists that the child who is put into her care is circumcised.

In one heart tugging moment, Hannah is left alone with her father's books and considers destroying them. She can't bring herself to do it, because she realized that she would be no better than the Inquisition that burned her mother and considered “ideas to be dangerous.” As a woman who has a deep thirst for knowledge and learning that is found in books, she cannot bear for that to happen.

Through Hannah's narration, we meet three rulers of England and hear about a fourth. King Edward is young and sickly and unfortunately dies before he can leave any lasting impact. However, he is ruled by regents who use the prince to get their way. After Edward's death, Dudley tries to get his Protestant daughter in law, Jane Grey to become queen and gets her on the throne for nine days before they are arrested and executed. (We only hear about Jane and get no sense of her as a character. Her story is saved for The Last Tudor).


However, we do get to meet Mary and Elizabeth who are interesting in their characterization. Mary is written as a woman who has a full awareness that time is running out for her. She does not ascend the throne until she is in her late-30’s so she is desperate to create a lasting legacy after years of being disgraced, bastardized, and ignored.

She throws herself into a hasty marriage to Prince Phillip of Spain and is desperate to conceive a child. Even though Hannah's Sight warns Mary that this is a marriage destined for heartbreak, Mary doesn't care. She placates her young husband and looks the other way when he flirts with other women including her own sister. On two emotional occasions, she announces that she is pregnant and goes into seclusion to deliver. Both times, no baby appears and she stays in seclusion long after the believed due dates.

Mary is also fervently devoted to her Catholic religion considering it the only comfort in her tumultuous past of the banishment and death of her mother, the disgrace and dismissal by her father, and the revolving door of stepmothers. Mary's Catholic faith was the one constant in her life, so it's no surprise that she would find solace in it upon adulthood.

However as Mary's life implodes she becomes more ruthless and fanatic. She constantly pressures Elizabeth to convert to Catholicism not listening to the princesses’ claims of illness and not knowing the catechism. Even though she is concerned for her sister's soul, she is still highly suspicious of her and has her put under house arrest numerous times.As her marriage to Phillip disintegrates, Mary becomes a dictator putting Protestants to death if they do not conform to Catholicism. Hannah is horrified as the Queen that she once loved and respected becomes another Inquisitor in her life.

By contrast, Elizabeth gives Hannah someone to admire. Unlike Mary who is dour and shriveled up from all of the waiting, Elizabeth is young and has plenty of years ahead of her. She is vibrant, witty, and alive with fire and passion. When she enters a room, she makes everyone else fade away by her brilliance, especially her sister. (Hannah realizes that Mary had better marry Elizabeth off and fast otherwise she will be in complete competition against her.)

While Hannah looks at Mary as a mother figure and pities her because of her sorrows, she sees Elizabeth as almost an older sister, someone whom Hannah could be like. She sees Elizabeth's independence and how she carries herself at court and wishes she could be that self-assured. She sees how Elizabeth openly flirts with men, loving the attention but refusing to give her heart to them and wishes that she didn't have to be tied down and married. Elizabeth is a woman that Hannah hopes to become.

Elizabeth is a shrewd game player. Her every move, word, and action is calculated to ensure her survival. She will do anything from remaining bedridden from stress related illness to studying the catechism while greeting Protestant ministers in secret, to not only play the game, but to win.

This plays into her romantic relationship. When she lives with her stepmother, Kathryn Parr and Kate's fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Elizabeth allows Thomas into her bed and plays sexual games with him. Then when Thomas is arrested for treason, Elizabeth denies being with him. (In reality, no one is sure how active Elizabeth was in Thomas's Seymour's seduction of her. Most of her enemies said she was a willing participant. Supporters believed her. Most modern historians believe at the very least, Thomas had committed statutory rape with her and she was a victim who was coerced into being with him.)

Elizabeth pulls the same trick with other men including Prince Phillip and Robert Dudley. She flirts with them to gain powerful allies and the upper hand in her rivalry with Mary. However, what is clear is Elizabeth is a woman with her own mind and will not allow any man to rule over her.

Mary and Elizabeth's influence play into Hannah's life as well. As the Fool, her role in court is to wear men's clothing, tell jokes, and predict the future using cryptic clues. Since she can say whatever she wants, she has the unusual task of being blunt and honest to the monarchs and keep her head. Her gift of the Sight also holds great interest in court.

Through her involvement with Mary and Elizabeth, Hannah sees other alternatives to how a woman could live her life. She had been reluctant to marry Daniel in the first place, and now likes the freedom this strange role as a Fool gives her. Not to mention that she harbors a crush on the handsome and charismatic Robert Dudley. For a time, Hannah is separated from her father and Daniel as they move to Calais and then Genoa. Hannah enjoys her independence and freedom that comes with the territory of being the Fool.

Unfortunately, Hannah's happiness is short lived when Mary suspects her of treason. Hannah flees to Calais and settles into marrying Daniel, giving up her former life of palace intrigue and friendships with the Queen and Princess.

In some of the slowest portions of the book, Hannah has to uncomfortably settle into the life of a Jewish wife and then later, after the English lose possession of Calais, has to go into hiding in the country home of Robert’s wife, Amy. However, they both reveal Hannah's difficulties of conforming to the life of a normal woman of the Tudor era. They also show her reconciliation with her Jewish heritage as she begins to find common ground with Daniel and her father and cares for a young abandoned boy.

While Hannah Greene was not a real person, Philippa Gregory's writing makes her a compelling character that is just as real as everyone else around her.