Traitor: A Novel of World War II

Product Information

Families can talk about the violence in Traitor. Why is it necessary to the story? How does written violence compare to visual violence? 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.

Traitor | Amanda McCrina | FSG Books for Young Readers

Book Genre: Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, War, World War II, Young Adult, Young Adult Historical Fiction As the terrific character Lena says, "If I had to blame anybody, I suppose I'd blame myself. My sins are the only ones I'm sure about." In the end, the characters can only judge themselves on how they treat one another -- and we can only judge them based on that. Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi.

Summary

What remained, besides the rifle, was that Zampolit Petrov was dead, bleeding into two red puddles on the sidewalk. Tolya and Aleksey are each brave and do what they feel needs to be done to protect those they care for, Aleksey in particular. They each have complicated pasts and storylines. They want to see the humanity in others and to forgive themselves for mistakes they've made. Each puts others first and risks danger for the safety of others. This may sound self-congratulatory (in which case, you should know better than to think I would ever compliment myself genuinely), or like a worse way of quoting Walt Whitman (which is likely accurate), but it’s true.

Traitor: A Novel of World War II by Amanda McCrina | Goodreads Traitor: A Novel of World War II by Amanda McCrina | Goodreads

Second: I got confused with the various organizations and countries involved. Polish and Ukrainians hate each other, but only because of the Russians and Germans....? I think? And I couldn’t remember which organization was with which country. And to add to THAT confusion, like half the characters we met were all traitors. One was UPA but really NKVD. One was pretending to be Soviet but was really NKVD also? At least two or three were UPA or not UPA or soviet but not really soviet. 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. The setting is one I knew pretty much nothing about - the action takes place in the city of Lviv, which was then in Poland, and is now in Ukraine. And a great deal of the fighting is between Poles and Ukrainians - the addition of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia only make the long running conflict between these two groups more bitter. I have tried to read this book in three different sittings, but clearly this book just isn't for me. I don't think there's anything wrong with the book. This was marketed as a fresh take on WWII era books. Normally, I steer clear of WWII books because the majority of them are just retelling the same story. I thought I'd give this one a try. I fell for marketing though because there was nothing new here. The structure is fascinating! Two teenage soldiers cross paths, and alternating sections of the book are written from each young man's perspective.Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age. Wow. Just wow. I will need days, weeks, maybe months for my heart to stop aching after Amanda McCrina’s Traitor. It’s that breathtaking and heartbreaking and brilliant. The storyline moves along briskly and the reader must keep tabs on the various factions fighting for control of this country. I'd recommend reading the indexes and author's note at the end to give a better understanding of the characters' motivations and desires. Only a few mild curse words appear, but the violence pushes this to older teens and above. Given the subject, I'd say adult readers are more likely to appreciate the story.