RaveZYZZYVAHarmel deftly captures the despair of [the characters\'] circumstances, the impenetrable distance to Auschwitz. Mamusia’s anguish soon results in Eva becoming the receptacle of her mother’s grievances: \'You failed him,\' she tells her, referring to Eva’s father. Their relationship, which Harmel shows with brilliance and sympathy, cracks under this weight ... the novel launches the reader into a turbulent but heroic journey—one informed by Harmel’s fascinating research into forgers during World War II. Though fictional, the novel is heavily based on the lives of real forgers in France, giving added solemnity to the horrors and reverence to the characters’ courage ... Harmel’s profound historical tale speaks to that admonishment. Eva’s acts of resistance are what are called for when confronting a system that devastatingly targets a group of people. It’s hard not see in Eva’s fervor to remember forgotten names the same urgency in the call to remember the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and so many, many more.
Callan Wink
RaveZYZZYVAWhile August’s inner turmoil is often opaque, the novel offers an uncannily sympathetic and human portrayal of a struggling youth ... Wink’s prose is simple and unadorned. He expresses with pleasing authenticity the fidgety conversations between a father and son struggling to connect, the vacant eyes of a friend muddled by hard liquor and despair, and the nervously chuckled apologies of the day after. The details make the story utterly believable, and for that reason, a pleasing and fascinating read. With August, Callen Wink imitates life with deftness and style, further distinguishing him as a rising writer.
N. K. Jemisin
PositiveZYZZYVAJemisin’s prose is at times disorienting, leaving few solid images for the reader to grasp. Some explanations prove inexplicable ... but I hope these will be made clear in the sequels. An uncontested moral justification for the Enemy’s attempts to destroy the city also needs exploring. But for the most part, Jemisin blends the fantastic and the real into a satisfying magical realism. She deftly uses genre to hammer home the underlying rhetoric ... Though its 437 pages, The City We Became’s energetic writing keeps the reader in an ever-anxious state, driving home at least one important point: \'Confirmation bias is a bitch.\'
