September Wrap-Up

This has been another slow month for me. I’ve only read four books and I know exactly who is to blame! Glass Sword. That book just drained the life out of me. Anyway, let’s get into it.

Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor

5/5  stars

This is the first book I read in September and it was a very educative read. I got it via NetGalley and I am so glad I requested it. It’s one of those books that people should read and be aware of. I have a more thorough review of it, if you are interested in hearing my thoughts.

 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

5/5 stars

This was a re-read, of course. It was due. I hadn’t read it in a long time. Such amazing nonsense, it’s genius. If you have not read this book at least once in your life, I feel sorry for you. I do not have a review of this one since it was a re-read, but it’s only like 100 pages. Just read it.

 

 

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

1/5 stars

This book sucked the life and joy out of me. It took me over a month to finish and I almost gave up on it. But I don’t like not finishing books, so I pushed through it. I have a full review of it if you want to know why exactly this book made me so angry and why I hated it so much.

 

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

4.5/5 stars

Probably my favourite book this month! I also – you guessed it – have a review of it. It has left me wanting more, like SJM books usually do and also, I am so excited about meeting Sarah next week! *squeeeeeeeee* I can’t wait! There will probably be a post about that later this week, so stay tuned for that.

 

 

 

Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Mozes Kor – Book Review

Rating: 5/5 stars

Genre: Historical, memoir

First published: 2009

Author: Eva Mozes Kor

Synopsis: Eva and her twin sister, Miriam, were 10 years old when they were ripped away from their family and thrown into Auschwitz. There, they became part of the medical experiments conducted by Josef Mengele, also known as The Angel of Death. Mengele was obsessed with twins and conducted many horrendous experiments on them. This is the story of how two children found the strength and endurance to survive true evil. 

Book Depository | Goodreads

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I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I finished reading it in about an hour and I cannot tell you how I felt upon finishing. I don’t know how much I will be able to gather my thoughts for this review. Every time I read or watch a film about what happened then, no matter how many times I do so, it brings me so much sorrow to know that human beings are not only capable of such cruelty and hatred, but worse, they remain silent when faced with such atrocities.

Eva was a Romanian-born Jew. She was born in Transylvania, which is where I was born as well. So, from the beginning, this resonated with me on a profound level. Especially that I recognised some of the events that were mentioned, because they coincided with what my grandparents remember about those times.

Before I get too much into how this book made me feel, I will tell you a little bit about the writing itself. The book is written in a way that is easily accessible to a younger audience. But it is full of emotion, full of pain, but also full of healing and of forgiveness. In addition to the writing, there are pictures depicting Eva and her family, the emaciated forms of some of the Auschwitz children, as well as the twins at various stages in their lives.

As a woman of science, the fact that such atrocities were committed in the name of science makes me sick. I will not list here the things that were done to those twins and to the rest of the people that Mengele experimented on. Some of them, you will find in this book, some you can read about from other sources. And I urge you to do so, because I truly believe we owe it to these people, to ourselves and to the word to know these things, to know the suffering our cruelty and hatred as a species has brought and to make sure it never happens again.

What shocked me almost as much as the experiments, was how easily hatred was awoken in the common people. How ordinary people could turn against their neighbour because of propaganda. It scares me how susceptible we are to blind, unadulterated hatred.

This book, despite its content, has taught me not that humans are capable of atrocities, but that we are capable of enduring, of forgiveness; that we can survive  and that we can heal. I apologise that this review is not more collected and coherent, it’s difficult for me to gather my thoughts. But please, read this book and read any books like this that you come across. These are stories that must be heard. We owe it to hear them.