Review: Refugee

Refugee by Alan Gratz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to the frequently changing storylines. The three storylines, one about Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, one about Cuban refugees in the mid-90's, and one about a Syrian family escaping certain death in current-day Aleppo, alternated every chapter and was a little distracting and disjointed at first, as I would just be getting into one when the chapter would end and it would change to the next. It probably took me the first third of the book to get used to it and settle into the rhythm. I guess I had been expecting it to be like Echo, with each story told almost in entirety, then all being tied together in the ending.

But once I got used to it, it was a very compelling read, sometimes hopeful and inspiring, but more often shocking, sad, and horrifying. Beware, I don't think anyone could read this book without crying from the injustices, needless deaths, awful choices, and the families being torn apart. Very powerful and definitely helps put faces and voices to what we may tend to think of as an "issue" rather than as people, and makes it very real.

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