Blurb: He might not survive, but he’s hoping he will.
18 May 1946
Dear Zliv,
It’s me you want, not Gabriek or Anya. I caused your brother’s death, just me. But you’ll have to come to the other side of the world to kill me, because that’s where I’m going. If you don’t believe me, check the newspapers.
Felix
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Title: Maybe
Author: Morris Gleitzman
Publisher: Puffin Books, part of Penguin Random House
Genre: Fiction, Historical
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Review:
Follow Felix on another part of his journey – WWII is officially over, but not everyone Felix meets is choosing kindness. When he’s offered the chance to go to Australia to start a new life it sounds like a great idea to keep his loved ones safe. But as Felix knows, not everything is always as good as it seems…
In this chapter of Felix’s story, we see him finally get a chance at a new start. After everything we’ve seen him go through (and still continue to see him go through, especially at the start of this book), the offer to go to Australia to build a new life appears. At first he thinks of a life with Gabriek and Anya (and her baby), being able to go to university to become a doctor and finally being free from persecution. But, without giving spoilers, for Felix nothing is ever as easy as that.
The brilliant writing style of this book is continued from the others, perfectly showing off Felix’s still hopeful personality while also showing us that his experiences have changed him. My heart aches every time I read another part of Felix’s story which prompts a real wave of compassion for the real people and how they suffered during this time. It breaks my heart that, even when war was officially over, we are reminded that hatred and cruelty don’t simply stop. Additionally, I also appreciate that Gleitzman continues to write about Felix after the war, reminding those of us who are lucky enough to have never experienced things of this nature, that their stories didn’t just end.
I always include this little bit but, just in case you needed any more convincing…
More practically, this book isn’t very long so can be a fairly quick read depending on your reading speed and may also be useful if you find that reading shorter books helps to get over a reading slump. The plot advances fairly quickly so we don’t spend a lot of time, in the beginning, waiting for the action to start – this may have been a technique employed by the author to give a feel to how fast these events actually escalated. The font size isn’t too small either which would be helpful for anyone who finds tiny prints difficult to read.
As for what I disliked, there was nothing. Once again, the only reason for the slightly reduced star rating was that I’ve previously rated other books in this series five stars (usually because I sobbed) which makes me a bit pickier. However, I want to note here that this book, as with the others, is extremely well written and most definitely worth the read.
Overall, I’ve raved about this series enough that you already know how much I would recommend it. If you’re after a heartfelt, well researched, emotionally intelligent story based on the horrors that were suffered during this period of history, this series must be on your TBR.
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Rating: 4.5/5
Recommend?: Yes
Have you read this book? Or maybe you’ve read something similar? What did you think? I’d love to know!
You can always find me over on Twitter if you’d like to discuss this book (or any others that I’ve featured) in more detail 😌
Hannah's Bookshelf 🌸 