Addie has lived a very sheltered, very comfortable, very white life. In school he studies subjects like German, and learns in science how the white man is superior to other races. For reasons like these and others it drives him to near insanity that Addie and his German-speaking soccer teammates Karl, Heinrich, and Jon—who goes by his surname “Mengela”—cannot overcome the Spanish and other “lowly” language speaking North Riechfield team. If this scenario sounds familiar it is because it is history being played out in the present day—Addie is a clone of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, and his hometown of Reichfield is a closed-door experiment to breed the next white supremacist world power leader.

The summary provided for this book struck my historical fiction interest, and from the minute I started reading it was difficult to put down. My knowledge of WWII history had me making connections between Hitler and Addie’s lives from the very beginning, ranging from some of the name similarities to how Addie sees and describes minorities, even non verbally, using animalistic character traits. His relationship with Shaylee was confusing at first, requiring some thought beyond the name game between Addie and Hitler’s stories. Overall, the book was phenomenal and I look forward to reading more that Barton Ludwig has to offer. My only criticism is that some of the literary tools are a bit difficult to follow, the most prominent being Addie’s thinking and speaking in German occasionally. I had to check translations from time to time, and some of the terms and phrases he uses are slang, making it that much more difficult for a non-German speaker such as myself to follow. Overall, a dynamite book that I look forward to seeing on shelves and suggesting to my friends.

🔴Review!!🔴

Thank you to @netgalley and @heartlabpress for this free advance readers copy of Blitzball in exchange for my honest review.

“They think they’re God. No, all they are are people who think they can control me but they can’t. I control me.”
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This. Book. Is. Crazy. It’s crazy in a good way. The first paragraph drew me in. This is a coming of age story about an angry young man who is realizing things about his life that he never knew before. Is it him? Is it a conspiracy? That’s what he’s trying to find out.
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He goes out of his comfort zone to work with people that he (thinks he) hates. He eventually learns to like and work together with these people and it changes his outlook on what he’s always known. The outside influences such has his classmates and his family essentially tear his emotions in two.
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There are so many parallels between Reichfield and 1930s-40s Germany. I’ve always had an obsession with learning about WWII and German occupation of other lands. Little did I know how much of a parallel this book would have with that era.
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There is so much anger in the book and it is portrayed in such an interesting way. I felt along with the characters; the rage, the sadness, the love. I highly recommend this book, however there are instances of death, thoughts of suicide, and sex.
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The ending was just phenomenal. It blindsided me and I was intrigued until the very last word.
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This concept was intriguing, but in the end I just couldn't get over some of the flaws in the plot. Too many coincidences used to further the story along, and not enough real character growth to make a satisfying read.