I was initially expecting this to be another WWII historical fiction book, with the present-time generation unraveling the mysteries and secrets of the WWII generation, but this was both less and so much more. This story felt more like a generational family drama, uncovering secrets which happened to take place in Germany and during WWII. The story follows Ava in "present-day" New York in 1989 and the story of her Mother, Ilse, a Nazi, during WWII. We see how the political climate swept through and destroyed friendships, families and lives and the guilt that was found in so many German generations to follow. It explores the conflict that many Germans had, who were even ashamed to acknowledge they were German and for the "reformed" Nazis who had to continue on...who knows if they ever truly accepted that what they did was wrong. This was a well-written story, that kept you hanging on, as the story unfolded in bits, but not primarily from the main character's Mother, but rather much of the historical story fell on the shoulders of Renate, her childhood friend, whom Ilse's letters were written to. As a fan of WWII historical fiction, this was an excellent addition to my bookshelves.

I received a copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

i am a fan of this type of historical fiction.
Lovely story and well told. Not like others I have read.

Will read more from this author. Her play with characters was wonderfully formed.
More family interaction, which I liked.

I really enjoyed this book! It had quite a turn at the end and for a book about World War II had a different view point than most, which I appreciated. Seeing the story through the three narrators across a 50 year period and being able to see the similarities and differences was really interesting and helped you understand a deeper understanding of their motives.

The story of two BFFs in the years leading up to WWII--one Jewish and one who falls for the Nazi propaganda. How and for how long can they maintain their friendship? How can they each make their way in the world? Are some things better kept secret or does that end up creating more trouble even to the next generation? Renate and Ilse and, later, Ilse's daughter Ava all struggle with what has happened and how it all came to happen. I love WWII stories--human stories, like this one.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book for review purposes.

3.5 stars
I recently watched a series about Hitler and his inner circle. One of the things that stuck with me was how Germany's culture after the first WW was one built on violence and thuggery. Hitler and his henchmen took advantage of that culture and were able to get in power by using violence and fear. I thought of this while reading Wunderland. The ability of the Nazi's to instill such fear and trickery over it's people using false propaganda and blatant violence.

Wunderland was a fabulous example of how the Germans played into the Nazi's tactics. Turning against Jewish people who were up until that point friends and pillars of the community. This story is heartbreaking and emotional. Whether it's anger, disgust, sadness, shock or other emotions, you will definitely feel something while reading this book.

Wunderland is about the impact that country loyalty has over friendship when the two are at odds. It portrays the lengths that one will go to hide one's pain and regret. This would have been a perfect story for me except for the long winded descriptions and unnecessary tangents that detracted from plot development. I also found the jumping between different time periods to be confusing. I much preferred Ilse and Renate's story to Ava's. The latter seemed pointless at times, not adding much to the plot

Thank you to publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story starts in pre-WWII Germany (1933) and continues on through 1989. It centers primarily around three characters, Renate, the complicated Ilse, and Ilse’s daughter, Ava; it’s told very effectively in multiple timelines.

While not over-the-top graphic like other novels of that era, Nazi propaganda and atrocities are depicted unmistakably. Challenges and crises of the Jews during that time hang ominously throughout. It’s the story of a beautiful friendship between Renata and Ilse and the heart wrenching demise of that friendship.

There was powerful character development. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book wherein I’ve felt such revulsion – hatred, maybe – for a character as I did in this book. All characters were highly credible.

I easily give this book five stars and recommend it to my reading friends, especially those who enjoy stories from this time period. It’s a cut above the rest. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Wunderland. I. Loved. It!

This compelling novel reveals the horrors of Nazi Germany, both in its anti-Semitism and the hypnotic way in which Hitler mesmerized the German population. It tells the story of two best female friends — Renate, whose family is declared Jewish, and Ilse, who supports Nazism. The reader’s heart is doubly broken as one suffers terrible persecution and the other endorses it. Evil when “explained” is still evil, so it was hard for me to ever find Ilse a sympathetic character. I especially mourned for her daughter Ava as she learns of her mother’s true history. A unique entry into the spate of WWII novels flooding the literary market today. 4/5

Pub Date 23 Apr 2019.

Thanks to the author, Crown Publishing, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#Wunderland #NetGalley

I am always interested in World War II books set in Germany since they're a little bit more rare, but this one fell flat for me. It felt all over the place at times, and I think there were several chapters that could have been cut. It was a decent story, but it definitely wasn't a favorite.

This book is absolutely perfect!! I couldn't put it down!! I read it and I listened to the audiobook. I love friendship stories but this story goes above and beyond any friendship story I've ever read. I love WW2 historical fiction and this book takes place in 2 timelines - the 1930's and the almost present. I loved reading about Germany in the 1930's - before the war - and what that meant for families who wanted to believe in their country. I wish I could give this book 10 stars!!

A devastating story of friendship and betrayal, set in WWII, Wunderland is the story of Ilse and Renate, and how their lives are torn apart by their decisions. Beautifully written.

How did so many of Germany’s young people get caught up in supporting Hitler and his agenda? This question has plagued me for years and reading this book has helped me to understand. Many of the young Germans had a strong desire to be part of something bigger than their known world, and, they wanted to matter. His followers saw Hitler as the savior of Germany and they were mesmerized by him. He offered hope to his people and restored a sense of pride to many.

Reading about the merciless hatred and cruelty that the Jewish people suffered at the hand’s of Hitler’s followers just took my breath away. Very sobering and very sad. The level of loyalty that Hitler inspired in his followers was just mind-boggling to me. They were more than willing to be deceitful and disloyal to their own loved ones. They sacrificed relationships and their own good character to further their leader’s blatantly evil cause. The line between good and evil was not only blurred, but obliterated.

So much was done for the sake of party loyalty. Lives were ruined and relationships were destroyed, all for party loyalty. Party loyalty was the excuse and reason for horrifying betrayals and acts of brutality.

I think my favorite character was Renate. She was a reader and loved books. She enjoyed learning about other cultures and countries right at the time that her country’s leader would absolutely frown on that. After a family secret was uncovered, things began to deteriorate for Renate. As her life changes from carefree to difficult, she reads more and more, anything and everything. Reading becomes her escape and comfort when she feels bored or upset.

This book told many stories that were intricately and skillfully woven together. It told stories of people just wanting to belong, and it told stories of others just wanting to survive. What sounded like a good idea at the time, turned into one of the greatest evil empires of all time.

I was completely drawn into this book. As I became immersed, I would find myself holding my breath and even gasping at times. Weathering storm after life changing storm, finally, a faint rainbow was seen and perhaps something good came from so much bad.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Crown Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

There aren’t any horrific scenes of the death camps here, yet it is a story that is very much a story of the holocaust, a chilling depiction of Nazi Germany before WWII, evoking in me anger, fear, sadness. This was an emotional read about friendship and betrayal and the desire for redemption. We see how the Nazi ideology became so ingrained in Germans, in this case the focus on young people and the impact on the daily lives of Jews moving from being restricted to being taken from their homes and sent, and as we know six million of them were to be annihilated in death camps. The impact of this inexplicable hatred on people’s lives to come is found here. The story unfolds with multiple narratives of two childhood friends and a daughter of one of them years later, different time frames, not sequential but it worked fine for me giving perspective on these three characters at various points in their lives. Ilse and Renate as young girls in Berlin in the 1930’s, best friends until a revelation destroys the friendship. In 1989 Ilse’s daughter Ava, receives a package with her mother’s ashes along with a packet of letters to Renate that she never sent. Secrets of her mother’s past are finally revealed to Ava, secrets that strained their relationship all of Ava’s life because Ilse could not open up to her, not even about who her father was. The secrets continue in Ava’s life as she keeps things from her daughter as well.

I found the story painful to read with chilling verbiage of Nazi white supremacy and beliefs of superiority pitting Germans against German, non Jews against Jews, friends against friends . This novel takes place in the past, but eerily felt relevant to the present. As I read this I couldn’t help but think of the Nazis marching in Charlottesville carry torches and chanting, of the synagogue and church and Muslim temple shootings. I was touched and not too surprised at the ending. Recommended to those who enjoy reading of WWII and its multiple facets.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Crown through NetGalley.

This recurring refrain becomes almost a motto for one of the primary characters in this multigenerational novel that faces up to some of the essential issues of daily life in mid-1930s Germany. As the reparations costs for WWI continue to bankrupt the country, susceptibility to a savior becomes strong, as does the pull for scapegoats.

The central characters of the story, Renate and Ilse, are early teens as the Nazis begin their ascent in German politics and society. They are initially unbothered by these new ruffians whose presence gradually increases. The other major character is Ilse’s daughter Ava who is trying to sort out her mother’s role in the war, her complete parentage, and what to expect from life.

The action moves back and forth between 1933, 1989, 1939, the 1940s and 1950s, gradually revealing stages of the story and relationships. The chapters are dated and titled with the appropriate character’s name to eliminate confusion. Gradually, the pattern is set and the baring of the story occurs. The details of the indignities meted out to Jews, half-Jews, etc is shown clearly here, seen especially through Renate and Ilse’s eyes.

There will be personal betrayal to accompany the national and European witch-hunt. There is so much devastation left in the wake of all of this. Wunderland shows us some of the personal aspects of this national, in fact international, tragedy. And it shows the cost paid over generations to come.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

My Rating: 5 stars

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt compelled to stay up late into the night in order to finish a book because I couldn’t bear to put the book down without finding out how it ends. Things get especially complicated when it is a book that had me emotionally invested in the story and in its characters for practically the entire time I was reading it. Having said that, I will be one of the first to admit that this book was not an easy one to read for several reasons.

First, the subject matter — having read many books about World War II and the Holocaust over the years, I knew going into this one to expect a difficult read. Unlike some of the other books covering this subject however, the direction this one took was a bit different than what we typically see, as the central focus (for the storyline taking place in the 1930s) was on the lead-up to the war, starting in 1933 when Hitler first came to power in Germany, and the resulting environment under which toxic Nazi propaganda was able to fester unabated, leading to the gradual shift in attitude towards the Jewish population – the Nuremburg Laws, the boycott of Jewish businesses, the formation of groups such as the Hitler Youth movement, the horrible atrocity that was Kristallnacht, etc. – it was against this backdrop that the story of a friendship between two young girls played out. In the later timeline (1949 to 1989), the focus was on the aftermath — the devastating impact of the war, not just for the survivors, but also for those who participated, whether directly or indirectly, in the persecution of an entire race having to finally answer for their actions. In a sense, the war itself played a mostly periphery role in the story, with its impact on the story’s characters forming the crux of this narrative about friendship, betrayal, and family destroyed.

Second, the way the story was structured was also different from the typical dual timeline narratives we often see. While this one also jumped back and forth in time, it was technically multiple timelines rather than just two — the narrative opens in 1989, with Ava Fisher, a young single mother living with her daughter Sophie in New York, receiving a box containing her mother Ilse von Fischer’s ashes along with a stack of letters addressed to a woman named Renate Bauer, who is discovered to be Ilse’s childhood friend back in Germany. From there, we are taken back to 1933 and the start of the narrative taking place in the past — after that, the timeline jumps to 1977 and later back and forth between each of the years leading up to and during WWII as well as each of the subsequent decades, going backward from the 1970s back to the 1940s, only skipping full circle back to 1989 at the very end. Not only that, each chapter was alternately narrated from the perspectives of each of the main characters: Ava, Renate, and Ilse. For me, the jumping back and forth between multiple time periods and characters made the story a bit difficult to follow, which required more time and focus on my part in order to keep track of everything. In the end though, the effort was worth it, as this one turned out to be a gem -- a beautifully told but emotionally heart-wrenching, tragic story that I know I won’t soon forget.

As always when I read a well-written work of historical fiction, I learn about not just the history behind the events, but also the impact of those events on the lives of ordinary people. This personal application of historical events is something that history books don’t (or rather aren’t supposed to) cover, but yet, is absolutely crucial in helping us understand this history, its implications, and more importantly, prevent such atrocities from happening again (as much as we are able to). Through the poignant, heartbreaking story of a childhood friendship between two teenage girls who are eventually torn apart by war, author Jennifer Cody Epstein did a wonderful job bringing this period of history back into the spotlight. Of equal importance though, through the lives and actions of the fictional characters in the story, we are given insight into the complexities of human behavior and the impact of our actions on others. The character in the story who most reflected this for me was Ilse, whom I found hard to like for sure, but at the same time, it felt wrong to hate her – to me, she was one of the most tragic characters in the story given how much of her life and actions were shaped by her upbringing and the environment in which she grew up as well as the price she ended up paying in the end.

This is a book I highly recommend, one that I hope many will read and learn from. It is also a rendering of history that, given the times we live in currently, needs to be understood and vigilantly prevented. As with many of the books I’ve read about the atrocities of WWII, this one is yet another poignant reminder of the frailty of human life and the importance of not taking the freedoms we have for granted. This is a story that needs to be read and experienced and hopefully one we can all learn from.

Received ARC from Crown Publishing via NetGalley.

(Before reading, please be aware that this review may contain spoilers)

Where to begin...lets start with I LOVED THIS BOOK! It has history, love, lies, and tragedy. I also really like the cover and was happy it gave me a sense of what the two main characters might look like. I never wanted to put it down.

Now, to dive right into it...

I'm always drawn to historical fiction that specifically surrounds World War II. It was such a sad and devastating time that I believe it should be written about. We should never forget how terrible this point in history was and should always be reminded of it with books like Wunderland.

It reminded me of a much sadder female focused version of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Wunderland delve more into the details of what it was like when Jewish families and businesses were being destroyed. With Renate's story, it gave detailed descriptions of how Jewish children were treated in school by both their full German blooded peers and teachers. You can get a sense of how hard and confusing it must have been for children when the friends they were so close to turned on them or when teachers (adults) that are supposed to teach and guide you start treating you like dirt. Then seeing your family and everything around you fall apart.

On the flip side, the character Ilse was a young German girl who got sucked into the Nazi party. Ilse was part of the BDM (Band of German Maidens) which was "the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement." So as we follow Ilse's story we get a sense of what was going through their minds as they wrote about Jewish people and were punishing them. Ilse herself had done some unspeakable things in the name of the Nazi party, but lived with the guilt of all that she'd done. Even though she's a fictional character, I believe that there were so many young German girls and boys corrupted and their minds manipulated by the Nazi party making them believe what they were doing was right even though it was awful.

Overall, Wunderland is an incredible depiction of the terrors that came from the Nazi party and World War II. I would highly recommend reading this amazing book. As a side note, I feel Wunderland is worthy of becoming a movie one day. I certainly would watch it and probably cry my eyes out.

Book Court - Where I'm the Judge and Jury

CHARGE (What was the author trying say?): To explore individual choices made in Nazi-era Germany.

FACTS: Two childhood friends find themselves on opposite sides of the Nazi regime in Germany. Choices and circumstances separate the friends for over fifty years, but their lives are entwined in ways they can never foreseee. The shifting chronology made it difficult to follow at times. The grim reality of the times was often unbearable to read, and I found myself skimming much of that material. Though it is an historical novel, I was not interested in so many horrific details – which seemed to overwhelm the plot.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Guilty, as charged but often unreadable.

#NetGalley #Wunderland

I've said it before and I'll say it again - one of my favorite things about Historical Fiction is that, even after reading so many different books covering one single era, there are SO many more stories to be told. Sometimes I start putting pressure on myself to read outside of the WWI/WWII eras of Historical Fiction - and sometimes I do - but for the most part, I just have such a genuine love for well written accounts of that era and if something is working for me, why mess with it?

All of this being said, I have been so excited for Wunderland for at least 6 months. Something about the cover and the font immediately drew me in and then the synopsis hooked me well and good. The synopsis alludes to this (and I think anyone that has ever read a book centered on WWII had an idea what was coming), but what follows is a spoiler so read at your own risk - the best part of this book references what I mentioned in my opening paragraph: the ability to tell so many untold stories in a genre that is filled with hundreds of thousands of titles. In all of my WWII era books, I haven't read a single one from the perspective of a German that espoused early Nazi propaganda ... until they realized that their own lineage was far from the Aryan ideal.

Renate, Ava, and Ilse were all incredibly compelling characters, and once this book really snagged my focus (it did take about 60 pages) I was a total goner. I think I ended up reading about 300 pages in one day?? I was blown away by the stories that were told, and the small yet ever growing indignities Renate and her family faced - made all the worse after being so sure that she was, at best, on the right side of things, and, at worst, safe enough in her own life to not worry too terribly much about others.

Living in Ilse's head for the chapters from her POV was so interesting, and, to be completely honest, terrifying. The lengths some Germans went to in order to soothe their minds while being the bystanders of (and sometimes the perpetrators of) violence and criminal activity towards those of Jewish ancestry are ASTOUNDING ... yet you can see, in the most reprehensible way, how some were able to do it through the reading of Ilse's chapters.

As Ilse's duplicity grows and Renate's terror increases, you're also ping ponged back and forth through Ilse's daughter's life. Following the war, Ava was left in the care of her grandparents until a bombing forced them from her lives and forced her into an orphanage. Her mother did come from her, but their relationship was forever strained and never got any better - and you see the beginnings of such issues in Ava's life with her own daughter, Sophie.

I never knew exactly where the book was headed, although I had some ideas about what was to come. For the things I "guessed," I was typically right - but there were other things that came totally out of left field that enhanced the story so thoroughly. This book is 100% recommended for fans of WWII Historical Fiction - with as much as you might have read, I truly believe this is an important new entry into the genre.

I received this book "Wunderland" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. Sorry but this is a DNF for me. I just could not connect with the characters at all. So much detail - too much for me. There could have been more of an overview. I have read books about the war that I liked. The story jumped around and was too confusing. This book could not hold my attention although I would have like to find out what happened in the story I could not get past all that detail that I found boring.

I feel like there have been a lot of World war II books in the past few years, and I have read my share of them. This one ... I just cannot recommend it. My primary difficulty is that I had a really hard time caring about these characters, Frankly, I can't remember having read a book before with a sympathetic Nazi character! It's incredibly difficult to try to make a modern reader care about a character who believes in the Nazi philosophy. As for the other characters, I am not sure why I had trouble with them. The author conveys the terrible situations that they are facing, but I just couldn't get emotionally attached to them either. It's possible that the way the book jumped around so much in time contributed to my inability to connect. Basically, the book felt very jumbled to me.

Wow! Wunderland exceeded all of my expectations. It was unlike any WWII historical fiction that I have ever read. The story focuses on Renate, Ilse, and Ava. Each chapter is told through the POV of one of the main characters. We skip around through time and location, but it always makes sense.
Renate and Ilse are best friends in pre-WWII Germany. After Hitler's rise to power, their friendship is tested when Ilse throws herself wholeheartedly into various government sponsored youth programs and Renate does not. When Renate's family are decreed Jewish, the story takes two directions. We follow both girls lives, and they are awful. Renate's for obvious reasons and Ilse's because it is truly a horror how easily she tows the party line.
The third, but equally important voice is Ava, Ilse's daughter. She provides most of the post-war commentary up to 1989.
Secrets are uncovered, friends are betrayed, and survival is not guaranteed for anyone.
Wunderland is a fantastic, compelling story that I didn't want to put down.