I have read a lot of WWII historical fiction in the past (not as much anymore), so I'm always interested when I read about an unusual storyline. This story, about a woman named Yona who grew up in the forest and helps Jews hiding from the Germans, was done so well. The details were fascinating and the book was obviously well-researched. The story was both gut-wrenching and beautiful. This story will definitely stick with me, and I'm glad I read it as my last book of 2021.

Beautifully written WWII story. My only complaint was it dragged a little in the middle.
Yona was a fascinating character with such an interesting backstory. I really enjoyed how different of a story this was for this genre.
A historical fictional tale that is well worth the read. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me a copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

It started off slow but I'm glad I stuck with it


Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Kristin Harmel has become my go-to author for historical fiction. Kristin has created an immersive, emotional, achingly beautifully written story unlike anything I’ve read in the World War 2 time frame. The amount of research and time she spent getting the smallest details of the story right shines on each page of The Forest of Vanishing Stars. I felt Harmel’s heart on each page and have watched the emotion she shows talking about this story in interviews. As I was reading, I truly felt the cold of the forest in the dead of winter and the freshness of the locally foraged food. I heard the snap of a tree branch and stomping footprints in the snow. I felt like I was right there in the forest with Yona with my senses heightened, struggling to survive. The character of Yona will stay with me forever. The way Yona emerged from a sheltered childhood in the forest into a young woman who was deeply connected to nature of other’s needs and feelings was a beautiful story to read. People like Yona and the real life Bielski brothers, who’s story gave Harmel the idea for this book, are real life heroes, standing up to the atrocities and risking their own lives to save others. With tears streaming down my face and my breath held, I was both quickly turning the pages and anxious to see how Yona’s story unfolded at the end…

Yona, stolen at age two and raised solely in the forest by an elderly woman until her 20’s, faced a new reality after the woman’s death. Although she felt most at home in the forest, she was also drawn to the nearby villages. Quickly, Yona finds out what horrible things are happening to the Jews during World War 2 and bring Jewish refugees into the forest and helps them survive often putting herself at risk. Yona’s story largely takes place during the span of a couple years in the heart of World War 2. When a person from her past reemerges, Yona must decide what part of this war she wants to be on. Yona lived such a sheltered life and was let down by people she trusted and cared about, but still possessed the innate ability to be kind and caring towards each other. Human kindness and empathy shine throughout this story and is perhaps the biggest takeaway for me from The Forest of Vanishing Stars.
I can’t wait to read Harmel’s next story, however I don’t know how it can beat the world she created in The Forest of Vanishing Stars. An absolute must-read for any World War 2 historical fiction lovers.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel! I was not able to finish the novel so I won't be leaving a full review.

Another fantastic novel by Ms. Harmel. Her books are quickly becoming must reads for me. A story of survival and hope for one woman who makes a difference in many lives.

This was my favorite WWII book of 2021! I absolutely fell in love with Yona and the people she helped survive in the forests of Poland as they ran from the Nazis. This is such a beautiful and compelling story that I plan to revisit it again in the future. I have read some other reviews that complained about the romance and the mystical realism in Kristin's books but I didn't mind either. I also loved The Book of Lost Names and I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Published 6 July 2021.

Such a beautifully written story based on historical events.

Following Yona's story was inspiring and heartbreaking to know what pain and suffering had occured.

Oh how I loved this book. As a Jew, I freely admit that I love love to read stories about my people though I worried not a little about the fact that here I was, reading another Holocaust book, and maybe it was time to find a different niche. But I have absolutely no regrets about Forest of Vanishing Stars. It’s not just another Holocaust book and on the contrary, it explores survival in a space that gets so little note: Jewish survival in the abundant forests of Eastern Europe, and not just mere survival, a revival of their sense of self and need to fight on in whatever way possible.

I don’t want to go into a lot of details because my dear readers, I want you to discover the story and it’s many twists on your own. I will say that while this is a Jewish story, it is ultimately a human story in every way: a story of a search for a place in the world, a story of belonging and a story of love and light in the darkest moments of life,

The Forest of Vanishing Stars is an engrossing fictional account of a young woman who helps Jews live in the forest during World War II to escape apprehension. Although none of her characters are based on real people, the story was inspired by actual events and the experiences of survivors. Thousands of Jews built self-sufficient communities that existed hidden away until the war ended and it was safe to emerge.

In author Kristin Harmel's story, an old mystic woman, Jerusza, who had "always known things other people didn't," knows that a child born to wealthy and influential German parents must not remain with and be raised by them. Her destiny lies elsewhere. So she watches and waits, and when the little girl, Inge Jüttner, is two years old, she kidnaps her. The child looks up at her and says "It is you" in Yiddish, a language she has not been taught. As they are escaping, Jerusza hears "a voice from the sky, sharp and clear. "One day," the voice said, :if she is not careful, her past will return -- and it will cost her everything. The only safe place is the forest." So Jerusza takes her to the Nalibocka forest, changes her name to Yona and, although she never wanted a child of her own, raises her.

As the years pass, Jerusza teaches Yons how to exist concealed from society and dependent only on what the earth provides . . . along with the things Jerusza steals when they stealthily sneak into villages. And how to take another's life should it become necessary. As Yona grows and asks all sorts of questions, Jerusza teaches her languages, science, world religions, and how to steal books. In fact, by the team Yona is fourteen years old, the "bright, sensitive, intuitive" girl's education rivals that of any university graduate. But most importantly, Yona masters "the mysteries of the forest, all the ways to survive." Jerusza also shows her "the perils of the outside world, and reminds her that no one could be trusted." They move about once every month, leaving no trace of their existence behind.

But by the time Yona is twenty years old, the world beyond the forest has changed. They hear airplanes, explosions, and gunshots, but Jerusza refuses to answer Yona's queries about what is happening, saying only that "God is angry. We are being tested," and reminding her that she will always be protected by the forest. There are more people in the forest -- "Bad men. The horror has just begun," Jaresza cautions -- and they keep moving east. By the summer of 1941, Jerusza tells Yona that the Germans are bombing Poland and they must steer clear of Russian deserters." But Yona is only confused by Jerusza's statement.

At the age of 102, Jerusza dies in 1942, leaving twenty-two-year-old Yona on her own for the first time in her life. Yona had fleeting dreams about her first two years of life, but as she is dying, Jerusza confesses that she didn't save Yona after she was abandoned by heartless parents. "I stole you. I had not choice, you see," she admits.

After Jerusza dies, Yona wanders the forest alone until she discovers and helps a little Jewish girl who tells her, "I was running from the . . . the people who want to kill us. Because I am Jewish. They are trying to kill us all." Yona is stunned, unable to comprehend that anyone would capable of such a heinous act. Not long after, following a shattering tragedy, Yona finds a man attempting to catch a fish with his bare hands, and soon another man appears. Yona debates whether to help them. But the compulsion to intercede is irresistible, and she is convinced it is the right thing to do because it is part of a greater plan she does not yet understand. And the focus of Harmel's story transitions from Jerusza's efforts to prepare Yona for what she knows the young woman will have to face to Yona's coming-of-age and fulfillment of her destiny.

Yona has no idea how to interact with other people, live in society, or love anyone other than in the limited ways she cared for Jerusza. But she becomes a teacher and leader when she realizes that the two men are part of a larger group. She joins them and shows them how to evade the Nazis in order to survive, especially during the rapidly approaching harsh winter. She learns difficult lessons about love, and a stinging betrayal compels her to return to the world from which she was ripped as a toddler. But there are more harsh lessons to be learned there about war, sacrifice, and the atrocities of which people are capable when committed to a cause.

Through Yona, Harmel explores the question of how much power individuals have to change their own destinies. In her skillful depiction of Yona's struggle, the young woman comes face to face with her past and the life she could have led if Jerusza had not kidnapped her. She confronts the extent, if any, to which she is culpable, because she was born to German parents, for the suffering and loss of so many. One character pointedly challenges Yona, "You think you can escape who you were born to? None of us can. Can't you see that?" Yet another character assures her, "We all come into this world with our fate unwritten. Your identity isn't determined by your birth. All that matters is what we make ourselves into, what we choose to do with our lives." Yona must make the most important decision of her life: which philosophy will be embrace? Who will she become? And as she does, with everything at stake, Harmel deftly ramps up the dramatic tension to a harrowing climax.

In Yona, Harmel has crafted an endearing and empathetic character. The elements of magical realism she injects into the tale are extremely effective at emphasizing the book's themes. Her prose is descriptive and vibrant, with just the right level of detail to keep readers engaged during the first part of the book as Harmel sets the stage for the wrenching, heartbreaking events that occur later in the story when Yona matures and discovers her true purpose in life. Along the way, Jerusza's beliefs and predictions serve as reminders that immortal forces have always been and continue to be at work in Yona's life. But that Yona will, ultimately, be the person she chooses to be.

Harmel says she is drawn back to writing historical fiction set in the World War II-era because there are so many fascinating stories to tell and those stories remain relevant eight decades later. It was a dark period in history, but many of the tales serve as reminders that light always prevails. Indeed, light plays an important role in The Forest of Vanishing Stars in which the forest itself serves as a fundamental character. Yona moves in and out of the light the forest provides, hiding herself and others in darkness, emerging back into the light cautiously when it is safe to do so. As she is growing up, Yona and Jerusza sleep in the forest under a bright canopy of the same stars that the refugees wish upon as they wait for the war to end. Those stars sometimes remain unseen for months on end as winter descends, making it easier for Yona and the refugees to conceal themselves from their would-be captors. "You can hardly see them above the trees. They disappear deep in the forest, don't they?" one of the refugees observes. "By the grace of God, may we all be vanishing stars." As the refugees cautiously light the candles in the menorah Yona makes for them, they experience "light in the darkness. The hope of a miracle."

Just as the refugees who survive declare that they must live in order to honor their dead, Harmel is committed to honoring those who were impacted by World War II with her fictional tales. With The Forest of Vanishing Stars she has excelled at doing so. It is a compassionately crafted, memorable story. A must-read for all fans of World War II-era historical fiction.

I have read most of this author's books, and enjoyed them all, but this must be the best. It covers a very dark period in history during WW2. Taking place in Germany, Poland and Belarus it is about a group of Jews, hiding from the Nazis in the forest. It is incredibly well researched and descriptions are so vivid I felt as if I was there with them. The main protagonist is a young woman who was kidnapped from her wealthy family. Her strength and knowledge of the forest helps a group of Jews to survive.

I thought Kristin Harmel's The Forest of Vanishing Stars to be a great read. I would love to read more by her in the future. Four stars

The Forest of Vanishing Stars

There hasn't been a book about WWII and the Holocaust that has stuck with me long past the close of the book since Number the Stars by Lois Lowery that I read as a 5th grader. Till now with The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel, each book I have read by her has left its mark on me in someway. However this one has remained with me since I closed the book after the last page. This book brings to life the horrors a group of people went through because of their ethnicity and religion as well as what happened to those who tried to help. And while the heroine is fictional the horrors her own father would have subjected her and her mother to simply for only being half German. Sometimes truth is easier to be told through story.


I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

I really enjoyed The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel. In the past, I overdid it with World War II novels so I had taken a break from them, but needed an easy read and this was just the ticket! I really enjoyed the angle of this story - a young woman who grew up in a forest that ends up helping Jews fleeing the Nazis. There were parts of the story that seemed a little implausible to me (how Yona was kidnapped from her Berlin home at age two by Jerusza, and how they survived in the forest for so long... and also, the ending)... but if you look at the book with the lens of mystery, fantasy, and adventure... it is a delightful book. There is intrigue and suspense, but also kindness, history, and romance. This is genuinely a wonderful story even though it takes place during a difficult part of history.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advanced ebook copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

This was an enthralling novel that told of the horrors of war and how one girl and some Jews survived the wilderness. It is rich in historical detail and I enjoyed the author’s note at the end. The story was heartbreaking.
Many thanks to Gallery Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was definitely unique! I have read a lot of WWII books, and this storyline was unlike anything I have ever read. As always, these books and stories are very inspiring. I could tell that Kristin put in a lot of research into this one and loved reading the author's notes at the end. Overall- I loved reading Yona' story.

I enjoyed this story, but not quite as much as previous Harmel works. I liked the different aspect of the setting, and the fact that the characters were in hiding and relied on the woods for protection. I just found myself wanting more from the characters and their interactions. It all felt very forced to me, for the sake of moving the plot along.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

I devoured this book in one sitting. I was captivated by the story of Inge/Yona. Stolen as a child and raised in the forest, Yona is destined for bigger things, but she doesn’t know what. When the Germans start murdering Jews, and Jews begin to find refuge in the forest, Yona becomes a guide to groups, teaching them how to survive.
This is a beautiful story of trust, survival, love, loss, perseverance, determination, and empathy. I loved every word.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy. All opinions are my own and freely given.
#KristinHarmel #NetGalley #ForestOfVanishingStars

An amazing story about identity, morality and answering the call to do what is right in the face of risk. This book is breathtaking in depth and sense of place and it was a moving piece of literature and historical fiction sure to impress readers.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars is yet another fabulous story of Kristin Harmel's. As a Jewish person, I always like delving into her stories. This book tells not only a tale of history, but magic and faith as well.