The Girl From the Train by Irma Joubert

The Girl From the Train is a beautiful addition to the collection of YA historical fiction set during the time of World War 2. It's a lovely coming of age story, and I enjoyed reading about Gretl's life spanning multiple locations around the world (I particularly enjoyed the parts that took place in South Africa). Her friendship with Jakob warmed my heart. The writing is nice, but choppy at times. It took some getting used to. Happily ever afters are rare in WW2 fiction, so I found myself pleasantly surprised at how all this wraps up.

This is a story of survival, and we put faces on some of these people, first we meet Gretl a six year old on her way to Auschwitz, and Jakob who was a freedom fighter. Jakob ends playing a major part in Gretl's life, and we follow this young girl from Poland to South Africia.

I loved most of the people put in Greti's life, and how she survives.

This is a war story, a love story, and a survival story, and once you begin this book, you will not want to put it down.

Wish I could have continued on reading of Greti's life!

I have wanted to read this for awhile and was looking forward to it. I just could not get into it. After almost 20%, it till was not doing anything for me. Usually by this point, there is something, that wants me to continue reading it, but I just remained bored and finally could not continue. I will not rate this book since although Idid not like this, I did not read this in entirety.

I really enjoy historical fiction and looked forward to reading this novel. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts that fell flat for me. Perhaps the translation impacted the overall feel of the book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book

Poor Gretl. She had been through a lot but she was determined and headstrong and I couldn't help but root for her to have some happiness. As time went on I began to get bored. I felt like I was reading forever and getting nowhere. I was sick of reading about the minutiae of her everyday life - what colour ribbons she was wearing in her hair, what she was eating, what language she had to speak that day or what religious beliefs she had to believe in that day. We had to be told every. little. thing. I skipped the second half of the book and went straight to the epilogue, which held no surprises for me. A very tedious read.

This book is a look at the tragedy of children in wartime. The coincidence that enables the two main characters to meet is a vivid picture of the sadness of war. I really liked this book! The characters drew me in and I began to feel the same guilt as they did over choices that were made. There are many books about World War II and the Jewish Holocaust, but this was a new set of circumstances to me. I found the plot intriguing and the struggles a richly drawn portrait of survivors.

Sorry, never got around to reading. Will try again at a later date.

Thank you for the opportunity read and review this title! I didn't enjoy it as much as I"d hoped, and rather than post a negative review, I chose to not feature it on my blog. I look forward to seeing what new releases you have in store!