Resistance, by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Book Review)

 

‘“What good is faith if you're dead?"
"What good is life without faith? We'll all die one day–no one escapes that fate. Our only decision is how we live before that day comes.”’

Chaya is a teenager living in Poland during Nazi occupation. Simply being Jewish makes her in danger of being killed on the spot or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference. She joins a teen resistance group against the Nazis. Using forged papers and her good looks, she becomes a courier, traveling between Jewish ghettos, smuggling food, papers, and even people. 

But after a mission goes terribly wrong, the network is shattered, but not hope. Chaya and her sweetest friend go on a very dangerous mission into Warsaw, where a new resistance might spark…

“The resistance was not about who lived and who died. It was about the way we lived, and the way we would die when our time came.”

Resistance is a very amazing book! I read it fairly quick and was enveloped. I’ve read quite a few stories about World War Two, of the power and cruelty of Hitler and the Nazis, that were so impactful and heart wrenching, but this one is an amazing one to add to my collection of favorites. Niesel’s writing style was surprisingly very alike Suzanne Collins’ writing, only a completely different genre!

I especially liked the character development in this book, because there is so much! The friendship between the two main characters was so strong and beautiful. 

I find it hard to read books where my personal favorite characters die in it, but honestly, that’s why we love the character. Humility and self sacrifice is exactly what we try and replicate in Jesus, and in other real people and even fictional characters in books. I honestly think the best books are the ones that make you cry. And that might come as a shock, but I think it’s true. If I think of all my favorite books, they’re the ones that I’ve cried in, The Hunger Games, Rilla of Ingleside, etc. 

Like I said, this book was about the cruelty of the Nazis and the crazy things that they did to other people that were so inhumane. But this book also was about finding peace in this dark world, and the values of faith, loyalty, and friendship. I’m not going to say my favorite character, it would spoil to much because of what I’ve just said, but really try and find who it is that I’m talking about if/when you read it, because she is a great hero. 

Obviously there is some gory and heavy stuff in this book, including torture, killing, death and destruction, but there wasn’t anything that wasn’t age appropriate. I would recommend this book for teenagers and up. 

I would rate this book a 9 out of 10!

“We proved that there was value in faith. There was value in loyalty. And that a righteous resistance was victory in itself, no matter the outcome. We got our three lines of history.”

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