★★★☆☆

Pros:

~ Interesting internal perspective of a young Jewish girl fleeing Nazi
persecution
~ Sweet love story I wish had been resolved better/developed more
~ Heavily character-driven
~ Explores the complexities of desperation
~ Pretty much what you expect from a WWII novel


Cons:

~ A very male-skewing perception of a young girls’ mind and thoughts
~ Not a good “first” adult novel
~ Aspects of the plot were skimmed over and underdeveloped
~ Sexualizes teenage girls who have been starving and dying
~ The writing is either ridiculously repetitive or well-serving in tone,
but very little in-between
~ The ending is just OVER and there’s little going for it, tbh
~ If you’re in this for a *Satisfying* ending (read: not necessarily happy,
but satisfying) you’re in for disappointment
This definitely isn’t something I would usually pick up. I primarily read YA fiction—and if it’s historical, it’s usually pre-1900. I really want to enjoy adult fiction, and I thought this would be a good foray into it as the MC is a teenager throughout the novel.

But honestly, this was just… not great. It felt like it believed it was great, and therefore didn’t have to deliver in any satisfying way because it was ~~so literary~~.

The Song of the Stork follows fifteen-year-old Yael, a Jewish girl who has had to flee the Nazis. Her family is gone, parents missing or taken or dead, and her brother is off to fight with the Soviets. She is hiding in the forest with her companion Rivka, who dies from fever, leaving Yael all alone.

Yael leaves the forest to hide in a chicken coop belonging to the town’s resident mute and “crazy man”, Aleksei. He’s in his twenties and hasn’t spoken since childhood, after his mother’s death, and when he discovers Yael on hiding on his land, he orders her away. But Yael persists and Aleksei is sympathetic, and eventually, she is living with him and falling in love with him.

WWII stories are not my favorite because they’re so damn devastating, and The Song of the Stork is no exception. Yael is put through hell, and we see that. Her relationship with Aleksei is sweet but sadly underdeveloped. Months are glossed over and suddenly they’re sleeping together? Their relationship had such potential, and in spite of myself I loved them together and loved Aleksei, and they deserved a lot more than they got.

A huge downside was that the author does not write girls well. It felt very much like a man, focusing heavily on female bodies (which is really creepy considering how young Yael is), even ones that have been literally starved. There were times that Yael felt real to me and I related and sympathized with her a lot, and then there were times that I felt like I was reading a man’s idea of a young girl. And of course, this novel utilized my LEAST favorite trope, which I can’t say because it’s a huge spoiler. Just know that I didn’t like it, and it tied into the ending, and I DIDN’T LIKE IT.

To say the least, I was far from satisfied by the ending. There’s no way it was going to be happy, but I feel like the ending’s lack of answers was irritating and unnecessary. I feel bad saying I was unsatisfied with the ending in a story about the holocaust, but it just was so contrived for a bittersweet/tragic ending, and you know that *SPOILERS* once the MC is pregnant, her lover is gone for good. It’s the most obvious “twist” you could possibly conceive. I didn’t like that there were no answers for Aleksei, not even concerning his past and his selective mutism. When Yael finally, FINALLY gets to go back to him, after a devastatingly boring stint with the soldiers in the forest, he was just straight-up gone. Was he killed? Did he leave, looking for Yael? Will he ever find her? Will she ever find him? Is he dead? Missing? WHAT? Hell if I know. */SPOILERS*

Also what annoyed me was the writing style. My GOD the writing could get repetitive. In some places it worked, but in others it was the exact same sentence structure over and over and over, ‘she did this, she did that, she did this, and then she did that, and this was like this, and that was like that’. Sometimes the writing had a good tone, and the monotony served it well, but other times… no.

However as a story about one girl’s story of persevering through terrible conditions enforced by Nazi soldiers, it works well. If you are really interested in a literary, character-driven, on-the-run WWII story, I might suggest it. But truth be told, there are better stories about the same subject matter.

I received a free ARC of The Song of the Stork in exchange for honest review. All opinions are uninfluenced and my own. Thank you!

I kind of found the telling of this to be a bit boring... interesting story of course but it didn't really grip me... the main characters weren't amazingly likeable to me and I didn't care much for the romance.


spoiler
Plus the ending was annoying - where on earth is Aleksei?!

Thank you to NetGalley and Legend Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For me this book was set to receive a 5 star rating. Stephan Collishaw writes beautifully. Really, his writing style is very elegant and thoughtful, but just as the book really gets going it's over. Like quite literally over. I actually removed it from my Kindle and re-downloaded since I thought I must have a bad file because there is no way that's how the book ends!! And maybe that's Collishaw's technique: write beautiful stories that end so abruptly the reader will go read another one of his books, but it doesn't work for me.

Would I recommend this book? Certainly, if there was another 20 chapters to go along with it.

I'm so reluctant to write anything here because nothing I say can do this novel justice - it's a heartstopping tale of a child coming to adulthood in the most awful of circumstances, finding hope in a war ravaged landscape where none seems to be.

It's written in elegant, spare language and it almost broke my heart.

Seventy years later and there are Yaels in refugee camps all over the world. Shame on us all.

Go now and pre-order this book (it will be published on 1 March) - it will be one of the multi award winning novels of 2017/18.

Many thanks to Legend Press, NetGalley and to the author for the advance review copy.

4-4.5 Stars!

I was fascinated by the tone, it was suspenseful and read in sort of a haunting in a way. The writing captivated me. A compelling fable like story with sprinkles of love, and mostly of survival with an unforeseen ending that left me spinning. I highly recommend!!