This novel, based on a true situation, chronicles the publication of a fake newspaper in Belgium during WW
II. The premise was interesting, and the novel got off to a good start. However, the large number of main characters made the book a bit hard to follow as the story progressed.

I wanted to like this book but it was very hard to read. I enjoyed that it is based on true events. I think the overall story is interesting, this doesn't necessarily read like a novel and I was bored throughout. I was hoping for more suspense but at times I felt like I was reading from a textbook. I never got “hooked” enough to want to not put it down. I struggled to finish.

Did Not Finish
Abandoned at 33%
I couldn’t force myself to finish the book. It drags on and the writing is confusing. Is it third person? Is it first person? No one knows.
I wanted to like this book, but I had to work to keep reading and a book like that just isn’t worth suffering through.

I liked this story. It's a great story of Belgian resistance during WWII based on a true events. I wanted it to be an exciting, suspenseful WWII story with lots of intrigue and deception. The intrigue and deception were there but there was no excitement or suspense. All of the characters were interesting individuals but I didn't feel like I got to know any of them that well and it was unclear what their motivations were. The story is told by jumping around from different characters POV's. That didn't bother me much but I did think it hurt the flow of the action and made the story really slow. I really wanted to like it more but it took me so long to get interested in it. I started, then stopped, then restarted it and kind of rushed through it because I had downloaded it more than 3 months ago and felt like I needed to finish it. I wanted more of an emotional connection with this story and I just didn't get it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

An interesting book based on true events. While the overall story is interesting, this doesn't necessarily read like a novel and I was bored throughout. I was hoping for more suspense but at times I felt like I was reading from a textbook.

The Ventriloquists is a fascinating, fictional re-telling of true events that occurred during World War II. The, very long, novel follows a number of characters that are a part of this resistance project and switches back and forth between each character's point-of-view to tell the story. And while the characters themselves are great and the story is interesting, I realized after the fact that my main motivation for finishing the work was that the text was expiring off my Kobo in a couple of days. Indeed, the fact that this story is taking place in German-occupied territory should automatically result in a high-stakes, suspenseful narrative. And yet, there wasn't one in The Ventriloquists. It was just page after page of the characters "going through the motions" to the finish the project with little to no sense of any kind of real danger. The reader will see a snippet here and there but nothing to really evoke an emotional response. At least it didn't for me. Even at the end of the book, I was expecting to cry or to feel a great sense of loss but it just wasn't there. Nonetheless, the story is an important one to tell and not very well known. I just feel it would have been better if it was MUCH shorter and if there was more emotion progressing the plot.

It took a while for me to get into this book. There was a lot of flipping back and forth to different people and in the beginning it was hard to get a handle on which character I was reading. Halfway through the characters and story really clicked for me and things became much easier. I was invested and couldn't put it down until it was finished.
An interesting read based on true events that took place in Belgium during WWII. A group of journalists producing an underground newspaper are caught and given an ultimatum, write an edition that paints the Allies as the antagonist or die. The group has no choice but to agree.... they in turn decide to deliver a fake edition of “Le Soir” loaded with satire and they only have 18 days to pull it off.

This one was just ok for me. It didn’t keep me interested and I felt the plot jumped around a lot and it just didn’t hold my interest
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

This World War II story was a disappointment. I hoped for a book with the magic of Hugo or at least a book with a uniform literary tone. This book felt erratic, with a few great moments, particularly in the dialogue between characters. The book was very challenging to finish, as the writing felt leaden. I wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't committed to writing this review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Ventriloquists is the type of historical fiction that I usually like. Anything WWII always catches my attention. That being said, I didn't care for this story all that much. It's mostly because of the disjointed narrative and character confusion. I didn't know which character I was reading, and I just got lost. I think the premise is unique and intriguing but poorly executed. This story has a lot of potential but missed the mark unfortunately. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry. I just couldn’t get into the book
It was clunky and just had no flow to go with it
Fiction is fiction but it just seemed to jump between fact and fiction

“The Ventriloquist” Is an interesting book based on true events that took place during WWII. It is about a young orphan and a group of journalists who attempt to ridicule Hitler and the Nazis and lift the spirits of the Belgians by risking their lives to publish fake editions of a widely published newspaper. There are lots of characters and the story line was confusing at times, but an interesting read. My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review.

An odd group of people gather to find ways to sabotage the Germans in France. They are joined by a waif disguised as a boy. They have success and failures. Like most war stories the ending is usually tragic, A new slant on the ways of the Resistance.

DNF. There simply was no continuity within the story. Keeping track of the various publications was very tricky. A clear indication of what the book was about in the early pages would have been very helpful.

I was very excited that this was a historical fiction WWII story but I had a very hard time trying to get into it. There were numerous characters and the story line was confusing at times. At the half-way point, I started skimming hoping that it would capture my interest but it did not. I was very disappointed in this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Based on 15%: the style of writing is very dry, couldn’t get into the story at all. It is not an engaging read for me to continue with this book.

Another interesting true-event story -- An emotional WW2 story focused on a twelve year old orphan. While not filled with action, there was good character development and a very good premise. The execution was often clunky and even sloppy. Overall, decent read, and with some adjustments and maybe more editing, and improved book. Thanks for the opportunity read an advanced copy!

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This novel is set in Belgium in WWII, where a group of journalists produce a fake paper with REAL information. The characters are OK. There were some moments in the writing that felt forced and contived. I love that the author brought this event to a group of YA readers.

The description of this book sounded right up my alley. Historical fiction WWII, just what I like best. Unfortunately it was choppy and didn't flow easily. I rarely can't finish a book, but I could not finish this one.

About three-quarters of the way through this novel, set in World War II Belgium, one of the protagonists spends a fair amount of time moaning that "I probably won't see the Americans join the war." That would be fine... if the book didn't take place in 1943. I reread that section three times to be sure I hadn't misunderstood.

Even before then, though, the book was irritating me, primarily because of the clunky framing device and use of first-person narrative for most of the story. Gamin/Helene, the narrator in question, consistently tells us what other characters were thinking, even during their final moments. Why not opt for third person? Having this character continually tell us things she couldn't possibly know kept taking me out of the story. So did the philosophizing that kept slowing down the action. It's as if the author didn't trust that the story was compelling enough. And that's a shame, because the little-known, true-life Faux Soir escapade that this book details is fantastical in and of itself and does not require such distractions. It's also a shame because the author can definitely turn an evocative phrase.

Thank you, NetGalley and Park Row, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.