Summary: A doll named Karolina is taken from her war-torn land (the Land of the Dolls) to World War II Poland. Her friend, the Dollmaker is Polish/German and he befriends a Jewish family. Naturally, bad shit happens and everything is shit.
I gave this book 3 stars...but I might give it 2...I really can't decide.
There were so many things about this book that I really hated...but there were also a lot of things that I did enjoy, so as you can see from my rating, I'm torn. Maybe I will settle on one...at some point.
As per usual, let's start out with the things I liked...especially because I'm going to aggressively rip this book apart later.
Things I liked:
One thing that I really liked about this book early on was the whimsy. I mean, it was a story about a doll who would sew wishes into dresses and lived in a land of dolls. How cool is that! It felt like a historical fiction/fantasy, and I was really digging it! Some might say that this is spoilers, but the Land of the Dolls gets invaded by a rat king and his rat minions invade across the river where the dolls are living and destroy everything. It reminded me of The Nutcracker and I was in love.
I used to perform in The Nutcracker every year from the age of 10-16. I love the atmosphere of this ballet, so reading a book that reminded me of it was super exciting. I was living my best bookish life.
Anyway, the doll world was great, for the most part. We really didn't get too much world building there because it really wasn't about the doll world, but being there was still enjoyable (for the most part). There was also a lot of mythology and folklore in the real world. I really don't know much about Poland. I have Polish ancestry, but no one in our family talks about it, only our German heritage, so I didn't realize there was so much interesting folklore! I learned a lot by reading this book.
Another thing I really liked about this book, especially because I like language, was the fact that the author used a lot of German and Polish words in the book. I think it really made the book feel more real to me. I believed that we were actually in Poland and that there were Germans there as well. I struggled with the Polish words, but I understood the German ones and not only did it feel good (personal accomplishment) but it also meant that it was accessible to everyone (though I kind of wish the author put a pronunciation guide next to the words so those who didn't know how to say it could learn) because she translated it so non-speakers could understand.
I also really liked that the Dollmaker had PTSD. The Dollmaker served in a war earlier before the events of the book happened (I'm not sure which one, because I'm bad with historical timelines). He lost everything, including a leg, and he's just a mess when Karolina meets him. I felt like her depiction of PTSD was done pretty well. I also have PTSD (non-war related), and I felt like it was true to the condition. The dreams, the flashbacks, the reclusiveness, and the anxiety. I dealt/deal with a lot of those symptoms and felt like it was well depicted.
Lastly in the "likes" list is the accurate depictions of life in Poland during World War II. We don't usually see books that take place in countries that aren't Germany during this era, so it was a nice change of pace. We got to see what it was like for the Polish people and those who were Germans living in Poland, like the Dollmaker. It was pretty well done. We also really felt the tensions between the Jewish population and the non-Jewish population. It is always really sad to see this in books or movies, but it was really well done.
OK! It's time for the dislikes...Prepare your asses....You have been warned.
Where do I start...Let's start with the things I have already praised.
The Land of the Dolls...why was it important? So Karolina would know what war was like? So we could have a break from a real war that happened for a fantasy world war?
The magic. Why? The magic in here is just stupid. The Dollmaker finds out he can turn living things into dolls and that's cool and all...it does save the life of a mouse that was killed by an asshole German boy...and it does come in handy later on in the story...but Karolina tells him multiple times that he needs to practice it and become better at it, and he spends a lot of the story telling her magic is dumb and that he needs to be practical. He then does one magic trick that does a great thing, but that's it. He starts a rivalry with a German...general? Some top German military guy who is really bad (of course...he's German, so he must be bad) and the German guy does magic too...but I expected some huge magic-off! Some huge showdown between douche-y German guy and Dollmaker dude...but that NEVER HAPPENS! I don't know why it was important for the German guy to have magic when all it did was intimidate the Dollmaker. He is a big nasty German guy!!! That's scary enough! Especially when you are friends with a Jewish family! Why did he need magic. I just. No...the magic was dumb.
A major part of this book is Karolina. She is a living doll...but honestly I don't know why it was important that she was. If the author didn't occasionally remind me that Karolina was a doll, I honestly wouldn't have known. I think the author made Karolina a doll so that the story would be lighter for the middle-grade audience that she was writing for. But the problem with that is, it didn't lighten ANYTHING!
This book was incredibly dark for being for middle-graders. Yes, it had a simplistic writing style, but with the addition of the subject matter and the use of foreign language, it kind of raised the reading level a lot. I was SHOCKED by the direction the author decided to go with this story. I mean. HOLY. SHIT! When you use a living doll as a main character, you really don't have to play with the rules of actual history. You can take whatever mini story you have going on, tell it how you want to, and still be true to historical events. But no. She kept this as real as it can get, even with all the magic, mythical creatures and living dolls. I'm going to put a spoiler-y bit at the end so I can go more in depth with this...but wow. When an adult is reading this and thinking that this might be the darkest WWII fiction novel they have read, damn. That's not really good...considering it is written for a young audience.
So yeah, if you think this is going to be a light informative yet fantastical read because it is geared towards younger readers, you are in for a surprise. It is dark, depressing and for me at least, very aggrivating.
I think that's everything I have for this book. I reviewed it on my Youtube channel a while ago....November I think? but yeah...This is a bit more in depth and a lot more rant-y...probably. It was a while ago, so I don't really remember what I said. Hopefully this all made sense and that it was useful. Stay tuned for the spoiler bits if you want to know why I thought this book was super dark and inappropriate for the age group it was written for.
If you decided not to stick around, see ya next time!
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Video this book is reviewed in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRxkrdchp0&list=PLakhy8PhWWVTxQoIisZnpTH6kgp-o9N0R&index=6
Spoiler bits below.......
So the spoiler bits. Like I said before, this book has very accurate depictions of WWII and it is also marketed as a middle-grade book. I found it in the middle-grade section of the children's room at my local Barnes and Noble. So, being a book for a younger audience, you would think that the author would use more discretion when writing for children. With the addition of magic, it takes away from the realness of the war, so honestly anything is possible while still keeping the war semi-historically accurate.
First of all, there is public murder of Mr. Trzmiel, the Jewish friend of the Dollmaker and Karolina. He is shot point blank on the street in front of everyone, including his daughter. Though the Dollmaker tries to spare everyone the sight of what happened, we all know it happens.
Then there is the murder of the Dollmaker. So the big nasty German military guy captures the Dollmaker and Karolina and takes them to Auschwitz. Because this is a fantasy novel and middle-grad, we are kind of led to believe that the author wouldn't kill off the main character. Nope! The Nazis at the entrance are keeping track of who is coming in to the labor camp and those who are seen as not being useful. When they see that the Dollmaker has a doll in his pocket, they deem him as being nuts and send him off to the showers. Yes. That's right. They gas him. I was so stunned. I think they mentioned what the gas chambers were earlier in the book, but if you didn't know what they were, you wouldn't really understand. But after Karolina gets thrown in the junk pile, she talks about how her dollmaker friend is dead, so if you didn't know what happened, you most certainly do now.
Then they proceed to follow Karolina and her junk pile until the end of the book. We watch her slowly disintegrate on a pile of unwanted things and is eventually whisked away by one of the mythical people we had met earlier...I don't remember her name...to doll heaven...which is pretty much The Land of the Dolls (if you hadn't figured out it was doll heaven earlier).
Yes, the few Jewish kids the dollmaker had saved earlier made it out and Karolina gets to see one of them on her way to doll heaven, but otherwise this book really doesn't have a happy ending.
Now, to argue in favor of the author (and to show that I'm not being overly sensitive), I believe she did this in order to show the harshness of war and that not every story has a happy ending. Fair point...I hear you.
That all being said, this was probably the harshest WWII fiction I have read. I have read a couple of middle-grade WWII books and while they are sad, they do have an ending that isn't going to scar a younger audience. This one scarred me pretty badly and I've studied WWII pretty intensely. I still think about it and how dark it is. I can't imagine what a younger version of me would have thought reading this. I don't think it would have gone over well...and I would consider myself to have been a very serious and mature for my age.
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