Review: The World That We Knew

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 stars⭐⭐⭐

“𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓯𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓰𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓼, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓰𝓮𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”

⏳𝐓𝐋;𝐃𝐑:⏳
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬: In 1940's Berlin, Hanni sends her young daughter Lea away to France with a guardian- a golem named Ava who is created to protect Lea. The golem's maker, a rabbi's daughter named Ettie, becomes entwined with the two as they all struggle to come to grips with the nature of evil in Nazi Germany and France.
𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭: Magical realism in Nazi Europe was fascinating; the actual daily interactions of the characters... not so much
𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: Beautiful, lush, but slow and almost boring at times
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: Intriguing, but ultimately less interesting and developed than I had hoped for

This should have been a book that I would love, but I really struggled! It didn't turn me off from the author in general though (although this is my first Alice Hoffman novel) because I can tell what a talented writer she is and her writing style is absolutely gorgeous. I just simply struggled with the novel more than I should have. It also wasn't memorable for me. A month passed before I could write this review and I honestly couldn't remember a lot of specifics of the plot.

👍𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬:👍
-Magical realism element
-Ava's character development
-Gorgeous prose

👎𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬:👍
-Slow moving and often boring at times
-Didn't connect with characters as much I wanted to

𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

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