Review Detail

THE GREAT WAR is a great collection of stories. Each story pulled the emotional strings as they were intended to. Something I found really interesting about this collection was the varied and unique perspective on war that each story presented. There was war from the perspective of children, from the perspective of the elderly, from the perspective of men and women, boys and girls. It told of people who experienced war firsthand and people who experienced loss firsthand, but also those whose lives were irrevocably changed by the era they lived in. Their lives were so different, and I loved all the tiny differences between their lives and ours, all the things that we don't usually think of when we think of war. I loved the focus on the items of war, how each family or person could be affected by the smallest item and how they handled them and treated them. I also loved how you could tell the difference in style from one author to the next and how different the stories were but how well they worked together. This collection was cohesive, which meant that its overall themes hit home for the reader. The design of this book was gorgeous as well. The stories were dispersed with illustrations between that set the tone for the book. I didn't have any problems with this book that I could list. A couple of the stories didn't hit me as hard as others, but mainly based on the natural subjectivity of stories.
Some of my favorite stories included Don't Call it Glory by Marcus Sedgwick, The Country You Called Home by John Boyne, Captain Rosalie by Timothee de Fombelle, and Each Slow Dusk by Sheena Wilkinson.
Pick up this collection for raw portrayals of the effect that war has had on our world and for a glimpse of the history that has made us who we are today.