Release Date: November 25th, 2010
Genre:  Historical Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 390
Rating:
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Summary: 

It's 1910, and thirteen-year-old Raisa has just traveled alone from a small Polish shtetl all the way to New York City. It's overwhelming, awe-inspiring, and even dangerous, especially when she discovers that her sister has disappeared and she must now fend for herself. She finds work in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sewing bodices on the popular shirtwaists. Raisa makes friends and even—dare she admit it?— falls in love. But then 1911 dawns, and one March day a spark ignites in the factory. One of the city's most harrowing tragedies unfolds, and Raisa's life is forever changed. . . .

Review: Oh. My. Word.

I adored this book. I'll admit that the first 100 pages were slow (it took me almost a week to read them), but on Sunday afternoon I told myself to sit down and just read it.

I read it until 1am, at which point I sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed**.

Friesner has such a gift for bringing LIFE to her characters! I felt like I knew and loved every single one of them, even those that were just minor! This whole story is just... real. And I love it.

There were no cheap tricks in this book. No stunts to gain sympathy for the characters. No making things easy, but not making things so bad we lost hope. Oh. There is SO much hope in this book it makes my heart sing while it breaks.

And all of the Jewish stuff was really interesting! I loved seeing what life was like then through their eyes and their community. So cool!

If you like historical fiction, you will like this book. If you like The Book Thief, then you will like this book. It felt very similar to The Book Thief for me, except without the Death narration, of course.

This is probably one of my favorite books of all time. Definitely one of my favorite of the year. I'm eternally grateful for Teen Book Scene tours for allowing me to be part of this one.



*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

**I wasn't necessarily sobbing because I was sad, FYI. It is a very touching book. But, as I said, it is not overly sad.