Sad. ( )

If you love reading about World War 2 then you most definitely need to read this one! It was a story about two girls that were connected in a significant way, but neither knew it until the very end. One was in a coma and the other was at a working camp. They face their own battles, but lean on one another to escape the darkness. There was guilt... There was hope... There was weakness and there was courage like no other...

If I Should Die Before I Wake was an intense story with graphic, painful moments that brought an abundance of feels. I literally got sick to my stomach while I was reading. The vivid scenes and the heart wrenching deaths pulled me right into the pages. I felt for Chana and wanted to be the one to guide her through the dark times. No matter how weak her body and mind were she always pushed through. She helped others and in the end found that faith was her guidance. Hilary was a tough character for me. She was unlikeable from the beginning, but grew on me as the bitterness faded. The more her life blended with Chana the more she changed for the better. By the end I felt just as connected to her.

Overall, I was blown away by the history within the words. The Author made it easy for us to imagine what each character was going through and it really messed with my thoughts. I could feel my moods change with the pages. It was really an all consuming read that opened my eyes to just what took place at Auschwitz.

I definitely recommend it to all the history buffs or just someone looking for a unique story with a vivid realness to it.
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RGG: Well-handled historical fiction about a girl's survival of the Holocaust and another girl's overcoming her hate.

An intriguing premise drew me to this novel. The back cover reads in part, "Sixteen-year-old Hilary Burke hates Jews. As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she's finally found a sense of belonging. But then she is critically injured . . . finds herself bombarded by memories of a life in Poland - she becomes Chana, a girl whose family is forced from their home by the Nazis. . ." The juxtaposition of Hilary's present and Chana's past in one consciousness is the key to this novel.
A different kind of coming-of-age story, Hilary 'lives' the life of a person she claims to hate based only on religion.
Only a couple of things that bothered me - why is she in a Jewish Hospital and why is her mother quoting the bible so much? The mother's reasons for quoting scripture is explained in part, but not quite enough for this reader. The Jewish hospital is the real curiosity - is that the only hospital in the town? Is it the only one with the life-sustaining equipment and personnel needed?
Beyond those two nagging questions that I had, the novel was gripping and thought-provoking. Although a fictional story, the novel serves as a good introduction to the horrors of the Holocaust for young readers. Perhaps followed up by the truth of Anne Frank's diary, a young girl in today's world could learn from both the fictional characters and the real ones. ( )

This is the story of a teenage girl named Hilary who is a neo-nazi that is injured and lying in a Jewish hospital bed slipping in and out of consciousness. While unconscious she is viewing the memories of a teenage Jewish holocaust survivor named Chana from Poland. While the characters are fictional, the horrible story of how the Jewish people were treated during this time was all to true. It talks about how the people had to where the star to identify themselves as Jewish and tells of the horrible lives they lived in the camps. In the end it changes the way Hilary views the war and the Jewish people.