Orphan, Monster, Spy

Orphan Monster Spy #1

by Matt Killeen

Sarah has played many roles. Dutiful daughter. Talented gymnast. Persecuted Jew. Lost orphan. But now she faces her most challenging role of all. Now she must become the very thing she hates. For the only way she can survive as a spy at a boarding school for the cream of Nazi society is to become a monster like them. A monster who can destroy them.

Discover the girl who can beat Bond and Bourne at their own game, in this utterly addictive thriller from a jaw-dropping new talent.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Thriller, Fiction, War, World War II

434 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 20, 2018

About the author

MATT KILLEEN was born in Birmingham, in the UK, back when trousers were wide and everything was brown. Early instruction in his craft included being told that a drawing of a Cylon exploding isn't writing and copying out your mother's payslip isn't an essay "about my family". Several alternative careers beckoned, some involving laser guns and guitars, before he finally returned to words and attempted to make a living as an advertising copywriter and largely ignored music and sports journalist. He now writes for the world's best loved toy company, as it wasn't possible to be an X-wing pilot. Married to his Nuyorican soul mate, he is parent to both an unfeasibly clever teenager and a toddler who is challenging his father's antiestablishment credentials by repeatedly writing on the walls. He accidentally moved to the countryside in 2016. Follow him at @by_Matt_Killeen

Reviews

[Camila Ochoa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno, por dónde empezamos.
Orphan Monster Spy nos trae la historia de Sarah, una chica judía que trata de escaparse de la Alemania Nazi. En su intento de huida conoce al Capitán, un hombre británico que trabaja en cubierto para los Aliados en el seno del tercer reich: Berlín. A forma de pagar una deuda con la niña, el hombre le ofrece un trabajo como espía ¿La misión? ingresar a un colegio nacional socialista, donde se les enseña a los niños a odiar a los judíos y amar a la patria y al Fuhrer, en busca de una bomba que podría destruir a un país entero.

El libro en sí, me gustó ¿Tuve problemas para terminarlo? Sí; pero no porque me hubiese parecido malo, sino que por momentos se extendía a cosas que no eran relevantes a la trama y eran de puro relleno, por ende, aburrían. Yo creo que lo más destacable de esta historia, es sin lugar a duda la protagonista. Sarah es una chica de quince años que creció demasiado rápido, una chica afectada por la guerra, pero nunca tanto como para arruinar su espíritu. Es una chica que tiene miedo, pero nunca deja que la paralice; es una chica que sabe lo que quiere, pero nunca se olvida de mostrar compasión, y sobre todo, es una chica a la que la vida le pegó mil patadas, pero nunca se rindió. Me parece que Sarah podría ser un gran rol para niñas que están en plena etapa madurativa, por eso, creo yo, que ese es el público ideal para este libro.
A mí me pareció una especie de Nancy Drew, pero en épocas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
A pesar de que algunos capítulos se me hicieron un poco largos, al final hubo un plot twist que no me lo veía venir y fue una grata sorpresa.
Dentro de todo, fue una buena experiencia y no me arrepiento de haberlo leído. Por ahí no le puse cinco estrellas porque no sentí que fuese un libro dirigido especialmente para gente de mi edad, o tal vez, no lo leí en el mejor momento, pero fue un libro muy bueno :)

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was completely immersed in this story of a 15 year old Jewish girl who agrees to become a spy in the battle to defeat Hitler. I may be suffering burn out from reading too many books set in this time period, but this was a new World War II plot for me. The book begins with the murder of Sarah's mother at a checkpoint. Orphaned, terrified and with no identity papers, Sarah starts to run. She encounters a man with an unidentifiable accent and the two manage to rescue each other. She comes to know him as the British spy Captain Floyd, but he is also known as Herr Haller. It's as Haller that he enrolls his "niece" Ursula (Sarah) in a boarding school for elite Nazi girls, once he discovers that Sarah is smart, resourceful and observant - perfect spy material. As a blue eyed blond, Sarah looks the part of a Nazi youth and she looks younger than her age. She also has the benefit of years of acting lessons from her mother, as well as gymnastics training so she is able to play the role of a little Nazi monster in the school. Her mission is to befriend the daughter of a Nazi scientist who is reputed to be working on a powerful weapon. The school has its perils, including idiot administrators, sadistic teachers, a disgraced Nazi overseer and the other students. Adolescent girls can be nasty bullies everywhere, but Nazi girls add a bit extra to their torment of the younger and weaker girls.

There were a few German words and phrases that I wished were translated in this book, but other than that I liked the book a lot. The Captain was appropriately enigmatic and businesslike and Sarah did what she had to do to keep both of them alive and to complete her mission. The last quarter of the book was very suspenseful. Despite the fact that the protagonist was only 15, I wouldn't characterize this book as young adult. Nothing was simplified or sentimentalized. I would read more books by this author.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 5 out of 5]

My casting:

Sarah and the Captain:
(the girl on the cover reminded me of her right away)




Nothing negative to say about this one :) Suspenseful,creepy, sometimes disturbing... loved it! :)

Impulse buy from Books-a-Million. The cover drew me in and after reading the first few pages, I was sold. After finishing my last current read, I ignored all my others and laser-focused on this one.

This one was on my mind at work every time I had to leave the breakroom and go back to work (Adulting sucks haha). If anyone had interrupted me, I may have thrown my drink at them #sorrynotsorry.

A different (for me) aspect of World War Two I hadn't read/heard much about... I have vague memories of hearing something, but most likely not in my history class in high school. It was all very fascinating to me and had me on the edge of my seat for most of the narrative.

Sarah intrigued me very much and at times I was very glad she was on "side of the angels" so to speak. A few times she sent a chill down my spine.

The Captain... loved him as a character as well. There was just enough there to leave me wanting more and peeling back the layers of his mind as well.

The whole novel felt electric, and had a very presence that I haven't had from a book in this genre for a good while (The Color of Secrets and Susanna Kearsley are two that come to mind).

Would highly recommend :) Would to love to see more of Sarah and The Captain working together.

(Be prepared to have your blood pumping during one instance especially in the latter part of the book)

[Kassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an emotional and heart-pounding story!

[Elizabeth La Lettrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was intense and I loved every section of it. You thought the girls in your high school were mean? Think again. This was an interesting fictional perspective on the horrors of Nazism from a Jewish girl who "passes" and infiltrates a community of Nazi elites.

Disclaimer: A few scenes were a bit cringeworthy violent (which I love, in an admittedly sick way) but just a warning for anyone who may be a bit sensitive and/or if considering for a younger teen. (I'm not about censorship but I understand the need to call it out.) Short key descriptive words here in spoiler, if you need to know: character gets savagely beaten by a teacher; also attempted rape by a pedophile, the lead-up of which gave me the nervous sweats; also murder

[Cora Tea Party Princess · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 Words: War, power, monster, school, violence.

Read my Q&A with Matt Killeen

Content warnings: graphic violence, child abuse, antisemitism.

Sarah is FIERCE.

This book is incredibly fast paced. It starts off at a run and doesn't let up. It's brutal and violent and at times almost a bit much, but it is so realistic and engaging a portray that I could not put it down. The story is addictive and this book packs a punch.

The narrative isn't linear, it jumps around a little between different times in Sarah's life, and I loved how this slowly disclosed her past. It showed why she was so resourceful and skilled already, and sometimes it made my heart ache.

I really like the changing relationship between Sarah and The Captain. It is a testament to the story telling how much they grew between the pages. I honestly think that if The Captain had had to send Sarah in a later time in the story he wouldn't have, because it was almost like a father/daughter relationship. I did find it surprising at first, but it was an excellent way to ground the story and show the stakes.

I loved how this story explores the concept of monsters, what it means to be one, how you can go about creating one, and what defines a monster. The school is like a nightmare.

The story is gripping, full of twists and turns and brutality. It doesn't shy away from the ugliness. It is obviously thoroughly researched, with complex characters and a killer storyline.

[Katherine Locke · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the style of writing and the narration isn't typically my jam, I am thoroughly impressed with the depth of research, worldbuilding, and sensitivity toward the portrayal of a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany. This is the opposite of The Girl Who Wouldn't Die, which I found to be an antisemitic hot mess of a book last year, and I am so very thrilled to see a Jewish girl who is the hero of her own story, who was violent and imperfect and fierce, who had a label thrust upon her and used her ability to pass to fight back against the real enemy.

[iana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update: 6/19/18
I'm giving this a full 5 stars because I loved the book so much that I don't even remember nor care about what I took a 0.5 off. I still keep thinking about it and I want to read it again, and so you see, I'm still in a book hangover a full month later. That's how powerful this is.

-

Original review

*4.5

This was a very remarkable story! I absolutely love historical fiction and this might be one of my top ones! There was lots of pace and action, the dialogue was realistic, the whole setting of the story, the way the book takes you to Germany, back to the past in a child's eyes, all of it was just amazing. It was gripping, educational and surprisingly funny at times. The theatre aspect of it was also very interesting to see because it shaped the main character herself. Although, I had some trouble with the foreign words used (I literally had google translate open every three sentences) and some parts of the story were just so conveniently placed that sometimes problems were solved just by sheer luck and not because of the characters solving them. That only happened occasionally though, but that's still where the .5 came off. Overall, I really enjoyed reading the book.

[Tina Loves To Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Young Adult Historical Fiction, and this is the first book in the Orphan Monster Spy series. I have to say I really loved the beginning, but then it got really boring. By the end of the book I was just happy for it to be over. (*)

[Cudeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro de estilo juvenil pero que se adentra en un tema escabroso como son las Napolas nazis. Las napolas eran una especie de internados donde estudiaban los hijos de los nazis más fervientes, siempre que cumplieran con el arquetipo ario; aunque más que historia/matemáticas/literatura, les enseñaban la ley del más fuerte, convirtiéndolos en máquinas leales sólo al partido y al Führer.

En este libro, el autor nos presenta a una joven judía, que huyendo de los nazis se tropieza con el que puede ser su salvador o su perdición, un espía inglés. Y es que para ayudarle se infiltra en una napola, para acercarse a la hija de un importante científico alemán.

El libro es de fácil lectura, en el sentido de que es ameno, rápido, intenso, como lo suelen ser los libros juveniles pero un tanto difícil por distintos temas tratados que no puedo comentar sin desvelar la trama.

[João Sampaio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma ameaça em grande escala, dois espiões, um enredo cheio de energia e bem desenhado.

Que poderemos encontrar numa escola Hitleriana – Rothenstadt - na Alemanha, em 1934?
Fácil. As raparigas da mais pureza ariana, regras rigidíssimas, o ódio pelo povo judeu, os ensinamentos da cultura germânica, auxiliares corruptos, professores insanos e exigentes, com auxiliares de memória (cajados). Um local que ensina as meninas a serem boas mulheres alemãs, aprendendo músicas em louvor à Alemanha e ao Partido Nacional Socialista. Um típico local para uma lavagem cerebral.
Pois aqui, encontramos a frequentar esta escola uma rapariga judia, Sarah Goldstein, de quinze anos. Colocar esta menina, recentemente órfã, neste ambiente assustador, a tensão torna-se palpável.

Não sendo um livro muito gráfico, os mais sensíveis poderão encontrar algum desconforto em certas descrições. Descrições de violência, comportamentos de antissemitismo e, de um modo mais específico, nos motivos por detrás de um convite de um amável cientista, pai de uma sua colega da escola. Hans Schafer, mais focado na ciência do que nos sonhos de Hitler tem um foco oculto, sombrio.

As habilidades de Sarah enquanto ginasta e atriz, tornam-na especialmente eficaz naquilo que faz.
Durante as suas ações enquanto espia, Sarah tem vislumbres, laivos da sua falecida mãe que a ajudam a ultrapassar os obstáculos e dificuldades com que se vai deparando.

No final do livro, Killeen adicionou uma nota do autor sobre a sua pesquisa. Embora Sarah, o capitão Floyd e a missão de se infiltrar numa escola não fossem verdadeiras, muito do que foi escrito baseou-se na verdade. Escolas como Rothenstadt existiram.

Órfã, Monstro e Espiã é um romance de ficção histórica, tenso, mergulhado num período terrível da história mundial – a II Grande Guerra Mundial.
Com diálogos realísticos e pequenos apontamentos humorísticos, foi uma leitura rápida e muito agradável. Gostei!

[Kathi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't love the writing, I thought it brushed over every possible life-threatening subject matter and didn't really take anything seriously. I disliked the characters and the plot was unbelievable, it was hard for me to finish this one.

[Dreximgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's out of my comfort zone of fantasy and science fiction being a historical fiction but it's bloody good. Some parts were hard to read (subject matter not anything bad on the writers part) but it was compelling. I loved Sarah so much and am actually really looking forward to her next mission. Highly recommend 4 and a half stars.

[Olga Kowalska (WielkiBuk) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Najlepsza powieść młodzieżowa 2018, która zachwyci także dorosłych, bez dwóch zdań – „Sierota, Bestia, Szpieg” Matta Killeena.

„Sierota, Bestia, Szpieg” jako „Bękarty Wojny” dla młodzieży to jedna strona medalu tej powieści, w której odnajdą się wszyscy ci, którzy szukają fabuły o wyrafinowanej zemście, ale to nie wszystko, czym jest powieść Matta Killeena. On snuje opowieść o prawdziwych realiach wojny, o wydarzeniach historycznych jak chociażby Kryształowa Noc czy prowokacja gliwicka, o prawdziwych akcjach i prawdziwych postaciach. W fikcyjnej historii Sary natomiast oddaje hołd wszystkim dzieciakom, które podczas II Wojny Światowej poświęciły wszystko, by walczyć, poczuły zew odpowiedzialności i rodzącego się ducha walki, ale przede wszystkim wykazały się niezwykłą odwagą, której na próżno szukać w naszych spokojnych, przeżartych konsumpcjonizmem czasach. Ci młodzi ludzie byli bohaterami często anonimowymi, o których pamięć przetrwała przekazywana z ust do ust. To dzięki ich heroizmowi „Sierota, Bestia, Szpieg” to opowieść o ideałach potężniejszych od śmierci, woli silniejszej od słabości ciała, walce, która trwa dopóki na frontach wciąż giną ludzie, dopóki słabsi uciskani są przez silniejszych, dopóki tli się nadzieja.

Fenomenalna, brutalna, do bólu prawdziwa, chociaż fikcyjna opowieść.

[Rossy Montaño · Rating 4 out of 5]

La pequeña Sarah, mestiza mitad judía, pierde a su madre mientras huían y se queda desamparada en un turbulento escenario sin dinero, indocumentada y sin tener idea de como seguir, pero no contaba que se atravesaría en su camino un espía inglés, al que salva de ser capturado. Mas adelante una serie de circunstancias terminan colocando a Sarah en una Napola nazi, donde es objeto de serias injusticias y acosos, no obstante tiene que hacer frente a todas ellas para cumplir con su misión, que es llegar a la casa de campo de una de sus compañeras, cuyo padre es un científico que está trabajando en la fabricación de una nueva bomba de alcances catastróficos, un reto que pondrá a prueba su voluntad y lealtad.

[ᒪᗴᗩᕼ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½⭐

…the bullet points
- WWII YA(ish) historical
- Nazi Dark Academia
- Newly orphaned she sort of falls into being a spy against the Nazis
- with graphic violence, child abuse, and some seriously cutthroat girls

…additional thoughts
- interspersed with German-Deutsch dialogue
- dragged in the middle for me
- a unique WWII premise…I’ve never read a “child spy” trope before
- some OTT violence
- a decent ending

…about the narration
🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️/5
- Saskia Maarleveld -While it wasn’t a favored performance for me, personally, I think she was a good fit for the story.

...the score
➨ 6.57/10 | Opening-6 | Characters-7 | Plot-6.3 | Atmosphere-6.3 | Writing Style-6.3 | Ending-7 | Overall Enjoyment- 6.5

[Robin Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It's fierce, spirited and exciting - and it combines two of my favourite things, early 20th century history and boarding school books. Sarah is a brilliant main character, and the situation the book puts her in (infiltrating a Nazi boarding school as a Jewish girl) is incredibly tense. There are some frightening and violent parts to this book, obviously, so it's one for older readers, but anyone 14+ who likes historical thrillers will really enjoy this.

*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. Please do not use it in any marketing material, online or in print, without asking permission from me first. Thank you!*

[Farhina ↯↯ The Wanderer Of Inked Adventures · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Would the future Germany have any evidence of its crimes? Would it smell bad and would people even know why?"

This book is a World War II novel. The main protagonist is Sarah, who is a Jew with an Aryan appearance. After her mother get killed abandoned and alone she meets a man who turns out it be a spy. She is recruited by him to to be a spy and go inside and infiltrated a Nazi boarding school.



Sarah was an incredibly strong character. She kept all her suffering and violence she has witnessed buried in the back of her mind and used it to be stronger and more push through situations. She is clever, sharp and Swift and deal quickly with situation to keep herself safe.

The world building and the insight to Nazi time is done very brilliantly, you can see the research done.. It has a lot of German words and I had to constantly search and find out their meaning (because well I didn't know any of them, totally new to me). But they provided a great insight into those times.


This book portrays a great deal inside the mind of Nazi's and how wrong and bad things were back than. The race complex and all the superiority. Also how everyone was supposed to be strong and brutal and serve the "fatherland". How everyone was assigned a role. This book tells you a lot of facts.


The thing I struggled with this book was the plot. I know it's supposed to historical fiction. But I just had this feeling in the back of my mind about this being fiction. And how the plot didn't feel so enthralling to me. I know that these things really did happen in time and all. But just this story of Sarah, it being fiction. I don't know to explain but it just didn't move me the way I should have. But that's my own personal problem. I have know to cry over WW stories but I guess I just didn't connect with this one sigh.


The plot was chillingly uncomfortable. A lot of things happens that make you gag. Or chill you to the bone.

This book though historical fiction is more on the side of a brutal and very difficult spy operation with the war on the backside of things.

Over all this book is hauntingly intense. Gives you a deep insight of Nazi times, it's deeply educational for people who might not know nitty gritty in the background of the world war II.

Thank you to Usborne for the ARC.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

In most cases when it’s YA, I can forgive a multitude of sins: Orphan Monster Spy is at once bloody silly and frustratingly entertaining. Let’s just say that bloody silly is the angle I’ll take.

Not quite implausible I suppose, the entire premise is flimsy at best. A German Jewish orphan is recruited by a British agent/spy (agent of what, exactly?) on a complete whim, admitted into a high-ranking Nazi boarding school with a story that doesn’t add up, and tasked with befriending the daughter of an eminent scientist to gain access to his lab notes. H’m.

For the most part, the writing is strong. However, whilst it’s clear and relatively fast-paced, the internal dialogue is intrusive and repetitive - the constant reminders of Sarah’s Jewishness in particular. Sure, she must be hyperconscious of the fact, but I as a reader have already grasped that given the historical context. Killeen is clearly intelligent, and this makes the peppering of clunky German phrases and terrible action scenes harder to bear.

Characterisation was another pitfall. Sarah seems to lack any flaws or fallibilities which certainly doesn’t make her emotionally compelling. She’s impossibly fit and agile despite years of malnourishment, can perform gravity-defying gymnastic feats, act flawlessly and also play Grade 8 – equivalent piano. Crucially, she lacks personality beyond this archetype.

The focus seemed misplaced in this one, too. The relationship between Sarah and the Captain was slippery at best, but this was no more pronounced than when she must tend to his wounds for a disproportionate amount of page-space. It felt like the sodding climax of the novel until that scene… The plot relies on many happy coincidences and some rushed revelation scenes, as well as some points which were left untouched and unchallenged The Captain confesses to having sold explosives to the Nazis which were later used against Guernica – this was never mentioned again, and yet seems like quite a significant thing to me???. The implications and complexity of abuse and trauma are not explored with the rigour they should have been, despite the noble sentiment.

It certainly had its benisons, and I thought the era was decently evoked. Slightly too commercial for me.

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this YA book about a young girl caught up in trying to prevent the creation of a bomb like the world has never seen.

Sarah's actress mother gets shot at a checkpoint causing their car to crash giving Sarah an opportunity to escape. She unknowingly aids a British spy using the acting skills her mother has ingrained in her over the years. In return, the spy whose alias is Helmut Haller bestows Sarah with a new identity as his niece Ursula Haller and enrolls her in an exclusive German private school favored by many in the Reich in hopes that she can infiltrate the home of the scientist leading the charge on creating the bomb.

Throughout we are immersed in Sarah's inner thoughts as she reminds herself of her mission and how her acting skills and gymnastic skills can further the mission. Her courage and determination are admirable. She is no robot, though, and we suffer along with her. Historical fiction that reads like a thriller. Excellent for teenagers who are interested in the psychology behind the Reich and love exciting fiction.

[L. McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
Mixed thoughts here for sure.
So it had potential... the story is fairly interesting and I cared about the characters. However, you’d think a story about espionage in WW2 would be way more exciting and while there are some intense parts... I forgot it’s YA so it mostly focuses on things like school, arguing with adults, main character socializing with other young girls, etc. Also didn’t care for the some of the dialogue.
If you do decide to read this I would suggest not going with the audiobook, the narrator is kinda meh and in a few parts some characters are chanting “Holla” (or maybe “Hala”, like I said I went with the audiobook so IDK) and the execution of that is obnoxious as fuck.
I was very interested in the history notes at the end though. That was interesting, well written and the best part of this whole thing. Maybe this author should write nonfiction.
Overall, not bad but I ain’t gonna bother reading the sequel. It has potential but the elements for younger readers show. Keep in mind even though I end up reading a fair bit of it, YA usually isn’t my cup of tea, so maybe if you’re a YA fan you’ll like it more?

3/5

[Jenna · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Charmaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant! Read it so quick cause i just needed to know what happened. I'm intrigued to know what will happen in the next book!

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt Killeen's debut novel introduces us to Sarah Goldstein, a 15 year old Jewish girl, who may turn out to be the new heroine of YA fiction. She's intelligent, athletic, multilingual & able to think on her feet in a crisis. She'll need all these attributes when she becomes a spy against the Nazis, working for a British agent, in this fast paced World War 2 thriller.
Killeen crams in plenty of great story ideas into this terrific novel that will appeal to young & old readers alike. In his notes at the end of the novel it's quite amazing to see how many real people & situations inspired this story. He also notes that when he was feeling down while writing someone told him that he "could be the YA Graham Greene" & after reading this book I think they may be right! Whatever else I read in the next twelve months Orphan Monster Spy is going to a hard one to beat as my favourite book of the year.
Just one more thing, as Columbo used to say. I saw this book on a shelf while browsing in Mr B's Emporium Bookshop in Bath. I'd never heard of the book or the author before, so it just goes to show that visiting a bookshop & just browsing is still one of the best ways to find a book!

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fifteen-year old Sarah becomes an orphan when her mother is shot to death at a checkpoint, trying to escape Germany. While Jewish by birth, Sarah is blonde and can pass as Aryan. She is brave and quite an actress, saving the life of an English spy. To exact revenge, Sarah agrees to be placed in a Nazi boarding school to infiltrate the fortress home of a scientist close to developing a nuclear bomb for the Third Reich. The school is horrific, and Sarah has to overcome abuse from teachers and students as well as rescue her handler after his attempt to penetrate the home fails miserably. 3.75 stars.

[Stephanie ((Strazzybooks)) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 I liked the clever and badass main character, Sarah, and I typically love reading WWII historical fiction. However, while this book did have some exciting moments, I mostly found myself slogging through it and putting it down for long periods of time. It was not a bad book by any means and I suggest this for anyone who liked Codename Verity or Between Shades of Gray.

[Cynthia Cat Garnder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very interesting.
the story is absolutly engaging.

[Deke Moulton · Rating 1 out of 5]

To preface -- I am reading this book in part of a "Stories Matter: The Ethics of Represenation" class and chose to intentionally read books about Jewish persecution during the Holocaust written by non-Jews.

7 MARCH 2023

I started to read ORPHAN MONSTER SPY by Matt Killeen, and the dedication already gave me a bit of pause – For all the other beaten, bullied and abused children.

So the author is not Jewish, so I’m highly curious (and if I can admit, slightly skeptical) on why he decides to choose a Jewish protagonist if his intentions are to help ‘bullied’ children feel seen. Does he know what it’s like to be Jewish? I’m curious where his own history lies (he does say ‘for all other’ insinuating he is also ‘beaten, bullied and abused’). Does he believe that all instances of bullying are inherently similar? And you can merely swap out the reasons you’re being bullied?

And then I get started on the first chapter. The character’s name is Sarah. Of course. As if there is a ‘perfect Jewish name’ for those who are writing outside of their experience.

The book literally opens to Sarah’s mother being brutally murdered right in front of her (like, literally page one) and her mother’s final request to her is to run.

WHY do we open with Jewish slaughter on the main page? Before we get to know any character? WHY do non-Jewish people seem so excited at the idea of using our trauma as a playground where they get to play at ‘what it must have felt like’ to be persecuted? What purpose is this fulfilling? Which ‘beaten, bullied and abused’ child is this being geared towards?

I’m on page two (PAGE TWO!) and I’m getting treated to a detailed description of ‘what the bullet had done to the back of her mother’s head.’ WHY. WHY MATT? You’re certainly NOT writing this book for the ‘beaten, bullied and abused’ Jewish children. So why are you using our genocidal trauma to entertain??? Seriously. How I’m remembering why I don’t read Holocaust novels to begin with, but this seems quite grotesque.

Page three, and instead of like, I don’t know, simply walking, our main character has to crawl across ‘shards of broken windshield’ that ‘tore at her hands and knees.’ Certainly we could not possibly pass up on such a wonderful detail as to further drag our main character through additional trauma. (because the next sentence, she is now crawling through a bramble and quite literally ‘picking up splinters of wood, thorns, and broken glass.’)

This is straight up horrifically unabashed trauma porn. This is disgusting.

It isn’t until the bottom of page three that we finally get told that Sarah is Jewish by... explaining that she’s a Jewish gymnast and will try to use her gymnast skills to get to the roof of a building to hide. Preparing for such an act (after having her hands full of shards of broken glass and thorns, mind you) takes her to call upon the words of a literal antisemite – hardy, pious, cheerful, free. Because all Jews tend to draw strength from people who she further muses consider her to be “Deutschlands’ ungluck” or “Germany’s misfortune” before reminiscing on how antisemitic the other German gymnasts were towards her.

Surely no Jewish person – after watching their mother get shot in the head and literally crawling through broken glass to get away – would ever whisper a prayer to Hashem for strength or protection, but instead, invoking the very people trying to murder her to give her strength. Holy shit. But it surely does the trick – because one impossibly elaborate gymnast move later – somehow after all that trauma porn she’s still able to jump, grab onto a gutter, swing herself ‘up and to the right’ and land on the roof of a building...

Thankfully the impossible feat is enough to hide from the patrol that’s looking for her (who seemingly give up finding her without any complaint with just the most momentary inability to see her).

On page six, we again have Sarah refer to herself as “a Jew.” She’s first ever mentioned as Jewish on page three when she thinks to herself that she is not a gymnast but a “Jewish gymnast.” (then the next sentence, she’s “You’re a dead Jewish gymnast if you don’t move.”) the very next time her Jewishness is mentioned is on page six, when she refers to herself simply as “A Jew with no papers.”

Apparently her mother’s death is not the fault of the Nazis either! Again, on page six, Sarah muses about her mother, “...if she’d had a plan at all. That level of organization had been beyond her mother for years. It was no wonder that it had ended in disaster, in her death...”

EXCUSE ME? She’s not fucking dead because she didn’t plan for a Nazi checkpoint, she’s dead because a fucking Nazi shot her in the head – a death so graphically detailed as to ultimately mean nothing except shock value. The cruelty here, the author tells us, is not that Nazis are monsters, but this poor girl’s mother didn’t expect them to be there. The fault is on mom. Nazis are merely catalysts to a mother’s inability to live.

I honestly began skim reading, looking for my main objective – which was examples of Jewish culture and practice in these books (or else, if you erase Jewishness from your Jewish characters why are you writing a Jewish book at all?)

On page 34, I got to “I’m such a klutz.” followed by Sarah’s current helper admonishing her with “You know, as a Jewish fugitive, you might want to avoid using Yiddish words.” As if she needed to be told this?! I love the audacity of a Christian helper teaching a Jewish person how to not appear Jewish like...? Yet, Sarah has not done a single Jewish thing. She hasn’t even prayed that brikat hagomel for not dying at least twice.

On page 41 I ran into my first hopeful (actually Jewish) thing. At one point, a character tells Sarah “You were mumbling Brecht. All very Jewish-Bolshevik. You have to stop that.” I honestly had not heard of Brecht and wondered if it could be a Yiddish term perhaps. I was imagining a niggun (wordless Yiddish melody) or davening (praying), but no... it’s a Christian playwrite who wrote... socialist plays. Somehow, tying “Jews” with “Bolsheviks” did not occur to this author as an actual antisemitic trope. But of course, instead of “al shloshah” or “henei mah tovu” or any other actual Jewish song, Sarah then excuses her “Brecht” mumblings to “it was a song my mother sang.”
FINALLY on page 42 we get an ACTUAL Yiddish term IN Sarah’s ACTUAL thoughts! Kischef – spell or enchantment. (“if she started asking questions, it would break the kischef, the spell, and everything would fall apart. Everyone, their eyes thus opened, would turn around and wonder why the dirty Jew was sitting on the train.”) UUUHHHH??????

“We didn’t run a” – she wrestled for a suitable example – “bagel factory.” UHH?? WHAT?
Page 49 is getting quite horrific honestly. “Your father’s dirty little secret” – so apparently her father is Christian? And her mother is quite grotesque here as well, apparently at the point of severe alcoholism without any of the sympathy or nuance to think “Wow, a Jewish woman has become hated by her Nazi-aspiring husband” but instead she does get super drunk and turns on her daughter, “Her mother swung back and pointed at her with sudden venom in her eyes. ‘And you know what, princess? That’s you, too, Rapunzel with her golden hair... Doesn’t matter what you look like. Out there, they’re still going to hate you.’ She spat the final words with such disdain and fury that Sarah felt it in her cheekbones and her eyelids, all the way to her groin.”

UHHHH WHY IS A GROIN MENTIONED????? Like, we are literally disgustingly making the ‘porn’ attachment to the ‘trauma?’ Reading this book is honestly making me sick.

And on page 50, we have yet another wonderful antisemitic trope – “Her mother was gone. The absence, the hole that this left, was a wound, like the back of her mother’s head. Sarah’s existence felt dominated by that void. But this emptiness also meant her mother could make no more demands on her, could no longer control... Sarah struggled with this sense of relief as it was swamped by guilt.”

So the ‘controlling mother’ trope here is really quite drastic, and makes you even wonder ‘why would anyone want to be Jewish?!’ It’s something I saw in WHITE BIRD and something even more powerfully at play here – there is zero Jewish joy. No culture. No holidays, no food, no nothing. Judaism is shown to be a curse – both by the hatred heaped upon Jews by the outside, and by domineering, insatiable parents on the inside. I cannot imagine someone who is not Jewish reading this and thinking “wow, Judaism has so much to give!” It literally feels like this is meant to be a source of pity. Pity the Jews who were murdered, but pity the Jews who are alive who have not yet found the blessing to leave their accursed lives.

This book is trope after harmful trope. I’m on page 50 and completely throwing in the towel. If you get your jollies by playing dress-up and putting on the second-hand experience of the attempted genocide of an entire people written by someone who's not Jewish and has zero concept of what it means to live a Jewish life but wants to say it's the same as being bullied, then you might enjoy this book. It’s full of harmful tropes passed off as ‘reality’ – and even though the author claims to have used a “jewish consultant” that only gets a passing mention in a long line of other ‘advisors’ who the author even unabashedly says whose advice he didn’t follow (Dr. ... whose counsel on childhood trauma I took (and occasionally ignored).” This book had nearly nothing to do with portraying an authentic Jewish experience of the Holocaust. It didn’t attempt to portray Judaism as anything other than a horrific, life-crippling curse that will harm you from every possible angle. This is disturbing in its obvious revelry in trauma as porn. Non-sexual porn is defined as “that which is regarded as emphasizing the sensuous or sensational aspects of nonsexual subjects and stimulating a compulsive interest” and I cannot think of a better way to describe the way in which the author used gratuitous violence against Jews – it serves no purpose other than to sensationalize actual pain for the emotional gratification of its intended non-Jewish audience.

I flipped through to the end, where it appears as though Sarah’s friend, the British Captain, kills a Nazi (possibly her father) in front of her (of course the Jewish character couldn’t kill a Nazi, lol) and she then crumples to the floor crying for ‘everyone.’ I do not know why non-Jewish people are so interested in the idea that ultimately Jews will cry over the people who harm them – either overtly with genocide or casually like not doing more to keep them from dying – but this was an even more offensive way to end the book than I thought possible. Jews aren’t going to cry for your Nazi sympathies. We actually have been hunting down Nazis and bringing them to justice ever since the end of the Holocaust. Not a single tear of sympathy was ever shed.

And of course the obsession with trauma porn cannot be put off, even in the end. It is beyond gratuitous. “She curled up on the floor, in the blood.” Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuck?

In the epilogue, there was some hilarious dialogue apparently saying that ‘woman’ was the most despised group in the world, literally spoken by a British woman to the Jewish girl who she had met. Literally. “Nobody listens to me. A woman? Jew or Christian? I’m ignored, despised.” LOL RIGHT HA. Thank you for reminding me of the genocide against women.

And the exact end of the book ends with Sarah being told by her British captain friend that she’s going to Berlin to continue her spy work. She doesn’t even... get asked. It’s literally told of her. That’s how the book ends. “Hey Jewish spy, literally do not go to Copenhagen and safety but go to Berlin because you have fucking work to do.”

“I would advise that you don’t stay in Copenhagen any longer than you have to. I’m not sure Denmark will be allowed to be neutral for much longer,” the Captain said.
“Yet you’ll take this girl back to the belly of the beast?”
“She has work to do.”
“Is that right, Sarah?”
Sarah considered the question, but there wasn’t any doubt.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”

THAT IS THE FUCKING END?

In the author’s note... I cannot even make this up, the author talks about how his mother’s best friend was German and when he learns about the Holocaust wonders, “exactly how did these gentle, sausage-obsessed people allow this to happen?” Fuck off and keep on fucking off out of the publishing industry you fucking idiot, deciding to play with peoplehood to just wonder how your very nice German friends could murder someone. Holy shit could Christians like, for once, stop being so fucking fascinated with wondering how nice people become genocidal by playing as a Jewish victim who ultimately forgives her murderers and instead like, fucking work harder at making sure your fellow Christians/Germans/Brits whatever don’t fucking become genocidal?!

We never learn if Sarah remains Jewish or reconnects with her Judaism in any way. The story doesn’t have time or space for that, because ultimately, Judaism is not of interest to the story. Certainly not for the author. The goal (and the author's own wish) is that whenever his 'sausage-loving nice Germans' gets a little too genocidal, there will always be the comfort of knowing that there's a victim able to offer herself up on the alter, all but offering everyone else the comfort of not needing to get involved.

A resounding 0/10.

[Rissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️
She was an Orphan and because of that she was disposable. She went through nazi school as a jew which turned her into a monster making her the perfect spy.

It was beautifully wicked.

[Raquel Figuesans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha encantado este libro. La verdad es que lo imaginé solo con ver el título. Pero obvien la sinopsis, menos mal que la leí después, como siempre, pero te cuenta la historia al completa, exceptuando el final, por lo que no permite ir adentrándote en las situaciones e intriga.

La historia es bonita, a pesar de lo cruel de las situaciones a las que se enfrenta Sarah siendo tan pequeña. A su vez es sorprendente lo bien que relata la soledad y autonomía a la que se enfrenta el personaje, ya que a pesar de tener al Capitán, el mismo no cubre la figura paterna o de un familiar que le hace falta a Sarah, sino lo he visto casi más como un amigo-adulto. Se observa en la novela la crueldad de la Alemania nazi en su día a día, con una cuidadosa precisión en los detalles, ya que contamos con varios personajes muy observadores.

Sarah me ha encantado, una niña muy fuerte e inteligente, a la que en ocasiones le sobrepasan las situaciones a las que se enfrenta pero se recompone y actúa con una habilidad increíble, lo menos que me gusta es la dureza con la que se habla a sí misma (usando las palabras de su Mutti). Por otro lado el personaje del capitán también es adorable, a su forma y con sus distancias, lo cual es comprensible. En esta novela llegas a sentir pena por muchos personajes, pero especialmente quise saber más sobre Mauser. ¿Qué paso después con ella?

Lo menos que me ha gustado son los recurrentes sueños, aunque, en muchas ocasiones, eran recuerdos, lo cual te acercaba más a la protagonista.

No sé si el autor tenga idea de hacer una segunda parte, pero el libro da posibilidad a ello, ya que nos puede regalar muchas otras aventuras de Sarah y el Capitán en esa época, que por desgracia, duró tanto tiempo.