The dialog felt clunky to me. I wasn't drawn in, so I bailed.

Summary: This book is about a Gypsy girl named Lilo and her mother. Lilo lives in a quiet town which the Nazi's have started to take over. Her father is a watch maker and they own a watch store. The Nazi's discover Lilo and her family and take them to a place, to wait to be shipped to a concentration camp. Lilo and her mother get transported to a concentration camp, that practices on surgery. Lilo doesn't know where her father is and in looking for her father she meets a boy named Django. He helps get her and her mother get food and soon Lilo, her mother, and Django get chosen to go to a concentration camp in which they will become extra's for a movie that Leni Reifenstahl is directing. (Hitler's favorite film maker.) Lilo's mother is weak since they performed surgery on her and the previous camp, and Lilo struggles to keep her mother alive. Lilo, her mother, and Django get moved around a lot to different places for filming. After a long time Lilo makes her escape, having to leave her mother and Django at the camp. Lilo runs and runs until she stumbles upon two men who are Nazi's, but unwilling Nazi's. They take Lilo to a friend of theirs and Lilo lives their in secret for 3 years until, she is discovered once again. Lilo is sent back to the first camp she was sent to and meets up with her friend. Not long after Americans come and attack the camp. Lilo and her friend are still alive and the Americans don't hurt them. The book ends with Lilo promising herself to find her mother and Django.

Opinion: In my opinion this book was really good. It did a great job capturing how cruel and realistic (if that makes sense) concentration camps were. The book surprised me at times, like for example, when a woman who was carrying her baby figured out the baby was dead and the place stunk up, the Nazi's shot the woman and threw the baby out into the woods. It made me scared that, that is what used to be reality. The writing itself is good and captures tiny details, such as at the beginning of the book, Lilo's mother saying that the other family of Gypsy's were not good. I would recommend this book, though most likely not read it again. For this I give this book 4 stars. ( )

Great book for the first 3/4ths, but then it all fell apart. ( )

Based on real events, this was an extraordinarily well-written story about a young Romani (gypsy) woman who is taken to a concentration camp with her family by the Nazis. She is chosen to work as an extra on a film that is in production with the support of the Third Reich. The author delves into the often overlooked topic of how the Nazis dealt with gypsies during WWII. It was quite difficult to keep reading at times due to the nature of the subject, however, it was a very compelling story with strong, lively characters that made me feel invested in the outcome. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I was somewhat familiar with Riefenstahl's photography, but this really brought her alive for me. I am now reading a biography about her. Not a nice person, a woman only out for her own good and the good of the Reich. I was very drawn into Lilo's story. I was intrigued by her character and her will to survive. When I first started reading this book I did not realize it was based on a true event, I skipped to the Author's Note at the back and gained some great insight into the story. This book is most assuredly for an older teen as some of the content would be to much for a younger one. For readers interested in Holocaust fiction, this is really an excellent read. ( )