Fire in the Sea
by Myke BartlettSadie is sixteen and bored with life in Perth. It’s summer, and lazing on the beach in the stiflin
Read ReviewTamar
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When her grandfather dies, a young woman inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. From its contents, the story of a much different man emerges - a resistance fighter stationed in the terrifying state of Nazi-occupied Holland half a century ago. His story is one of passionate love, keen jealousy and deep tragedy - and unraveling it is about to transform this young woman's perception of her grandfather and her life forever.
(1 vote)
Reviews
Oct 02,2012
Tamar is quite tricky to place in one certain category. Half the story is set in 1945, and is about Tamar, a young soldier in the Dutch resistance during World War II, and the other is is set 50 years later, when Tamar, an English schoolgirl inherits a box left behind by her grandfather. The author switches between the two stories with ease, and there is some very excellent foreshadowing in the early chapters which very, very subtly hints at what is to come.
The 1945 section started out well, with two likeable characters - Tamar and Dart. Although written in the third person, the story was sometimes told from Tamar's point of view, sometimes from Dart's and occaisionally from other characters' point of view. I did feel that Tamar could be somewhat one dimensional, and I admittedly preferred it when the story was told in the point of view of Dart. Up until a point, their story was thoroughly enjoyable, and even though I didn't have much knowledge of what happened in Holland during the Second World War, I did not feel like I did not understand the story, nor was I being bombarded by facts. About halfway through the book though, I did feel like I was less engaged, and I found myself becoming confused by some of the characters and what the various acronyms stood for.
The rest of the story, set in 1995, was written in the first person, from the younger Tamar's point of view. It follows her and her sort-of-cousin Yoyo as they travel through England, trying to decipher the clues left for Tamar by her grandfather. This part of the story I found was more enjoyable, with the banter between Yoyo and Tamar and the mystery surrounding the contents of the box making me want to keep turning the pages.
