Young Quills reviews

1. The Book is set in a small village in France called Samaroux during the start of World War One. Arianne, a thirteen year old living is with her brother Paul and her Great Aunt Elodie. Her father is fighting the war and her mother died when she was young. Arianne's life is normal until the return of a childhood friend Luke Belleville. Luke is a dark mysterious character but nether the less they fall in love. After many picnics in Lascande with Arianne cousin Solange, Luke realises that he is in love. When Romy (Arianne's secret admirer) realises that she loves Luke he is distraught. Luke is then asked to help some prisoners escape from a prisoner-of-war train. Romy overhears the plot and is forced to tell his father (a spy for the Germans). The whole of Samaroux is in terrible danger. Will love pay the price?

I really enjoyed the book because the characters personalities change and deepen throughout the story. The plot, I think was well thought out with many surprises which kept you reading. The author has portrayed the characters emotions extremely well, Arianne in particular. The historical element may not seem constant but if you think about it the history behind the story is hidden underneath. I don't think I can give any criticism other than maybe fewer characters because it can be hard to remember who is who when there is so much happening between so many characters. But overall, a great book to read, it really makes you think.

Reviewed by Eliza  Year 9

 

2. I like how it is set in the second war and a little love is inserted into the story which is based on when 1 French village was mistaken for another and massacred.  I also like how at the end you find out the narrator is Solange, who is now a ghost.  The rivalry gave the love a little twist.

8/10

 

3. This story is set in occupied France during the Second World War and I really enjoyed it, in fact I enjoyed it so much that I persuaded everyone else in my group to read it too.  The Germans are set to invade France and Luc, the hero of the story, is sucked into the world of the French Resistance.  Arianne, his girlfriend, will do anything to keep Luc safe from harm.  The story is based on fact and what happened in a little French village during the war, there's love and betrayal, Natasha Farrant's characters are totally believable.  I loved this book, it will make you cry.

Reviewed by Jessica

 

4. The Things We Did For Love is set in France, in February 1944. WWII rages in Europe and the small town of Samaroux is pushed to the background; while other towns are caught up in the Resistance, Samaroux holds its breath, lying in wait to be freed by the liberation armies. But the return of Luc Belleville and his mother to the village after five years causes a stir amongst the residents and Arianne Lafayette and Luc, their childhood acquaintance rekindled, fall passionately in love. But Luc, seeking revenge for his family's troubled history and desperate to beat the German forces that close in around the village, is swept up in the French Resistance. Arianne will stop at nothing to keep Luc safe but fighting the Germans is a dangerous route to take and Romy, after nearly 8 years of fruitless love for Arianne, can think of nothing better than to rid Samaroux of the boy who stole Ari's heart.

I thought that Natasha Farrant's teen debut was a brilliant novel. Primarily, the events that are recorded in the book were, in fact, true, though the characters were fiction and the story also came from her imagination. It was based on the events of the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. The operation was not conducted with Nazi efficiency and the result was messy, brutal and merciless. Farrant's account of the events is shocking and the next half of the story is elegantly written but not sparing in detail and ultimately gruesome. This means that through reading the book, one learns a lot about the brutalities of the Second World War but in a way that will remain in the memory of the reader for a long time as it was told so interestingly and imaginatively. The historical detail was, then, very realistic as it was based on fact, and though I have read numerous historical novels about WWII, you do not often encounter stories set outside England or Germany and it is enriching to have caught a glimpse of the effects of the war on the rest of Europe and the part that the Resistance had to play in the events that unfurled there. Furthermore, the book made me want to find out more about that period of history as it was so gripping that I finished it in under a day. Arianne's younger brother Paul also plays an important part in the book, representing the loss of innocence, his life wrenched away from schoolwork and football to the secret dealings of forbidden food or cigarettes at the tender age of ten, selling information to both sides and scurrying around under the characters' feet, his ears always open.

However, though beautifully written, it is possible that the book was not entirely accurate in the dialogue displayed by the teenagers - the phrase "drop-dead gorgeous" was not likely to be used in a small French town in the 1940s. This verbal anachronism was not the only one of its kind and contributed slightly to a loss of convincing narration. I think also that the italicised voice that ran alongside the story was unnecessary as it did not bring anything particularly enriching to the story and simply added to the sentiment, of which, arguably, there was enough between the characters in the plot.

In total, the book The Things We Did For Love was an imaginative and gripping novel and I would most definitely recommend it to teenagers interested in WWII but perhaps those who haven't read many alternative viewpoints or narration apart from England. The plot cleverly entwines two separate dialogues, one occurring within the German camp as the forces gradually draw nearer to Samaroux and one between the lovers, oblivious to the rest of the world, and the reader is guaranteed to learn a lot about both life within the enemy camp, forced to kill and become puppets of the Führer, and life within a still town lying quietly in wait for something to happen.

Reviewed by Kitty

 

5. The Things We Did For Love is about a girl called Arienne living in a French village in World War 2. I think that it was quite accurate historically, however sometimes it was confusing about whether the events taking place were in the present (in the book) or in the past, shown through flashbacks, memories etc. Overall, I thought that the book was interesting and engaging, and I might recommend it to a friend. 8/10

Reviewed by Emily