👶👶👶: For Malice and Mercy, by Gary W. Toyn

👍🏻I always appreciate learning more about WWII both at home and abroad. This novel focused on the German/Japanese Internment camps in the US during WWII and the cruelty that German Americans were subject to during this time. It also included the realities of POW's experiences and treatment by the enemy. I learned several facts from the non-fiction passages at the end of many chapters meant to give the reader background on each scene. And I also learned many tenets of the Mormon church through the characters' interactions as well.

👎🏼However, I must admit that this novel seemed as though it was written for a very young audience, in a story format that lent more toward a junior high age group. It was filled with rhetorical questions and underdeveloped scenes. And while it is based on true events, it struck me as a fictional story because of its execution. Personally, I felt that the writing was too simplistic and the dialogue too mundane to make a real connection.

😬In addition, at a whopping 575 pages, the novel seemed to have a lot of unnecessary minutia that didn't serve to move the plot along.

💯However, because I really did learn quite a bit, I'm going with 2.5 stars rounded to 3... but tbh, it just wasn't my preferred writing style.

🙏Many thanks to @netgalley and American Legacy Media for gifting me with this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Read 9/16/21