A LADDER TO THE SKY by John Boyne
A LADDER TO THE SKY by John Boyne
To be completely honest, I struggled whether to give this book 4 or 5 stars because (a) it was my second Boyne book and THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES is a near impossible act to follow, and (2) I’ve generally given 5 stars out to books that make me fall in love with the characters. Point (a), I realized, isn’t fair because they are different books with different purposes and different strengths, and point (b), well—that’s ultimately the reason I think this book IS a five star read: the fact that I LOVED this book even though I HATED (like, HATED HATED) the main character, Maurice, means that it wasn’t just the characters that compelled me to keep reading, but it was something else in Boyne’s writing.
Here’s the thing about the two Boyne books I’ve read: he masters this witty, yet dark, humor SO WELL. The dialogue in this book (like THIF) is impeccable. The characters here are very well developed, albeit despicable. Normally, I’d be rooting for a character to succeed. Here, I was rooting for a character to fail and despite this difference, that was enough of a reason to want to keep turning the pages.
Boyne takes risks with this book: he changes POV several times and he doesn’t shy away from painful and difficult topics. I have a feeling that you’ll either love these risks he takes or hate them. For me, I appreciated these risks and understood what he was trying to do, and AGAIN I am (still) blown away by the fact that loving a book and hating a main character are not mutually exclusive feelings.
I’ll also note that this book starts off slow and in a VERY different direction from the rest of the book. Boyne takes you on a journey with twists and turns like a thriller (but, like, it’s not a thriller – so don’t take that too literally). Overall, I’d highly recommend this book—but to the right reader.⠀
CW: WW2 Germany, domestic abuse, rape, death, infidelity, suicide, alcoholism.