I don’t read a lot of historical fiction. It’s got the connotations of being boring attatched to it, and even though I know that isn’t true, it still makes me weary when approaching a historical novel. But after reading Orphan Monster Spy, I definitely think I’m going to be reading more of it.

After her mother is shot at a checkpoint, fifteen-year-old Sarah–blonde, blue-eyed, and Jewish–finds herself on the run from a government that wants to see every person like her dead. Then Sarah meets a mysterious man with an ambiguous accent, a suspiciously bare apartment, and a lockbox full of weapons. He’s a spy, and he needs Sarah to become one, too, to pull off a mission he can’t attempt on his own: infiltrate a boarding school attended by the daughters of top Nazi brass, befriend the daughter of a key scientist, and steal the blueprints to a bomb that could destroy the cities of Western Europe.

With years of training from her actress mother in the art of impersonation, Sarah thinks she’s ready. But nothing prepares her for her cutthroat schoolmates, and soon she finds herself in a battle for survival unlike any she’d ever imagined.

The book started off really strongly, laying down the foundations of the novel well, and introducing the character of Sarah and the life that she has led. The meeting of Captain Floyd was slightly ambiguous, but I think this was on purpose to mirror the character of Floyd, as we don’t know that much about him at first and it’s all very secretive. But even then, it did get slightly confusing with the way his character was written. But as the book progressed, I really liked the relationship between the two of them, and their relationship reminded me of Hopper and Eleven from Stranger Things.

“She had trouble remembering a time when she had been cause of brightness in another human being. Had she ever been?”

– Matt Killeen, Orphan Monster Spy

When the two characters meet properly and get involved with each other lives, that’s when the story really kicks off. I loved the idea of Sarah infiltrating a school of Nazi’s to spy on them, and I’ve never read a YA historical book like this before (in a good way). I read this book a month ago, so please correct me if I’m wrong when talking about this, but there is a character called Mouse that Sarah sort of befriends, and there is a sort of cloud surrounding the character of Mouse, because Sarah thinks that Mouse is also a spy, but we never really find out about that. But please correct me if I’m wrong.

[Slight spoilers ahead]

Another ambiguous relationship that was in this book was the one between Sarah and Elsa. When they get to know each other, there seemed to be underlying f/f romance vibes, especially coming from Elsa, and to be honest, I shipped them together. I know that’s completely and utterly wrong considering that Elsa is the daughter of a Nazi general, and she isn’t really the nicest person on the planet, and it’s completely wrong to romanticise the whole idea of Nazi’s, but definitely felt chemistry between the two of them, so maaaybbbbbe something could have happened in a future novel? Maybe? I don’t know.

“Never lie when you can tell the truth. Lies have to be worked out in advance or they will tie you up and eat you.”

– Matt Killeen, Orphan Monster Spy

 
This was such a dark and intense book! I mean, what else would you expect from a book about Nazi’s? But there was so much graphic violent language that placed you very well in the time that this book was set. And when I mean violent, I mean VIOLENT. There is a point in this book where a student gets beaten by a teacher, where our main character smacks someone’s head in with a rock… And that’s only half of it. But I actually really enjoyed reading those moments.

The last quarter of the book was very suspenseful and I enjoyed it a lot! I was sat by the pool reading it, and I was completely on edge! I think that my only problem with this book was that there were a few German words and phrases that I wished were translated in this book. My German is non-existent (which is a tragedy, because my Grandad was German) so I had to keep Googling what the phrases meant, and it disrupted the reading experience.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable book, and I’m excited to see what Matt Killeen writes next!

Trigger Warning: Sexual assault (attempted rape), child abuse, murder