Orphan, Monster, Spy
As seen:
By Matt Killeen
avg rating
3 reviews
Shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award and the Branford Boase Award
Nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal
A teenage spy. A Nazi boarding school. The performance of a lifetime.
Sarah has played many roles – but now she faces her most challenging of all. Because there’s only one way for a Jewish orphan spy to survive at a school for the Nazi elite. And that’s to become a monster like them.
They think she is just a little girl. But she is the weapon they never saw coming…with a mission to destroy them all.
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A young adult espionage thriller set during the early days of World War 2, 'Orphan, Monster, Spy' follows teenage German Jew Sarah. She and her mother were fleeing to neutral Switzerland, but her mother was shot dead at a roadblock. Sarah flees the soldiers and dogs on foot, ends up somewhere she shouldn't be and runs into a man who is also where he shouldn't be. The two save each other's lives.
This is the set-up for the rest of the story. The man is concerned about the Nazi nuclear weapons programme; he has received warnings from a friend about a scientist building a nuclear bomb. He has been trying to find out more, but can't get close to the scientist. When Sarah stumbles into his life, another opportunity presents itself.
The scientist has a daughter, Elsa, at an exclusive boarding school for National Socialists. Sarah, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, is the perfect person to infiltrate the school, get close to Elsa and into the family home to dig into the scientist's secrets. But she'll be taking a deadly risk. If she's uncovered, it could cost her her life.
This is a chilling tale that does not downplay the danger of what is being attempted. Although fictional, he draws heavily on historical fact to frame the narrative.
A pacy book with lots of plot twists. Killeen positions his protagonist, Sarah, in a dangerous position from start to finish. I found myself being really concerned about her numerous times. Set during WW2, this is a different perspective on a war narrative, it also crosses over into a spy story and a school story. There are some very violent, or potentially violent, moments in this story that I found shocking and this is a book best suited to those 14+ I think. Sarah has to deal with issues connected to her new orphan state, trust, friendship, nationalism, sexuality and identity.
The book was very interesting to read. I learnt information about the relationship between a Jews and Nazis. Sarah was a complex character and turned out to be a strong person. My favourite character was mouse, she was very mysterious and at the end we discovered information about her past, which made you feel very sad for her.
I would recommend this to the older more mature reader.
