| List Price: | |
| Price: | $0.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details... |
| You Save: | $0.00(0.00%) |
| Binding: | Kindle Edition |
| EAN: | |
| Feature: | |
| Label: | self |
| Publisher: | self |
| Studio: | self |
| Tags: |
Editorial Reviews
Three unique stories of the Holocaust as written by Cathlene Smith. Each is a prize winner! Fictional short stories based on true life events. The book is approximately 100 pages. The stories, while containing fictional characters reflect the true, heroism of the time and era of the Holocaust.
The uprising of the Lodz ghetto, a rare romance in a concentration camp and the Sobibor escape are captured in this book. Different perspectives and gripping horror from real life accounts.
A must read.
The uprising of the Lodz ghetto, a rare romance in a concentration camp and the Sobibor escape are captured in this book. Different perspectives and gripping horror from real life accounts.
A must read.
Related Reviews
Three short works of fiction about the Holocaust
I truly enjoyed each of these stories.
The first one is from the point of view of someone trying to avoid going to the camps, the second one is from the viewpoint of a guard in the camps, and the third is from the viewpoint of someone in a camp trying to escape.
This was an excellent trio of stories. They were well written with concise, tight description. The atrocities that were manadatory in these types of stories were handled with finesse, explained without attempting to horrify, yet still managing to do so.
Loss of one star for errors in text, such as misspelling, grammar and punctuation, etc, and for formatting issues. The formatting problem was simply that there was not so much as a line break between stories. Not a huge issue, but a little amateurish and easily corrected.
The first one is from the point of view of someone trying to avoid going to the camps, the second one is from the viewpoint of a guard in the camps, and the third is from the viewpoint of someone in a camp trying to escape.
This was an excellent trio of stories. They were well written with concise, tight description. The atrocities that were manadatory in these types of stories were handled with finesse, explained without attempting to horrify, yet still managing to do so.
Loss of one star for errors in text, such as misspelling, grammar and punctuation, etc, and for formatting issues. The formatting problem was simply that there was not so much as a line break between stories. Not a huge issue, but a little amateurish and easily corrected.
As I write a great deal of Holocaust fiction myself, I was looking forward to this book. Some of the other reviews here made me a little bit iffy about whether or not I was going to purchase it, but because it only costs $1.16, I figured I would.
To start with the obvious, there are so many grammatical errors that it really took away from the stories. I also find the stories to be way too obvious. What I mean by this is that the author tells us everything and there isn't any embellishment or foreshadowing or any sort of imagery at all. I feel as if these are either children's stories or first drafts of potentially beautiful short stories.
The Holocaust is such an emotional and painful topic that when writing fictional accounts of it, emotions are even more important. With non-fiction Holocaust stories we are already more alert to emotions because we are aware that the story is true and that it really happened. Its more dramatic for us as readers because real people went through this and they know better than anyone else how it felt. However, with fiction stories it is harder to make emotions seem real. It has to be very carefully executed and you really have to work hard to understand what life would have been like.
I think it would have been especially difficult for the author to build emotion when in the middle of a conversation she adds notes like '(Jewish council established by the Germans to keep the Jews in line)'. This just breaks up any tension that the scene had gathered. Things like this should be saved for foot notes or in an index. I think the author should have trusted her readers. If they have selected a Holocaust book, chances are they know what the Judenrat is. If they don't, they'd either have the sense to look it up or move along without much thought.
There are parts of these stories that are well done, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. I read one of the author's comments saying they paid to have this published in paperback. I think that's really unfortunate, because if a little more time had been taken and more attention paid to the style and the emotion behind the stories, they could have been something very special.
I really find myself just wanting to go through the stories and edit them completely and helping the author to improve them and make them better. I know that they can be made better and I really would encourage the author to keep working on them - I can tell from her comments that her heart is in them. I believe she could break through the average writing and create something much more impacting.
To start with the obvious, there are so many grammatical errors that it really took away from the stories. I also find the stories to be way too obvious. What I mean by this is that the author tells us everything and there isn't any embellishment or foreshadowing or any sort of imagery at all. I feel as if these are either children's stories or first drafts of potentially beautiful short stories.
The Holocaust is such an emotional and painful topic that when writing fictional accounts of it, emotions are even more important. With non-fiction Holocaust stories we are already more alert to emotions because we are aware that the story is true and that it really happened. Its more dramatic for us as readers because real people went through this and they know better than anyone else how it felt. However, with fiction stories it is harder to make emotions seem real. It has to be very carefully executed and you really have to work hard to understand what life would have been like.
I think it would have been especially difficult for the author to build emotion when in the middle of a conversation she adds notes like '(Jewish council established by the Germans to keep the Jews in line)'. This just breaks up any tension that the scene had gathered. Things like this should be saved for foot notes or in an index. I think the author should have trusted her readers. If they have selected a Holocaust book, chances are they know what the Judenrat is. If they don't, they'd either have the sense to look it up or move along without much thought.
There are parts of these stories that are well done, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. I read one of the author's comments saying they paid to have this published in paperback. I think that's really unfortunate, because if a little more time had been taken and more attention paid to the style and the emotion behind the stories, they could have been something very special.
I really find myself just wanting to go through the stories and edit them completely and helping the author to improve them and make them better. I know that they can be made better and I really would encourage the author to keep working on them - I can tell from her comments that her heart is in them. I believe she could break through the average writing and create something much more impacting.
The reason for three stars is this book was three short stories; it was hard to tell the difference between the stories as there was little to no end of one or the other however they were very well written and you could almost see what was going on within the book. For the price it is a bargin if you want a quick Holocaust story and don't want a lot of the grusome details.
The real thing was horrific enough without adding fictional stories about it.
Though the stories were compelling and do give the reader some insight on the events of the Holocaust, in my personal opinion there are so many poignant non-fictional memoirs of the atrocities of the Holocaust it just seems obsolete to write fictional tales like this. Saying that, what quality does an author have that would try to make money from such a horrible time in history?
I was expecting a lot more from this book... oh well, it was a quick read.
I purchased this book because of the price and I am an avid reader on WWII and the Holocaust. Once the book was sent to my Kindle & I saw that it was fiction, I was glad this book didn't cost me more than a dollar! The spelling and historical errors in the first story of Ester made it difficult to continue, but the emotion the writer was able to convey kept me going. I haven't read past that story & still not sure if I will..
Trio of Horror: Three Tales from the Holocaust
Catchy title, that is what drew my attention. Dissapointing after realizing this is just good writing put to paper. The author is good at spinning a yarn but I think most people who study/research the Holocaust would never knowingly purchase this book knowing the stories were made up. There are enough true life events to read about. Very dissapointed....
I felt like I was living the story not just reading it
Cathlene Smith has a unique way of putting the reader inside the story. I really enjoyed reading these tales of the holocaust from three different perspectives. I especially enjoyed Esther and the Lodz Ghetto. I am looking forward to reading her trio of intrigue.
Share your thoughts with other customers
Create your own review
Create your own review
There are three fictional stories here - the first one is about a young Jewish girl, Esther and her experiences in the Lodz Ghetto (in Poland). Esther is an independent-minded young woman who would rather go to university than just settle down in marriage to a man of her father's choosing. Things change when the Nazis round up the Jews and place them in the ghetto, and Esther finds herself becoming involved in the Jewish underground, with the rest of the story dealing with the resistance efforts and what happens to Esther, her family, and her peers. The second story is about a Nazi soldier , Friedrich, serving in the Birkenau death camp (which was located near Auschwitz and housed mainly female inmates). Friedrich is a troubled young man, feeling that his father has no love for him (always having been in the shadow of his more esteemed older brother Franz) and unenthusiastic about his current assignment. One day, he meets a beautiful Jewish girl, Sophie, fresh off the trains from Krakow, and after saving her from almost certain death, a relationship develops between the two, and the story explores their relationship and its consequences. The third story is about the Sobibor uprising (Sobibor was another Nazi death camp) told from the perspective of Sarah, a Jewish inmate. The story details her involvement with the resistance within the camp and their plans for escape.
The three stories are interesting, though as I mentioned earlier, the stories seem more suited to a young adult audience in terms of the style of writing and for those relatively unfamiliar with the subject of the Holocaust. I was able to finish these stories within two hours, so it makes for a short read.