By: Madeline Martin

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grace Bennett, our main character, and her friend, Viv, just moved to London in 1939 into the home of Ms. Weatherford (her deceased mother’s best friend) and her son Colin. With Hitler and Nazi party making their move into Poland, Grace, not unlike many of her peers, can’t imagine the war making it all the way to England. However, the threat begins to loom over London as rations are divided and families say goodbye to their sons and fathers and brothers. Grace, at the behest of Ms. Weatherford, takes up a position at the Primrose Hill bookstore where she can’t decide if she’d ever win over the grumpy store owner, Mr. Evans, who didn’t really want her there to begin with (but as we find out, not many can say no to Mrs. Weatherford).

While working in the bookstore Grace discovers the magic and beauty hidden behind the dust jackets. With a recommendation from a store regular, George, Grace embarks on a new love of reading – and a timid romance with George.

But then the first bomb is dropped on the city. And everything has changed. Now, Grace is working by night with the ARP (Air Raid Precautions/Patrol group) to protect citizens, and by day to ensure her beloved bookstore still stands. At night she reads aloud in the bomb shelters to anyone who wants to listen, helping ease anxiety and providing some normalcy.

Her nightly readings inadvertently help fuel an interest in books and start driving revenue into the bookstore.

But the bombs keep coming night after night, until Primrose Hill seems to be the last bookstore in London.

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When I reviewed The Illustrated Man in October of 2022 – over 2 years ago – I basically stopped writing my reviews because I felt like I had nothing else to say. But now, with a backlog read folder and an ever growing TBR pile, I realized, I still have plenty to say.

I have had an interest in the “women in WWII” niche for some time now. Some titles include: Code Name Hélène, Elizabeth is Missing, and The Alice Network. These books all feature women who find themselves facing the decision to do nothing, or stand up and make a difference.

First of all I want to address how emotionally connected I felt to this story. An average girl who has faced some difficult times, but is still able to go on about her life, finally looks up and sees what is going on around her. Grace sees mothers who have to send their children to the countryside and pray they will get to see them again. She sees once healthy, vibrant people now hardened by the circumstances and withering away from lack of nutrition. She stares into the face of neighbors whose bodies are crumpled and broken by their bombed out homes.

And she sees how her community rallies together to protect each other and to lift her up.

Grace wasn’t a spy or a soldier. She was just a normal citizen who realized she couldn’t sit by and do nothing while her city fell apart. There are so many good stories about women in WWII who risked everything they had to help others in occupied zones, but this wasn’t that story. This was daily life in London.

Not everyone had the opportunity to smuggle Jews out of Poland and France and Germany. Not everyone had the connections or means to create passable documents.

But everyone did have a role to play. You shared what you had with your neighbors or took in orphaned children or took count of the people that lived in your zone so you could account for them after the bombings.

And you shared information. Because that is what reading comes down to. You read and absorb and share with others your thoughts and insights. Then they share their thoughts and insights with you and we engage in dialogue and conversation and friendship.

This is what the Nazis were trying to prevent – the exchange of ideas and information. Because those who read and learn will form their own thoughts and individualism while creating a community that embraces these values – and these are the people that cannot be controlled.

While we don’t see the defining end to WWII in this book, we do know what happened. The Allied forces prevailed. And though this is not the most heroic book in Madeline Martin’s collection, I do think it deserves a nod for what it is: a testament to an average person doing what they can for others, maintaining their humanity, and finding out that’s what it takes to build a community.

In your everyday life I urge you to look up from what you are doing. Share your thoughts and information. Share your ideals. Be unashamed to stand up and say “this is not right”.

But most of all, read. Read everything you can get your hands on and share that with your family, your neighbor, the internet.

Read and grow.