A Night Divided by Jennifer A Nielsen Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“The fence was only the beginning. It had just divided my life in half. And nothing would ever be the same again.”-A Night Divided, Jennifer A Nielsen

With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family divided overnight. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.

But one day, while on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?

I kinda missed the boat on middle grade novels. I mean, sure, I read some middle grade novels back in late elementary school through my middle school years, but I think for the most part I made the jump directly from advanced children's chapter books to YA and even adult books. When I think back to my middle school years I read books like The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby, but I also read complete trash like the TTYL series (that I can't believe my mom let me read) that was all most decidedly not middle grade. The books that I think came the closest to middle grade include the Araminta Spookie books that I first really got into in 4th or 5th grade I believe, maybe later, the Percy Jackson series (5th grade for that one), and The Girl Who Could Fly. Middle school was also where I became obsessed with Unwind, but that's a story for another day. As a whole though, I don't really remember reading much at all in middle school, and if I did middle grade wasn't something that really appealed to me because of how fantasy heavy it was.

Because of this, when I encounter middle grade out in the wild, I never know really how to grade it. While I'm confident in my abilities to rate YA and adult novels, simply because I've read a ton of those, middle grade of any kind stump me. I constantly wonder if I'm being too lenient on a book or too harsh on one, whether I expect too much or too little. And because I hate rating them, I avoid them and the cycle kind of repeats itself. Also, I don't like fantasy, and a lot of middle grade is fantasy which makes it easier to avoid. I suppose that middle grade is a good metaphor for the middle school years, though, since from what I remember people always used to expect too much of me or not enough. I guess if you wanted to be deep about it you could say that's why I stay away from middle grade- who wants to relive their middle school years?

Anyway, I picked this book up because it was recommended to me, sounded interesting, and was cheap enough for me to want it. I go through historical phases a lot, and right now I'm super into the 60s and the Cold War. Mostly the early sixties, though. I'm also trying to get back into historical fiction. I mean, it's not that my love for it has ever died or anything, it's that I really haven't been impressed with any of the new releases in this genre and have been having a hard time finding really great old ones. I'm also been getting sick of WWII (though The Last Lament is on my list). I don't know. I think the reasons thrillers have been standing out to me lately is because of all new and exciting things happening in the genre and the lack of sameness and repetition whereas the historical fiction genre lately is plagued by it. Also, I hate romance novels, and I don't know why, but there's something about historical fiction that draws romance writers. So A Night Divided, being about the Cold War and East Berlin and NOT WWII drew me in despite being middle grade.

And right away, my usual problems with middle grade started. My first potential criticism was that the author really liked to tell us her research as opposed to show it to us. We got a lot of paragraphs that were basically info-dumps, something I probably would have liked more if it all wasn't simplified and repetitive to me. This isn't Life: An Exploded Diagram, telling me straight up facts but in an amusing way. No, it was pretty dry, basic WWII/Cold War stuff. However, even as I wrote this complaint down in my notes, the nagging in my brain started again. "What if this stuff is typical of middle grade historical fiction? What if some twelve year old girl reads this book and decides she wants to know more about the Cold War and soon she wants to become a historian?" And this is where I hesitate. Look, I'm not one to give idea points, unless the idea is really, really cool. I don't give people who write books about "taboo" topics higher scores than those who don't because of their "bravery". That seems dishonest to me. But in this case, I waffled. Because the hard facts aren't really that bad or annoying, and I would love if middle schoolers got interested in history because of books like this. Apparently, I do give idea points to books that I think have some educational or interest value, especially if their target audience is bored middle schoolers with no interests besides shopping and boys and music. So in the end, I decided I didn't hate the factual paragraphs.

Next, I decided I didn't like the main character very much. I didn't hate her or anything, but she was the very typical strong, trouble making preteen girl, the kind of character I picture when I'm asked to picture a female protag from a middle grade/young YA novel. I mean she's harmless enough- she's got the kind of traits that would empower a preteen girl but she's also so vanilla girls can project themselves on her. I mean, when I was a preteen girl, I enjoyed inserting myself as the main character (albeit so I can mentally manipulate the story so that everything in it happens that I want to happen). But I was torn as to how much personality I was to expect from a middle grade novel. I mean, the girls in books I remember reading- Araminta Spookie, Piper McCloud, Annabeth Chase, all those girls had tons of personality (admittedly all of them had "spunky" as a character trait in some form- except maybe Araminta, but she was in a class by herself) and none of them had as bland character traits as Gerta. I think this is one of those cases where I can definitely take off points, based on my limited experience.

In a lot of cases, I was reminded of Code Name Verity. I mean, Code Name Verity was alright, but I will maintain it's not the shining star of the YA/middle grade historical fiction genre. Elizabeth Wein's a good writer, but she doesn't stand out to me in a crowd the way Ruta Sepetys does or Mal Peet did (I mean, she's harmless, but kind of unoriginal, basic YA HF, though she does have some good ideas) And when I say I was reminded of Code Name Verity, I don't really mean in a content way, though the idea of digging a tunnel across the boarder and the action at the end is something Elizabeth Wein would dream up. I mean mostly in the fact that everything works out in the end. Sure, people do die, but they weren't really people I could bring myself to care deeply about. Those who you knew would come around came around, there's an instance of bait-and-switch villainry (which is one of my least favorite tropes of all time because come on now, just commit already), and a heel-face turn coming from the mother about staying in East Berlin. At least there was no magical back from the dead moments. It reminded me, in a very unpleasant way, of the second half of Code Name Verity and how Wein kind of destroyed every good thing she set up. But I don't know. Maybe that's what the middle grade audience wants, though I remember liking it when authors killed characters off, provided they weren't characters I really liked. Now, even when I like someone, I want them to die if the situation calls for their death. But at the same time, I could also see myself as a 12 year old, cheering them on when they escaped in A Night Divided. I mean, this isn't 1984. You know they're going to succeed in their goals, regardless as to how realistic or not they are.

There was also some very simplistic stuff about communism and the communist government I wasn't that into. Though again, I can see why Nielsen would be wary about diving right into the nitty-gritty of communism the way Simon Sebag Montefiore or Anthony Marra or, hell, even Ruta Sepetys does. It's the same reason why middle school world history drops off after the Middle Ages, or why they teach Animal Farm in 7th grade as opposed to 1984. I don't think any 12 year old, 12 year old me included, could truly comprehend the horrors of both WWs, or the terror of communism from the everyday man trapped inside the system. 

The writing wasn't much either. Too juvenile for me to really appreciate it. I think I'm the worst at judging middle grade writing, mostly because it's been so many years since I've read an actual middle grade novel and not a graphic novel that I have no idea what good middle grade writing is.

So in the end, this is a solid read I would surely recommend to any middle schooler interested in the topic of the Cold War, or at least I would if I knew any middle schoolers. Mostly those from the ages of 10-13, though in my opinion 13 is a little pushing it and I would likely give them Code Name Verity (despite my issues with that book) or Rose Under Fire instead. And maybe this one, if they really liked those two. I didn't love it or hate it, but it did remind me how much I miss this genre, and that's not a bad thing at all.

6.5 out of 10