Book Review: Nineteen Steps

The cover leads one to believe 19-year-old actress Millie Bobby Brown (of Stranger Things fame) wrote this book. It impressed! I didn't expect to be sucked into the story in the first five pages (the mark of a talented writer). Then, I revisited the title page and discovered the words "with Kathleen McGurl." I guess my question is, how much did Millie write? Is Kathleen McGurl a ghostwriter resigned to the title page as the big name draws in all the readers and profits? Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps Millie did indeed write out chapters, only to be finessed by the talent of Kathleen McGurl. If I took no notice of the author at all, however, I would say it was a well-written, moving tale of great tragedy.

This is based on an unfamiliar true story. With so many WWII novels, new angles are rare. Nineteen Steps does just that - provides a new angle or lens on a little-known story from the war. I don't want to give too much away because that would detract from the very thing I find appealing about the book. Suffice it to say, when the air raid sirens sound and Nellie Morris makes her way down the nineteen steps into the Bethnal Green underground station, her life is forever changed. The scale of this tragedy and the emotional tug of the fictionalized story line took me by surprise. As Nellie's story progresses, the reader is pulled into a vortex of agony swirling alongside hope. It has everything a good story needs: specific setting, harrowing conflict, progressing plot, and endearing characters. This is a book I would happily recommend to my sister (who loves reading WWII novels). Additional plus, it was clean (not even cursing).