Review: Wallflower by Holly-Jane Rahlens

ISBN #: 978-1-935902-70-6

Page Count: 134

Copyright: 2010

Book Summary:

(Taken from back cover)

Wallflower is four hours in the life of Molly Lanzfeld, sixteen-year-old New Yorker in Berlin.  It's Thanksgiving Day 1989, two weeks after the fall of the Wall.  Molly, the daughter of a German-Jewish mother who fled the Nazis in 1938, is off to her mother's birth house in East Berlin.  On the subway trip from West to East, wallflower Molly meets East German wildflower Mick Maier, nineteen.  It's love at first sight, and for both, a journey into an unknown land and the labyrinth of Berlin's underground world - a fertile terrain in which to discover each other, the absurdities of the divided city, and of course, the wonder of love.

Mandy's Review:

Cover

An actual photo of what could be the Berlin Wall makes for an interesting cover.

Plot

The story begins two weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which had to be a confusing time for Germans.  They were so used to being separated and having a rigid structure define their circumstances that when the Wall fell it possibly felt as if reality had suddenly ceased... opening up a dream world to them.  Of course, the privileged Germans now had to deal with the "riff-raff" having access to their side.

Okay ... enough with the sociology lesson.  Back to the book ...

Main Characters

Molly - An 11th grade American girl who came to live in Berlin with her father for one year for his job.  She desires to see her mother's ancestral home and takes a trip to go visit it.

Mick - A German boy who attaches himself to Molly on her journey to East Germany.  He's free-spirited, polite, fun and spontaneous.

Overall

Even though this book only covers a four hour period of time, you really get a sense for the characters and the way the German government behaved.  It's a quick read that I would recommend to people who are looking for something quick and entertaining.