Are you someone who likes historical fiction books? Then you will savor Grenade by Alan Gratz. Grenade is a great book with a deep and strong plot as well as a good setting. It takes place in 1945, during WW2 on the Island of Okinawa, Japan. Imagine you are a young teenager, forced into bloodbaths, attempting to defend your own home land against invading soldiers; intense, right?
The author is great at strong character development. It shows the perspective of both sides and how they act as well as thinking of warfare: Ray from the American Army and Hideki from the Japanese Army.
The final reason why I enjoy Grenade is that everyone has their own major challenges in their own way, as well as undertaking the pain of a deadly warfare as an attempt for a better future.
This makes it so no character has any sort of “plot armor” and that there are times where every character has severe physical and emotional struggles.
In conclusion, Grenade is a very intense and fascinating book about WW2 as well as a good book for middle schoolers because of its strong character development and build up, stories and ideas about the characters, and the true and sorrowful side of battles of war.
