5. Kidnapped From Ukraine Under Attack. Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. 2025. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, mg realistic fiction, mg fiction, survival, war stories]
First sentence: I was snuggled deep in my bed with my twin sister, Rada. We had heard that the Russians might be attacking, but I didn't believe it. Mariupol may have been a Ukrainian city, but everyone here could speak Russian. We weren't their enemies.
My thoughts preview: I will want to read ANYTHING Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch writes. I will. She has proven she is a great writer over and over again. Though really all it took was one book to make me a forever fan.
Premise/plot: While Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch typically writes action-packed, dramatic historical fiction novels, this time she has written a contemporary, realistic novel that opens in February 2022 with the Russians attacking Ukraine. We see these dark days--dark but not so distant--through the eyes of a child, Dariia Popkova. (She's twelve. Perhaps (though fiction) she wouldn't appreciate being called a child.) When the attack begins--bombing--Dariia and her mother are out of the apartment and running a quick errand--picking up a few things from a corner market. So close to home yet so far when the attack begins. Soon the two find themselves unable to return home and reunite with their family because of the destruction and danger. This danger is unrelenting--there is little calm in the storm their lives become. As the two try to survive hour by hour, day by day, week by week--in the basement where they have found temporary refuge--they have both too much time and too little time to worry.
Readers get to see everything through Dariia's eyes and it's not a comfy, cozy story with a few boo-boos. The whole novel is [realistically] intense.
My thoughts: What a novel!!!! Truly I cannot do the book justice. It's an incredible read from cover to cover. I am not surprised--I'd expect nothing less from Skrypuch. She excels at everything--writing, plotting, characterization. But it is the characterization that particularly wows me every time. Because though it shouldn't be rare, it mostly is. The depth of characterization is outstanding. It isn't just that there's depth and substance of the main character, but it is how expansive the characterization is. There's no shortcuts, no character too small to not get treated as important. It makes it impossible not to get invested and thoroughly absorbed in the story.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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