Yesterday evening, I finished reading Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen. This historical fiction novel is about Chaya Lindner, a Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. After her younger sister is taken away to Auschwitz and her brother disappears, Chaya decides to become a courier for the resistance group, Akiva. Her job is to smuggle food and documents into the ghettos and help people out of them. Soon after she begins her work as a courier, she is invited on a more dangerous mission. When this mission to raid the Cyganeria Cafe goes horribly wrong, Chaya is alone and she doesn't know where to turn, but another girl from Akiva, Esther, finds her and they begin an even larger mission to join the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.
This historical novel was a thriller with lots of suspense and action, but it was also devastating reading about the pain, suffering, and death of the Jews. The heroines, Chaya and Esther, were incredibly courageous and I admired how they risked their own lives to help their people. For much of the book, they were also very lucky with several near escapes. I was so nervous when Esther was captured on their journey to Warsaw and Chaya had to rescue her. Thankfully, Chaya was successful and they both reached Warsaw. The battle in the Warsaw Ghetto was definitely the most suspenseful part of the book because I didn't know who would survive and who would die. The resistance did start strongly, but it increasingly became clear that they just didn't have the amount or kind of resources that the Germans had. The end is sad, but there is a dash of hope and I enjoyed the story overall. In an afterward, Nielsen discusses the real historical events and people that inspired the book. This book is a terrific choice for anyone who enjoys action-filled books or stories about World War II and the Holocaust.
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