Review of Once We Were Family

[Robin Runyan]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Once We Were Family" by Nancy Saling Graham.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Once We Were Family starts as a historical fiction novel. The narrator is concise and factual in her retelling of her life’s journey. She is young, but not a child, when Nazism really takes hold in Germany and we see how Nazism affects her parents, and both her older and younger siblings. As a general rule, her family escapes much persecution and the reader is not subject to reading gruesome, terrible events that are commonplace in other WWII stories. However, I do want to note a particularly disturbing event near the middle of the story. While it is not described in detail in the novel, there should be a trigger warning for sexual assault.

I say the book starts as a historical fiction novel because it only starts as one. The second half leans more towards a romance novel. Other than what happened during the war, no significant historical events are noted. In my experience, historical fiction books remain that way throughout. Perhaps ending the story at the 3/4 mark and just providing more details on the first three quarters of the story would have been a better approach.

There is a random chapter from Brandt’s perspective. I thought this was an odd choice. No spelling or grammar mistakes were noted.

Overall, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

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Once We Were Family
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