Sarah's Key

I don't think I've ever read a book that had me as disturbed as this one. I guess mainly because I'd never delved much into historical fiction before. Things based on true life tragedy always piques my interest and unravels my nerves a bit more than I would like. Sarah's key is based on the big Vélodrome d'Hiver round up in Paris back in 1942 where thousands of Jew's were killed. The 1st person account by Sarah left me hollow inside; so distressing... so SAD!! I couldn't stop thinking about this book... about her brother. Picturing everything so clearly in my head. I even googled images from that time and read up on it myself. This was a really good book! I felt however, that the despair of Julia was a bit drawn out in the end, but I guess the author wanted us to understand how much this REALLY affected her (Julia). It may be masochistic, but I have a feeling I would be reading more books of this genre.

Things that left me confused (SPOILER WARNING):

• Why did Sarah's parents allow Sarah to lock her brother in the cupboard? She took full blame for it all her life, but she was only a child. Both her parents appeared to have known that they were not coming back 'anytime soon' from the moment the police came for them...
• I didn't quite connect with Julia as much as I tried to. She seemed overly dramatic towards the end. The readers know the 1st person p.o.v. story from Sarah, but Julia doesn't... why was she so tortured? Utterly and unbelievably tortured? I agree that the event itself allows for feelings like that and more, but her obsession with Sarah and her constant reaffirmation and convictions seemed very illogical. I never really critiqued a book, but honestly, her lamenting towards the end and Sarah's son as well, felt almost like an insult to her [Sarah] and what she REALLY went through. They would never understand, so why be personally wounded? It slightly annoyed me :( I know I'm being harsh :(