Review: Sektion 20

Title: Sektion 20
Author: Paul Dowswell
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: September 2011
Paperback: 274 pages
My rating: 7/10

Summary:

An agent employed by a state to obtain secret information.

Alex lives in East Berlin. The Cold War is raging and he and his family are forbidden to leave. But the longer he stays, the more danger he is in. Alex is no longer pretending to be a model East German, and the Stasi have noticed. They are watching him.

One false move will bring East and West together in a terrifying stand-off which will change everything for Alex and his family....for ever.

My thoughts:

This was a new kind of read for me, apart from Between Shades of Grey I've never read anything based on any kind of war because it normally doesn't really appeal to me.

This was quite a good read for the most part. The problem for me though is that it doesn't completely keep me utterly engrossed in the story the whole way through. I only started to get into it around half way through even if exciting things happened throughout. It just wasn't exciting enough.

I did enjoy it when I got into the story though. It was exciting and it certainly got my heart pounding. What I loved most was that I know things that happened in the book (spies, kidnappings e.t.c) really happened to people in a time and place like that which made the book incredibly realistic.

Also, I really felt for the characters. I felt their frustration from staying in a place they hated and being restricted from doing what they want to do. Alex likes to play guitar and listen to music that's not allowed, if anyone finds out then he is in huge trouble to the point of being detained. He has to choose a career he doesn't want to do, he has to stay in a place where everyone is the same in every way from what they wear to what they do and all Alex wants to be is different. I think everyone who reads this book will connect with the characters in some way or another and that's what gave me a good liking for the book disregarding how much I actually liked the plot.

Paul Dowswell:
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