Simone's Reviews > Midnight Hunter
Midnight Hunter
by
by
** spoiler alert **
It's 1963 behind the Berlin Wall and the hero of this book is one of the most feared men in the East German Secret Police. The general plot of the book is that the heroine is set to escape to West Germany, but he foils her escape and keeps her for his own. Takes her to his posh apartment, scares her a bit, teaches her that sex is awesome, makes her fall in love with him, falls in love with her, kills someone who makes the mistake of touching her, gives up his life for her, they live happily ever after. Whatever. Brianna Hale clearly is a good writer. I have no issue with that. I agree with the other reviewers here that the book is very well written.
Except it sucks, you see, because the hero is a Nazi.
Oh, the author jumps through about a thousand hoops on this to convince you otherwise, but here are the facts: The (not really a) hero of this book was a German soldier during WWII. He was not SS, but he was a soldier for the Reich -- an officer, at that. He wore the Nazi uniform. He fought on the side of the Nazis. She tries to convince you that he wasn't one of the "bad" Nazis. That he didn't hate Jewish people -- in fact, he had a Jewish girlfriend (who was afraid to tell him she was Jewish, I CANNOT IMAGINE WHY) who was killed at Auschwitz before he could get there to save her (we'll leave aside the fact that this diminishes the horrors of Auschwitz immensely, as though victims of the Holocaust were just one good Nazi friend away from being saved). There's some other stuff -- he calls SS Nazis monsters at one point, threatens the heroine when she calls him a Nazi to his face, etc. He's supposed to be heroic because he's smuggling East Germans across the border into West Germany to reunite with their families, on the side. Hale does what she can to make him seem heroic. Except, of course, he's a Nazi. Maybe I could have forgiven it with a more well-rounded past -- maybe I could have been convinced that he was a decent person. I mean, probably not, but maybe. A Nazi in 1963 is still a Nazi.
But then...Here's the kicker: the happily ever after is financed with paintings confiscated from Jewish families by the Reich. I shit you not, the hero becomes an art dealer, and SELLS PAINTINGS that were stolen from Jewish homes to private collectors. Don't worry though, because he anonymously donates the really good paintings to major western art museums, and he keeps the provenance to all the paintings he deals with so that eventually, should Jewish families come looking for this art that was stolen from them along with their homes and families, he can help them find it again. I assume we're supposed to turn a blind eye to the fact that he's making money on the backs of genocide because he donates the Monets and only sells the bad paintings. I don't even know.
It is 2018 and I am sick and tired of normalizing Nazis, y'all. Do better. Read better.
Except it sucks, you see, because the hero is a Nazi.
Oh, the author jumps through about a thousand hoops on this to convince you otherwise, but here are the facts: The (not really a) hero of this book was a German soldier during WWII. He was not SS, but he was a soldier for the Reich -- an officer, at that. He wore the Nazi uniform. He fought on the side of the Nazis. She tries to convince you that he wasn't one of the "bad" Nazis. That he didn't hate Jewish people -- in fact, he had a Jewish girlfriend (who was afraid to tell him she was Jewish, I CANNOT IMAGINE WHY) who was killed at Auschwitz before he could get there to save her (we'll leave aside the fact that this diminishes the horrors of Auschwitz immensely, as though victims of the Holocaust were just one good Nazi friend away from being saved). There's some other stuff -- he calls SS Nazis monsters at one point, threatens the heroine when she calls him a Nazi to his face, etc. He's supposed to be heroic because he's smuggling East Germans across the border into West Germany to reunite with their families, on the side. Hale does what she can to make him seem heroic. Except, of course, he's a Nazi. Maybe I could have forgiven it with a more well-rounded past -- maybe I could have been convinced that he was a decent person. I mean, probably not, but maybe. A Nazi in 1963 is still a Nazi.
But then...Here's the kicker: the happily ever after is financed with paintings confiscated from Jewish families by the Reich. I shit you not, the hero becomes an art dealer, and SELLS PAINTINGS that were stolen from Jewish homes to private collectors. Don't worry though, because he anonymously donates the really good paintings to major western art museums, and he keeps the provenance to all the paintings he deals with so that eventually, should Jewish families come looking for this art that was stolen from them along with their homes and families, he can help them find it again. I assume we're supposed to turn a blind eye to the fact that he's making money on the backs of genocide because he donates the Monets and only sells the bad paintings. I don't even know.
It is 2018 and I am sick and tired of normalizing Nazis, y'all. Do better. Read better.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
Finished Reading
February 10, 2018
– Shelved as:
wtf
February 10, 2018
– Shelved as:
uncommon-historical
February 10, 2018
– Shelved as:
no-no-no
December 13, 2023
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)
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Who decides what is bad art?
Plenty of works I dislike, that others are wowed by, hence the idea that ART IS SUBJECTIVE.
Lastly, art is often historically relevant, irrelevant to how good it is.
This is so touchy a subject and needs to be handled in a careful, knowledgeable, and compassionate manner.
Clearly not done here.
Thank you for speaking up. 🥰
.....are you effing kidding me?? I'm speechless. And to think this book is the most praised out of her books. I'm furious. Thank you for the heads up. Great review!
I knew going in that it would be a dark romance, and that he was not going to be a good dude. But yeah, I was really dismayed with how carelessly the treatment of a real time period with real repercussions among huge swaths of people was handled. And then, when he was like, "Don't call me a Nazi, I wasn't SS, I was a German officer," I was like, ummmmm....same thing, bro. Like, you fought for the Reich. But really...it was when he was selling art stolen from Jewish families for money at the end that made me rage. There's no nobility in profiting off of genocide. None. Gross. I'm tired.