Book: Grenade

Author: Alan Gratz

Genre: Historical Fiction

Page Count: 228

Hideki is part of the Blood and Iron student corps. Rey is an US marine. Hideki is told to kill as many American soldiers as he can. Rey is on an enemy island, with ambushes everywhere. Neither of them know what might happen.

This book was about the Battle of Okinawa. I though it was very interesting to have two very similar perspectives of young soldiers, but with the crucial difference of which side of the battle they were on. One thing I noticed was that both of them believed that the other side were essentially monsters.

There were a few things that seemed unnecessary and could have been left out of the book, as they served no real purpose. One example of this was one of the flashbacks in which Hideki’s sister visits a family with him.

Overall, this book was good if you like slightly rambling stories about terrible things.