Not My Side

Shadow on the Mountain has nothing to do with My Side of the Mountain, which I couldn't get through to save my life.  SOTM was super good.  It is set in Norway after the Nazi occupation and it really asks some good questions and doesn't answer them, which is just what a great book with do, because there are no answers for some questions.  At least not easy ones.  I had forgotten Snow Treasure also takes place in Norway during the same time and I just read my adult take on that and I liked SOTM so much more. It was interesting to me to get some insight into why/how someone could side with the Nazis.  It still blows my mind.  The horror of it all.  But, for example, Aksel became a Nazi sympathizer because he was attempting to right the wrong of his father's death at the hands of the Russians.  So his hatred for the Russians led him to more hate and so on and so on.  It shows that hate begets hate and violence begets violence.  Ah and it is just awful because it still happens today.  SOTM was based on the real story of Erling Storrusten.