All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

These kinds of books aren't really something I usually read. I think I only read one more book that's in the historical fiction genre. So I decided to branch out, and I came across this book. It had such high praises and I was really excited to read it. It really does live up to the expectations.

Now, this book tells the story of two characters. One of them is a blind girl, Marie-Laure, who lives in Paris with her father. He is a locksmith in the Museum of Natural History, so Marie-Laure spends her days exploring the different parts of the Museum. 

The second one is a boy called Werner, who is an orphan, and he lives in a small town Zollverein, in Germany. He and his sister are fascinated by radios. Werner gets really good with them actually, and can repair and build them. The story follows these two different people, and their different destinies during the Second World War. And what the writer does, he slowly intertwines and connects these two people, in many different ways. 

I loved this book. It was amazing. It was even more than I expected. The writing is really beautiful. It's one of those books, where you really got to read every sentence and let it sink in. It's all there for a reason and you really have to get into the right mindset to read.

The only problem I had with it sometimes is that it's really, really slow paced. That's not something that I am used to in books, so at times that really put me off. I needed a lot more time to read this than I usually do, so that was something that annoyed me a bit. But not too much.

I really liked that the chapters were short. They are mostly three or four pages long. And for some reason, I really enjoy that. And they alternate between Marie-Laure's and Werner's point of view. So you're always switching between them and you see them at the same point in time. Which is great. Also the story jumps between the different years of the war, so you kind of see where they are at the end, but then you also see how they got there. And that's done exquisitely. It connects so perfectly and the whole premise of it really works.

I loved all the characters in this book. They were really nicely built in a way. Throughout the book, they change and they grow and it was really great. There is a variety of characters and they are all sharp and really interesting.

In conclusion, I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads. I would totally recommend it to anyone. Even if you are not into the genre, just bare with it and by the end you will, hopefully, love it like I did.