Schadenfreude - Comments

I really loved the German you incorporated in this story. I love how the culture is brought into this piece too. It really inspires me to really study the language and culture. I love the emotions of the characters that you brought into the characters. Your detail is amazing in this piece. Completely agree with everything Aliens has quoted and said and described afterwords.

I normally don't read historical fiction as well. But I was more then pleasantly surprised by this piece. Looking forward to updates!

Wow. This is extremely well-written and compelling. Historical fiction isn't normally my thing, but I'm really into this. I love how each character you introduce really feels like a real person, with real desires, fears, and motivations. I love how they are all allowed to be sympathetic and human to some degree. It would be so easy to write a story in this setting where anyone on the Nazi side of things was just a pure evil two-dimensional villain and any prisoner was just an innocent victim written as generically as possible, but it's so refreshing to see people on both sides allowed to be real people. I really loved that I was able to feel for every single character to some degree or another.
I absolutely love the way you describe things. You seem to know exactly when to go into detail and when to keep things short. I particularly loved reading the scene about Jürgen for this reason. The action was very well-paced, and the details were very visceral when they needed to be. It was easy to picture and to imagine what he was going through in that part. This is true, of course, to a certain extent for all that you've written in these first two chapters, but I thought that sequence was the best, especially because action scenes can be difficult to pull off in terms of pacing and description.
I kind of wish I had more to say about this one, but all I can say is just really great work. This isn't my usual genre that I prefer to read, but I may have to come back and read more!

I love Marek's passion for drawing. I can't imagine loving something so much and yet not being able to do it. I think it's good that he's able to keep at it despite that, though, and I really hope Marek isn't caught because I don't want to know what it would mean if he were caught doing something that was considered a privilege.

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snatching it up with long, thin pianist’s fingers.

I love that you described his fingers. It's such a small thing to describe but really made the story feel more real.

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The Nazis were beginning to lose the war. For all the bravado and brute strength they had shown whilst tearing his homeland apart, the Nazis were beginning to lose the war.

I do wish I could've seen his thoughts on the matter of the Nazis beginning to lose the war. Is he happy about it? Content? While it may be obvious, I would've liked to have seen a little more emotion behind it.

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The bodies would often be left out for days as a warning to anybody who thought they could escape, the rot stinking up the courtyard and causing some prisoners to empty the precious contents of their stomachs across the trodden-down dirt.

God, I love the description here.

It took me a second to realize Malte and Romy were talking about Marek, but I'm glad they thought it was too much work to shoot him, omg.

I'm really loving the contrast between Marek's life and Malte. Marek is just trying to survive and Malte is worried about pay raises and everything else. I really like the difference you showed between their lives.

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Talk of Nazi defeat was treason — Wehrkraftzersetzung — and it was punishable by death. The Third Reich didn’t take kindly to suggestions of weakness amongst their ranks, nor did they want any prisoners taking advantage of the weaknesses if they could be found.

It's intense that even talking about defeat is punishable by death, but I guess it makes sense. I enjoy you putting the information in, though. This is such a realistic read thus far!

I can't even describe how much I loved this first chapter, and I'm so angry at myself for waiting so long to read it! Usually, I'm not one to read historical fiction, but you do it so well that I want to start. I'll definitely be continuing this and subscribing!

I don't read a lot of historical fiction (probably close to none, if not none), but this was really interesting. I'm always a little iffy when it comes to fiction that centers on WWII, specifically on Nazi efforts, but so far, so good.

I really like that within the first two chapters, you're taking time to introduce the characters. I love that they each have their own individual stories to tell and different backgrounds, but I can begin to see how their lives are going to come together. I think the pace you're moving at is really well done. It doesn't feel rush and it's not droning on.

Your writing style in this is also great. There's a perfect balance between description of the physical setting, actions, and the character's emotion. I never felt bored or the urge to skim through parts as I was reading this.

Probably my favorite thing about this story, so far, is that even though the groups the characters represent paint a pretty striking picture in history (Nazis, imprisoned Jews, soldiers, ect.), you still make them feel like people. I like that you're telling a story rather than preaching an ideal, so the characters aren't presenting as good or evil, just yet. I feel like I'm getting a chance to form my own opinion on who the characters are and whether I should like or sympathize with them or hate them. Rather than you telling me how I should feel.

I really like that this is a historical fiction story, that type of thing isn't really done a lot on Mibba.

Your writing is great (though you missed a closing quotation mark at the end of chapter one, an easy mistake to miss) and I feel like you really are able to convey the differences between each of the character's POV within your chapters. That said, I think the flow might have made more sense (for me, at least) had chapter one and two all been a part of the same chapter if that makes sense?

Other than that I think this is great. I love how you've got characters all from different backgrounds and roles within the German camps at the time, and it seems pretty clear that you've done a lot of research for what's been written so far. Keep up the good work!