Within These Lines- Stephanie Morrill

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Description: Evalina Cassano’s life in an Italian-American family in 1941 is everything it “should be” until she falls in love with Taichi Hamasaki, the son of Japanese immigrants. Despite the scandal it would cause and that inter-racial marriage is illegal in California, Evalina and Taichi vow they will find a way to be together. But anti-Japanese feelings erupt across the country after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Taichi and his family are forced to give up their farm and move to an internment camp.

Degrading treatment make life at Manzanar Relocation Center difficult. Taichi’s only connection to the outside world are treasured letters from Evalina. Feeling that the only action she can take to help Taichi is to speak out on behalf of all Japanese Americans, Evalina becomes increasingly vocal at school and at home. Meanwhile, inside Manzanar, fighting between different Japanese-American factions arises. Taichi begins to doubt he will ever leave the camp alive.

With tensions running high and their freedom on the line, Evalina and Taichi must hold true to their values and believe in their love to make a way back to each other against unbelievable odds.

My Thoughts: This is a confusing review for me to write. I've been extremely excited for this book for a while now, ever since reading Girl of Astor Street and learning that this was to be Stephanie's next book. I had hoped for a novel as awesome as that, hopefully with some mystery as well. However, this book was not as similar to the author's last as I hoped.

As always, Stephanie's writing is amazing. It is easy to read and relate with, and I blew through the story in a day with little to complain about. But even while reading, I knew that while I believed this story worthy of a four star review for most, it was more of a three star read for me personally. The reason for this is that I believe the narrative relies a lot of the reader having never read another book about Japanese Interment and to perhaps be a little in the dark about that time in history. And for most readers, this is true. Japanese Internment is not a much talked out subject in America, unlike the Holocaust which most everyone knows something about.

However, I have read about Japanese Interment, both novels and nonfiction accounts. I have been interested in the subject from a young age and so, as with any historical I read, I was hoping to learn something new or to at least find the story to be about the internal conflict of the characters who still believed themselves Americans but found their country telling them that they were not American enough.

And I KNOW, I warned that this review would be confusing. Because I do believe that had I not already known about most of what was mentioned in this book (I did learn about one event that I had not heard of before, and was captivated for those chapters) that I would have been singing the story's highest praises. And I do recommend that people read this and learn more about a subject they may not have known much about. Because Stephanie's writing is phenomenal and Japanese Internment is a piece of history that should never be forgotten or dismissed.

That's not to say that if you already know about Japanese Internment, that you will not enjoy this story. It is still well told, it just didn't hit all of the right notes for me. I wish that there had been more of an internal conflict with the characters as their worlds shifted, as well as perhaps some flashbacks to the beginning of Taichi and Evalina's relationship. Because even before internment, it took guts for these characters to choose to be together.

I have provided an honest review of this book. However, I was not required to post a review as I received an ARC through a giveaway held by the author.