Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman

Norris’ ego, fueled by his insecurities, often gets in the way of meaningful character development. He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book.

Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school.

Suspenseful and clever, intertwining historical truth with action-packed shootouts.Ī teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas. Gretchen's too inwardly focused to see danger in Hitler's rise beyond the risk to herself and her friends, but Daniel provides rare if vital perspective. Mixed in with the bleak reality are adventure-novel goodies to maintain the pace: organized crime, prostitution and cocaine. As Gretchen winds ever closer to the inevitable confrontation with her formerly loving 'Uncle Dolf,' it becomes increasingly unclear what she can salvage from the rising horror of Nazism. The tight interweaving of Gretchen's journey with historical events lends a sense of the genuine-and results in the fascinating experience of following a quest readers know is doomed to fail. If only they can prove Hitler is lying about the arsonists, surely they can prevent him from gaining a stranglehold on German politics. Gretchen and her Jewish beau, Daniel, seek the truth about the (real-life) Reichstag fire in order to discredit Hitler and the National Socialists.

In this sequel to Prisoner of Night and Fog (2014), 18-year-old Gretchen returns to her native land in 1933, as the Nazis become ever more firmly entrenched in German politics.

A former intimate of Adolf Hitler returns to prewar Germany to save her beloved, all while fighting the rising power of the Nazi Party.

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman