Book Review
Title: Going Over
Author: Beth Kephart
Genre: YA/Romance/Historical
Rating: ***
Review: All I knew about Going Over is that it is the story of Ada and Stefan, teens in love separated on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall. The opening was great, we meet Ada who lives with her mother, sister and Grandmother in a ghetto in West Berlin. Ada is also a graffiti artist with a rebellious, punk attitude but Ada is different because she has a boyfriend; Stefan who is obsessed with astronomy who lives in East Berlin forced to be trained as a plumber by the Stasi. Despite their circumstances they still manage to communicate and occasionally see each other which gave me some hope for them.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we learn that Ada wants Stefan to come over the wall to the West where they can have a real life together and she isn’t going to wait forever. However, Stefan knows the realities of what going over actually means but doesn’t tell Ada, preferring to leave Ada to her childish delusions but he loves her so he entertains the idea but with the Stasi monitoring everyone in the East, there is a huge chance that if he takes the risk he will die trying to get to Ada. So far, I really like Stefan as he is level-headed and avoids confrontation while I disliked Ada. I understand she is in love and wants to be with Stefan, but she hasn’t even considered the unpleasant consequences of what could go wrong. She also seems quite selfish as unlike so many others she has four opportunities a year to be with the person she loves. A luxury definitely not afforded to all. Both Ada and Stefan’s perspectives are radically different, Ada’s is told in first person while Stefan’s is told in second person, almost like he is viewing his life from the outside, as both try to survive on their respective sides of the wall.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, both Ada and Stefan are struggling to give themselves hope, while Ada works at a day care for young children and is particularly close to a little Turkish boy named Savas but one night she comes across him half frozen in the day care centre and tries to get him home but he is snatched from her by a person who may or may not have been his mother and Ada knows she will never see him again. Shortly afterwards she contracts a bad case of the flu which leaves her bed-ridden and delirious for two days, but she holds onto the fact that Stefan is coming. Meanwhile, Stefan wants nothing more than to escape his grandmother and the guilt following him, but reality is inescapable. Stefan knows so many that have been killed or died crossing the wall and he knows so few that have succeeded but his love for Ada drives his desire to find a way to her and for them to be together again.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, not much has happened which was a little disappointing. Ada is still pressuring Stefan to join her in the West but honestly life in the East seems a little better as Ada’s family are having to make every meal stretch as far as it can. Ada’s mother and sister are always eating less so their Omi and Ada can have more despite the fact that Arabella is pregnant, the father an American boy named Peter. However, we know that Stefan is keeping secrets from Ada, secrets that reveal why he is so scared and hesitant to cross the wall, but as Ada comes across more possibilities for escape and more stories of people who have successfully made it over the way Stefan is running out of excuses, but he is torn. He doesn’t want to cross the wall and possibly face the same fate as his grandfather, but he also doesn’t want to lose Ada, the love of his life and it gives him hope living under the Stasi rule.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was waiting for something exciting to happen, but everything seemed to be dragging a little especially since I preferred Stefan’s perspective to Ada’s, and we get a lot more from Ada than we do Stefan. Ada ends up sending Stefan a letter letting him know it is now or never, but his grandmother intercepts it and when she finally gives it to him, we have no idea how long it has been or whether it is too late. Ada does keep herself busy with her art, but she is also focused on finding Savas. I didn’t really get this storyline with Savas, I understand Ada is one of his caregivers, but she isn’t shown giving him any extra attention as she loves all the children equally, so I didn’t understand why she is going out of her way and putting herself in danger to find one little boy. Stefan’s character also suffers from this, as he refuses to tell Ada the true reason why he is afraid to cross the wall. If he had told her then so many of the arguments between them wouldn’t have happened at all.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Stefan finally makes up his mind and is learning skills that will help him cross the wall and stay alive too, but it has been so long that Ada thinks he isn’t coming. Ada though is trying to find Savas, help her sister and keep her mother from going off the rails with another man. As we watch Ada become more and more desperate not only to find Savas but for Stefan to come or at least answer her letters, we want Stefan to just go for it, but we know he can’t without the proper preparations but the time where he will be ready is getting closer and closer with every page.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, there are only 40 pages left and I still haven’t decided whether or not this book will have a happy ending. I have to honestly say that the last 40 pages of this book really made up for the fact that not a lot happens in the rest of the book, however, I did feel a little let down by the whole experience. When I heard this was a book about a couple separated by the Berlin Wall, I was expecting a lot more danger and something more like the Great Escape, than what we actually for. Overall, I came to love Ada and Stefan a lot and their journey was insightful to what it was like at the time, I just personally expected a little more from it.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from Abrams & Chronicle
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