" This book starts out with a great premise (a few hundred street kids protecting their city from an invading Nazi regiment), and then wastes every opportunity to fully take advantage of it. The end result is like an uncomfortable marriage between Inglorious Basterds and a Disney cartoon: It's violent and completely out of touch with reality. For example, a kid kills Nazis by intentionally kicking a soccer ball directly onto a land mine, an old woman appears out of nowhere and throws a knife into a Nazi's chest like she's Steven Seagal (then, of course, we never hear from her again), kids are able to build large catapults for attacking the enemy tanks, kids shoot machine guns more accurately and effectively than trained soldiers, etc., etc. The motivations of the characters aren't all that clear, either. We're told that the Nazi commander could easily wipe out all the street kids at a moment's notice, but sees that as being unethical--as if shooting them all one at a time is somehow more morally acceptable. And what it is exactly that the American soldier at the hub of all this is trying to accomplish is never really made clear, either. Carcaterra does a great job with the setting, but once the action starts, everything just seems formulaic, predictable, and repetitive. The romance angle is stale, and way to many people are saved in the nick of time by someone who happens to arrive on the scene at just the last moment. Cue old woman with the throwing knife. The Nazi soldiers are stupid and ineffective. For some reason, they often end up trying to kill the kids with their bare hands instead of by using their weapons. Needless to say, this tactic doesn't pan out very well for them. Lastly, there's too many melodramatic moments to try to make up for the fact that the story doesn't contain much tension at all, especially for a book about a bunch of kids being in constant danger. "
— John, 2/17/2014