Mare’s War book review

Marey Lee Boyleen is a 17 year old african american woman living in the 1940’s during WW2. Her mother, a blunt and tough woman, takes care of her and her younger sister Feen. Her mother also has an abusive boyfriend named Toby. One night, drunk and raging, Toby assaults Marey and her young sister and ends up getting cut by the axe wielding Marey. Toby leaves, but not before mentally scaring the young Marey.
Marey is fed up with mama’s constant strange boyfriends and decides to run away and join the women’s army, even though she isn’t yet 18. At first, she feels out of place. There are not many african american women in the army at this time. There, she goes on all kinds of both fun and terrifying adventures. She makes new friends and a couple of enemies, and even meets a handsome gentleman.
In this story, the point of view switches from the past to the present. The past is seen through Marey’s eyes, and the present is told through her granddaughter Octavia’s eyes. Being an african american woman in the 1940’s, Marey faces not only discrimination because of her gender, but because of her skin color as well. She experiences segregated bathrooms and drinking fountains for the first time when she travels to europe to fight, and has to fight a whole new war...racism.
In my opinion, this book was great at the beginning, fast paced and exciting, and then it sort of slowed down and became boring. Though, i’m not much of a history buff, but if you enjoy history, especially concerning WW2, this is the book for you. See through the eyes of someone who was actually there. This book will take you on an adventure back in time and show you what the world was really like in the 40’s. I would recommend  this book to someone wanting to go on a powerful journey back in time, seen through the eyes of an african american woman.
One part in particular that I liked about this book was the change from “now” to “then” every few chapters. The point of view switches here and there from Mare in the 40’s to her granddaughter Octavia in present day. This added a whole new interesting twist to the book, and made it a little easier to understand. The author can sometimes be vague, but with the changing point of view, some descriptions are a bit clearer.
To conclude, this book was worth my time and I did enjoy following Mare on her journey, although sometimes it was somewhat boring. Again, this book would be best for someone who wanted to know what it was like living during the second world war as an african american woman, rather than someone who just wanted to read for pleasure.