We Are Not Free

We Are Not Free follows fourteen Japanese-American teenagers from 1942 - 1945 when they're forcibly incarcerated in internment camps.

Fourteen POVs is a lot to pull off, and I'm not sure this book did. I completely understand why this was warranted: the internment of so many thousands upon thousands of people shattered the lives of so many, the effects of which reverberate to this day. Fourteen is a feeble number compared to the reality. Yet I felt as though I never truly got to know any of the characters, and seeing them again through different POVs felt very distanced.

However, it's an incredibly important period of history, and one which I've not seen Young Adult fiction tackle before. 3.5/5.