Wellington teenager Bella Fraei reviews Millie Bobby Brown's debut book Nineteen Steps.
Video / Canvas
Bella Fraei is a Wellington teenager who, in a column for Canvas, reviews YA books.
Nineteen steps is Millie Bobby Brown’s debut book and it was co-authored by ghost writer Kathleen McGurl. It is about an 18-year-old girl called Nellie, who had a completely normal and enjoyable life until thebeginning of World War II. As the war rages on it portrays the struggles with life. It shows the path that she takes to overcome the tragedies she has experienced to lead a happy and wholesome life.
Throughout the first few pages I was discouraged to read it because it seemed like an old-fashioned autobiography and rather boring. But as I carried on with the first chapter I wanted to read it rather than feeling like I had to. The reason was that it wasn’t too complicated and the words were simple. It also wasn’t too old-fashioned to understand. I was also able to easily envision what the surroundings and people looked like because they were written in a way that was easy to imagine or relate to.
My favourite character had to be Nellie. It seems as though that would be the obvious choice and not very creative but she is actually a really likeable and relatable person who is kind and can reflect on her mistakes but isn’t afraid to push matters that are important to her or put a man in his place - especially in that day and age.
One of the best things is when she is so selfless that even when the person she was madly in love with comes back from the dead. She still decides to marry her fiance, Billy, because she knew it would destroy him otherwise. And it’s because of this that Billy ends up letting her go to her one true love (Ray) because he didn’t want her to have to live in regret her whole life. And as the couple run down the road, reunited at last, and with Nellie still in her wedding dress they share one last “melting” kiss.
I felt strongly about the matters going on and I was easily able to side with Nellie. That is part of how you know it’s a good book. One of the things I felt heavily about was that Nellie loved Billy but was in love with Ray. So when Nellie was told that Ray was dead, I didn’t think it was true because no one actually confirmed that he was, all they saw was the plane fall. It turns out that this was true and I was relieved, because it meant Nellie wasn’t stuck living the quiet life in Bethnal Green, with the boy next door when deep down she wanted to travel.
The main traumatic disaster was actually based on real events that were shocking to learn about. It was really captivating to read but extremely sad to see how the events slowly unravelled and that there was nothing that could be done to stop it. The thing I took away from this scene was someone had said, “These were needless, unnecessary and unwanted deaths, and people are dead even though there were no actual injuries suffered.” It was completely true and I felt so bad for Nellie and her family when it happened, especially because they had only recently got over another traumatic event.
Overall I give it a 10/10. It was gripping and exciting as well as sad to read. I would highly recommend this to my friends and to adults as well, but because of the amount of sad death that happens and the fact there is a war going on, I wouldn’t give it to children under the age of around 12. Also because they would probably find it boring. The largest thing I took away was to take your chances while you have them because you never know what’ll happen between now and then.
