he doesn’t shrink from addressing heavy-hitting and still-pertinent topics: racism, the horrors of war, women’s subjugated role in society. Berry showcases her masterful storytelling ability. The four humans suffer great losses throughout the course of this saga, driving home Aphrodite’s eloquent point that everyone, human and god alike, is entitled to love and be loved, no matter his or her imperfections. And it’s Hazel who introduces the other couple to each other: YMCA relief worker Colette Fournier, a Belgian orphan whose family was killed by the Germans, and ragtime/jazz musician Aubrey Edwards, an African American doughboy from Harlem. Eighteen-year-old Hazel Windicott meets nineteen-year-old James Alderidge when she’s playing piano at a parish dance in her London neighborhood a week before he’s set to report for military service in France. With pathos and wit, Aphrodite relates two intertwined love stories involving four mortals swept up in World War I. When the Greek god of fire, Hephaestus, catches his wife Aphrodite, goddess of love, in 1942 Manhattan in a passionate affair with his brother Ares, god of war, Aphrodite defends her actions by showing the two gods what real love looks like.
It’s got the emotional immediacy that appeals to young readers, paired with the deep-dive historical details that adults lap up like cream.
Julie Berry’s Lovely War is just that: a soaring story of the love and aspirations of young people, set amidst the horrors of World War I. Library services for youth is my stock-in-trade, and while I love playing matchmaker with books and young readers, there’s also a special thrill when I find a young adult book with strong crossover appeal for adults.
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