Book Review: The Long March Home by Marcus Brotherton & Tosca Lee

Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire. 

Life in the Philippines seems like paradise - until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as Japanese warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific Theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history. 

What follows will become known as one of the worst atrocities in modern warfare: the Bataan Death March. With no hope of rescue, the three friends vow to make it back home together. But the ordeal is only the beginning of their nearly four-year fight to survive.

Inspired by true stories, The Long March Home is a gripping coming-of-age tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the power of unrelenting hope.

My rating:

Holy cow y'all, I don't know what to say.

The book is intense. Not so intense that most people couldn't handle it, but intense in that it's not for younger readers. War is real, it's ugly, and it's scary. The language was mostly clean - a couple of words thrown in here and there, but not enough to actually bother me.

The dual timeline messed me up at first - they usually do - but while I normally skim-read one timeline to get back to the other, I didn't this time. I definitely preferred the scenes from the war, but reading about Jimmy and Hank and Billy and Charlotte as children, and all the events that led up to this moment...it felt so real.

I suppose that was kind of the point, being inspired by true stories and all, haha.

To be honest, I adored every single one of the characters, and then I realized why: they were humans. There wasn't the holy-mission main character with adorably flawed and endearing side characters. They were all relatable. They all had their fears, they all had their flaws, and they all snuck their way into my heart without warning.

A few random things in the book that stood out to me:

-Jimmy's last name is Propfield, so his nickname is Propper and I love it. Even his COs called him Propper

-Cowboy. Roy. Whatever you want to call him. A minor character but so so good. Such a fantastic big brother

-The whole bit with Jimmy's dad. It added an entire dimension to the story that I'd love to say more about but I will refrain due to spoilers.

-It didn't wrap everything up in a pretty bow but it left me with hope and inspiration all the same

"A gripping coming-of-age tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the power of unrelenting hope." I couldn't have said it better myself.