Judenrein by Harold Benjamin
Publication Date : March 25th 2020
Publisher : Intrados Publishing
Genre : Dystopia / Thriller
Pages : 386
Zack Gurevitz has had a checkered past. A Yeshiva boy, turned Green Beret, turned junkie, excommunicated by his one-time faith and now the potential savior of people he doesn’t even like.
As a white supremacist movement stealthily takes the reins of power in America, it is again the Jews who are made out as scapegoats. Stripped of wealth and citizenship, they are made to live in 21st century ghettos that hark back to a sinister and murky past that many had thought would never return.
But things are about to get much worse. With the revealing of a planned terror attack that will place the blame firmly at Jewish feet and condemn millions to death, Zack is contacted by Jewish leaders in Detroit, begging for his help.
Reluctantly he agrees and before long he is mired in a conspiracy that will have far reaching consequences for his country, the Jewish population and even his own sanity.
As the clock ticks down, can Zack find a way to avert a looming disaster? Who is behind the conspiracy? And can he really trust anyone?
*** Note: I received e-ARC via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley. ***
Judenrein was terrifying dystopia thriller set in 21st century America run by Neo Nazi White Supremist. It was about white supremacy, fascism, right-wing extremism, Nazism, and terrorism.
Writing was gripping, easy to follow, and to the point. Short chapters made it fast paced and quick read. It was written in multiple third person narrative mainly from main characters’ perspective -Zack and Agent Matthews- and also intermittent secondary characters and villain’s POV.
Book started with a man being shot that made me think who he was and why. Next we are taken back 5 days back from where all story started introducing readers to each characters, their current life and what is going on in America after rise of Pete Kasprzyks and how ex-military neo-nazis were now working in government planning terror attack.
Zack was G battalion’s best Jewish solider, now was on methadone program. He saw Jewish being homeless, jobless, penniless and stateless after rise of Pete and country supporting his ‘88wh1te’ white supremist group while labelling every Jewish terrorist or supporter of terrorist organisation. He didn’t know why he was spared from Jewish hate but when he was found by orthodox Jewish leaders at Detroit compound and was given a mission to find out more about attack, things got worse for him.
Agent Matthews was hedge fund manager who made her way up the rank of FBI. She was put on administrative leave after a mission went wrong but she was given another chance through off the book assignment which was from Colonel Hollis Weld.
Now Weld was the one who orchestrating whole performance of terror attack. But how and when was mystery. I was curious to find out what Weld’s plan was, how her and his men were going to use Zack and Agent Mathews and how they both would discover Weld’s plan and stop it.
Zack was amazing throughout the book. He gave Rambo feel, surviving on his own many harrowing situations and discovering villains’ plan as he went deeper in his mission. His encounter with Matthews were fun to read. Agent Matthews was not sure if Zack murdered her partner or not and how he was involved but when her suspicion about Weld and his junkies were confirmed she started believing Zack. I liked the way she found out the truth and how she helped Zack. They made great duo in book. I wish I could see them more. I liked Zack’s friends Wiggy who was brilliant hacker and Rosenblatt, Zack’s childhood friend living in Jews camp in Detroit.
This was plot driven story. Characters were there to play their role. If you want to connect with characters, you would be disappointed. There wasn’t much background story, only enough information about them to keep the story going and to understand their current situation and mental state. But still they were realistic and I enjoyed reading their part in story and made me root for Zack and Matthews.
World was frightening and yet interesting to read. Jews, blacks, Latinos were rounded up in a camp striped off their rights and citizenship after catalysing crisis and making Jews a threat to nation. White supremist were now planning third phase of Reichsadler with ultimate goal of making America Judenrein (free of Jews) forever and non-white free. I was shocked at seeing these supremist repeating history with their extremely racist view and behaviour.
It was baffling to see people electing a racist president and believing all they said throwing their logic out of window. It was all very prophetic and vividly written with a bit about Jews culture and religion. It made me think can this really happen, can people be that stupid to elect such president and believe every word he says and drive their hate towards particular community in name of patriotism? Answer is simple and terrifying, yes or maybe.
Mystery and suspense were brilliant. I wasn’t sure what their whole plan was. Characters were misled along with reader, were put in situations that made me anxious for them and kept me wondering how the hell they were going to stop the attack.
Events before and after climax were action packed and adrenalin inducing. They made me impatient to read all detail on what characters were doing and how they were carrying out action. I just wanted to reach to important point. End was good but also unbelievable. I’m struggling to believe how they wrapped or rather covered whole thing after Zack and Matthews saved the day.
Overall,
Judenrein was powerful, thought-provoking, and fast paced thriller filled with suspense and action packed. I highly recommend this to fans of dystopia thriller.
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I hope you enjoyed this review. Let me know what do you think about the book, if you have read this already or going to add it to TBR? Have you read a book featuring supremist government or Nazism?
Happy Reading!
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