The Borrowed House by Hilda van Stockum

First of all, I would like to start this blog post off with my most sincere apologies to my sister Irene, who has honestly been doing all the work on here. Although I do have somewhat legitimate excuses, those excuses always had a break in between where I could have, maybe, quite possibly, written a short and sweet blog post, like the one I am doing today.

So, with that out of the way, I shall begin my 'feelings splurge' about the most enchanting, mesmerizing, and honestly, kinda nostalgic (in a non-nostalgic way, if you catch my drift), novel I have ever read!

"The Borrowed House" by Hilda van Stockum

 

If any of you have ever read a Hilda van Stockum novel, you know what I mean when I say 'enchanting' (if you haven't read one, you might wanna get crackin'). This applies to almost all of her books (I can't say for sure because I have not read them all), but this one especially. 

 

For a brief summary, 'The Borrowed House' (set in WW2) is about a young German girl named Janna, currently being looked after by a nanny, who thinks Hitler is the most wonderful person in all of creation (obviously didn't do much research).  Her parents, who are two famous German actors, eventually send for her and she moves into a big old house in Amsterdam. Unfortunately for her, they have to share it with a rather disagreeable couple and their annoying son, Heinz. As she leads a rather lonely life with her parents always off doing plays she begins to notice rather strange things, like how the third story is smaller than the fourth, and how there is an extra meatball being cooked when there are no guests arriving. However, being the unsuspecting child that she is, Janna thinks nothing of it...That is until a game of hide-and-go-seek sends her stumbling through her big old wardrobe into a hidden room. A hidden room with a rather charming and good looking forger. His name is Sef, and he helps forge papers for the Dutch resistance to save Jews. Janna, still being extremely lonely, decides to keep Sef's secret and they soon become close friends, but with that friendship the truth about Hitler and the war is slowly revealed to Janna and she begins to realize that everything she ever learned was a total lie.

I don't want to spoil too much, so I won't go into any more detail on the plot. HOWever, I will go into more detail on why this book is so amazing and how you really need to go and read it right now.

To start off, the inner 'child' is brought to life inside of you, especially when Janna finds Sef. I mean, who didn't dream as a little kid that they would find a strange person in  a hidden room in their house and become close friends with them? You didn't? Well then, you really missed out, 'cause I remember imagining that and it was always a blast! There's just that small ounce of 'I want something completely out of the ordinary to happen' inside of everyone, and that's one thing I love about all of Hilda van Stockum's books, not just 'The Borrowed House'. She portrays what everyone remembers about their childhood, with maybe a little extra jam spread on top of that, because how many of you found a strange boy hiding in a hidden room in your house? I only found a strange girl hiding under my bed, then I realized it was my sister.

Aaaaanyway, moving on, the second most amazing thing about this book, is Sef. I'm just gonna go ahead and fan girl right here, 'cause he's SPECTACULAR! Everything about him just speaks 'AWESOME!', as Janna would quite agree. A little fun thing that the author put in the book, which I think added a perfect touch, is that Janna is obsessed with the story 'The Nibelungen' and she thinks the main character of that book, Siegfried, is the best thing since sliced bread. Now for those of you who are not up to date (or out of date?) with German culture, the Nibelungen is probably one of the most famous works of German literature, like, ever. I once watched an eight hour silent film version from the 30's, was not impressed, and in that aspect, Sef and I are completely on the same page. Siegfried is the hero in that story and Janna likes to imagine that Sef is Siegfried, much to his chagrin. Anyway, at some point in the story, something happens (I won't say what, 'cause spoilers) and Janna's image of Sef being this amazing vision of Siegfried come to life is completely crushed. Needless to say, Sef and I were very relieved after that (we're very close). Getting back to the point, Sef's whole attitude and demeanor and attitude towards everything is just so 'on point', 'iffin ya know what I mean.

The third most amazing thing about this book is that, despite it having nothing to do with fairy tales and being a completely different genre, it still gives off those magical fairy tale vibes that make any story ten times more stupendous! Irene and I were just discussing this because I randomly picked the book up this morning and read through the whole thing for the billionth time in one day, but we agreed that 'The Borrowed House' has earned it's keep on our list of truly magical stories. It is a truly magical book, and it will leave you with a strange sort of longing. If you're the type of person that likes to feel that longing, I suggest you read this book! (Along with the rest of Hilda van Stockum's books)

Whelp, that's my fairly 'short and sweet' blog post about one of my favorite novels ever and I hope you realized just what you're missing and quickly order this book from your local library. Seriously, you will not regret it.

Lots of well wishes and roses!

- Anna