After being disappointed with CODE NAME VERITY, which I considered a fluke, I was ecstatic for PRISONER OF NIGHT AND FOG. Especially since this one had somewhat of a focus on Hitler, who is probably the most grotesquely fascinating human in the WWII era. Unfortunately, all I felt for this one was indifference. 
 Characters in a gif: 
 Gretchen 
 Poor Gretchen, seriously. Her father was supposedly shot protecting Adolf Hitler, her mother basically couldn't care less about her, and her brother amuses himself by playing cruel tricks on her that often go way too far. She is Hitler's golden girl, and he appears to love her like a daughter. However, when things start to hit the fan, Gretchen realizes who is truly on her side: almost no one. So yes, things really can get worse for Gretchen. 
 Gretchen was kind of hard to relate to, which in turn made me care less about her overall. Her "brave" decisions seemed the opposite, and she kept throwing herself into danger to find out the truth about her father's murder. (Which isn't going to bring him back but I guess that's not really the point here) I did find myself really feeling for her situation though, particularly when she was at rock bottom. 
 Daniel 
 Daniel is a reporter, and a Jew, so there is a whole forbidden romance angle that I usually eat up. However, I found that their "enemy to something more" relationship seemed to develop a bit fast. They meet twice and then all Gretchen can think about is kissing him and she's suddenly smitten when before she didn't even want to touch him because she had been taught to see Jews as monsters. The relationship aside, Daniel is an easy character to like. He's kind, empathetic, and handsome-which never hurts. 
 ~ 
 Anyway, the thing I probably enjoyed most about this one was Hitler's portrayal. You got a see a different side of him-a side his friends and family most likely did see. It was amazing to see how he changes through Gretchen's eyes as the story goes on and we see him as we really knew him to be. 
 As for the plot, there was not a whole lot going on for this one to be four hundred pages. It was very slow at times, and the chunky paragraphs loaded the pacing down even more. The descriptive writing is really beautiful for a while, but page after page of it and it became tiring when there was no dialogue to break it up. I think it was much too long for what it was. 
 It's a good historical read if you are interested in the era and have some patience to spare.