Having read both books and finding positive merits in both, I would have to say that We Were Liars is by far the much better book for young adults to read. At this point I believe that I might have to apologize to some of my colleagues with whom I battled toe to toe in order to keep Nazi Hunters in the Smackdown race, but that was in the earlier stages of the contest when it was up against a much weaker selection. In this case however, Nazi Hunters does not have the qualities to compete with We Were Liars. The depth of detail and characterization in each story alone is enough to push We Were Liars to the front of this contest. Each person in the Liars was developed with connects (either like or dislike) are created for the reader. Questions such as "Is being rich really the wonderful life that we fantasize about?". "If I were the Grandfather could I forgive that much?" In Nazi Hunters, Eichmann is never really portrayed as "a bad man"... more like just someone going off to do his normal daily job. I felt that because of this the characters are flatter and hard for the reader to make meaningful attachments.
If our goal is to find a book that will grab the attention of young adults then the choice should have been We Were Liars. Unfortunately, this is not the case. So to rectify this choice - my zombie pick is We Were Liars.
We wanted to create a way where we could read a few books, learn about many titles and have fun doing it! The tournament style reading of the Mighty Smackdown means that in the first round each participant reads two books, discusses both in a blog post, selecting one book to move on to the next round. Teachers are asked to commit to one round but most, if not all, continue on. We will read to the end when we will have only one book left standing!
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