The Grand Escape is a very interesting historical fiction book that is based on a true event and illustrates what it was like to be a war prisoner in Germany during World War II. The book is very informative and includes several historical pictures that really add to the text. The author, Neal Bascomb does a great job at depicting what it was like to live at the prison camps and to escape from the prison camps. He describes the camps and daring escapes in a way that makes them very fascinating to learn about and keeps you reading. Bascomb also made it interesting to learn all the different escapes and the crazy things the prisoners would do to get out of the terrible prisons that they were in. The book is very suspenseful and the big escape in the second half of the book had me on the edge of my seat.

The book starts out by stating how some of the characters were caught in the war and were taken to the prison camps. Then, the characters meet each other and were moved from camp to camp due to them trying to escape or the Germans needed to organize the prisoner. During this time we got to learn about some of the characters and find out their backgrounds in the war. Then, all the characters end up at a prison called Holzminden. This prison is known for being very hard to escape and is very harsh to the prisoners. They then form a group and work on an escape plan that takes a total of 9 months to complete. They face many challenges like having men being transferred, solving problems with limited resources, and preventing the guards from finding out about their genius plan. In the end, their work pays off when they complete the biggest prison escape during World War II. A total of 29 men plan to escape one of the hardest prisons to escape and the story doesn’t end there. You’ll have to read the book to find out if they make it to freedom and if their plan for escape works.

Neal Bascomb shows his readers that the Germans were not following the rules about war prisoners. The book shows that the prisoners suffered and that they did everything they could to escape the prisons for a better life. I believe the author does a great job of making the reader feel like they are watching the events and keeps the reader entertained by including suspense. You the reader will be pleased with how Bascomb shows the prisoners thought and feeling and the amount of research that Bascomb had to do for this book. If you are interested in what life was like for world war II prisoners then you should pick this book up, because it will be worth your time.