Series ✦ Penny’s Take
Theatre of War
JEFTANOVIC · 2020
80/100
👍 Worth It
Jeftanovic packs an enormous amount of inherited trauma, lost memory, and family collapse into about 150 pages, using a theatrical staging structure that actually earns its conceit rather than just decorating the prose. Frances Riddle's PEN Award-winning translation is exceptional, and the novel does more emotional work per page than most books three times its length — though readers should know it leaves you genuinely shaken.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: suicide of family members · domestic abuse and PTSD depicted — emotionally harrowing throughout. We still scored it 80; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety60
substance84
craft88
originality85
accuracy80
hype72
age_fit58
human_eye85
Penny’s verdict80
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