The Rebellious Maus and the Pogrom - J.H. Foster - ★★★.¾
AUTHOR: J.H. Foster
SERIES: Rebels and Resistance #0.5
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: June 10, 2025
RATING: 3.75 stars.
In a Nutshell: A prequel story to the Rebels and Resistance series. Good pacing and plot. A bit hurried at times. Offers a good glimpse of the key characters, but could have done with some more detailing in the emotional bits. Regardless, it does its job as a prequel. I am curious to know these interesting characters more through the main novels.
Plot Preview:
April 1933, Austria. Hannah, a fifteen-year-old Jewish orphan, lives under the care of her strict Catholic guardian Herr Weisz. His son Pieter is a part of the SS, which makes the situation at home even more restrictive. Hannah’s only friend is Weisz’s niece Katarina, who is three years older. Katarina convinces Hannah to join her into one last jaunt to the city before they have to return to their respective schools. However, their secret escapade turns dangerous when they are caught in the middle of a violent pogrom. The result: a life-changing day.
The story comes to us in Hannah’s first-person perspective.
‘Rebels and Resistance’ is an upcoming series of two companion novels set during the WWII era, highlighting the efforts of the French Resistance who functioned from the catacombs of Paris. Both books will tell an interconnecting story: ‘Sewing Resistance’ from the perspective of a mother and aimed at adults, and ‘Boy Resisting’ from the perspective of her young son and aimed at older tweens and teens. This concept of a dual-toned narrative appealed greatly to my heart and persuaded me to try a WWII story even though I avoid them these days due to burnout.
This prequel is marked on Goodreads as having 68 pages. But the actual story lasts only till the 55% mark, so maybe about 40 pages. The rest of the book contains an introduction to the series, details about the Kickstarter campaign for this indie collaboration, and the first chapter from each of the two novels.
The story offers us a little background on the main characters of these novels, Hannah and Katarina. Their personalities aren’t exactly the same, but their bond is clear. I was rooting for both of them throughout this tale. Pieter is a typical SS recruit, so there aren’t too many nuances to his character. But Herr Weisz has layers, which I didn’t expect at the start. There’s only one other key character herein. I will allow readers to discover their identity through the story.
As a prequel, this story does a pretty good job of helping us know the characters without going into too much of the backstory – a task best left for the full-length novel. From Hannah’s and Katarina’s interactions, we get to see their attitude towards the Nazis, and the social uncertainty of the times.
The story itself goes by too quickly as the focus is more on the plot than on the characters or miscellaneous descriptions. This is the only point where the prequel could have done better for me. As it is just an introduction to the characters, it doesn’t even go in-depth about their feelings. One particular scene should have felt very disturbing, but the emotions on the page didn’t evoke Hannah’s internal conflict deeply. I expected to feel more as the narrative was in Hannah’s first person. Thus, while the situations created enough apprehension in me, I could not see the same tension reflected in Hannah.
Other than this, I had no issues with this prequel. Despite having only a limited number of characters, it still shows the varied shades of human behaviour. The tale highlights the situation in pre-war Austria, and offers a great glimpse of where the plot will move on next.
If you are wondering who or what the titular ‘Maus’ refers too, you will find the answer in this story.
In short, a prequel that does its job well. Barring the couple of scenes where I wanted a greater emotional impact, it is an effective-enough story within its limited page space and sets the stage for the novels successfully.
Looking forward to getting to know Hannah and Katarina better through the main two books. I have not read J.H. Foster’s works before, whether in this avatar where she writes historical fiction or as “Jan Foster” under which she writes historical fantasy. But based on this prequel, I am curious about her writing; her research skills are already evident to me. I am slightly more familiar with the works of her companion author James Warwood, but I doubt this novel will be anything like his “Truth or Poop” series that my kids and I have enjoyed so much. 😅 I am keen to discover this hidden serious side of the always-humorous James.
My thanks to the authors for providing me with a complimentary copy of “The Rebellious Maus and the Pogrom”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
For details on the Kickstarter campaign and to support a clever indie collaboration, check out
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