Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Alice Network

So good. This book was fascinating to me. I’ve heard of women spies during the wars, and I’ve actually read The Lost Girls of Paris (which I also recommend). So I’ve read a similar historical fiction book before.

I love the intensity of the chapters. I honestly lost a lot of sleep reading this book because I couldn’t put it down. It has been a while since cliffhangers have gotten me so well.

The characters were fantastic. The “bad guy” was truly an evil person, and I loved that. Sometimes you don’t need to build a villain out to have complexity. Sometimes evil can just be evil. Especially in a time of war. And I think in this situation, it worked great. That said, the villain wasn’t a flat character either. They never felt underdeveloped. I always knew their motivations and I think that worked so flawlessly too because of the nature of being a spy means learning someone’s nuances and what makes them tick.

So action-packed — which I loved. But also lots of character development and character growth.

My favorite part (not a spoiler I promise): the representation/depiction of just really cool women. Really badass, intelligent, clever, courageous, interesting women. And knowing it was all based on reality made it even cooler.

Loved this book!

Content Warnings

simsimm's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

lcampbell1003's review

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

As others have said, only one of the two storylines was interesting.

Eve, a spy in WWI, had a fascinating tale based loosely on an actual female spy channel. Charlie’s story on the other hand was about searching for a lost cousin we know nothing about other than some memories that Charlie holds of her. It wasn’t enough to keep me interested for half the book (which at almost 500 pages, dedicating half meant quite a long, drawn-out read).

It was also quite annoying for the author to call Charlie’s baby the “little problem” SO often, essentially giving it that nickname. I am not sure what Charlie’s pregnancy adds to the story either, other than to set her up as a “whore” in a time where such a thing was unacceptable. It was just one continuous reminder that Charlie was intended to be a flawed character, but next to Eve she is a rather spoiled kid.

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