Reviews

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

krismcd59's review against another edition

4.0

This account of the horrors of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp from the point of view of a young American pilot doesn't quite pack the narrative punch of Wein's bestselling [b:Code Name Verity|11925514|Code Name Verity|Elizabeth Wein|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388161911s/11925514.jpg|16885788], but it's well-written and absorbing, and Rose's poems are the most memorable part of her story. Wein's research is impressive, and it's to be hoped that her list of resources at the end of the novel inspires young readers to learn more about this awful chapter of history.

apousson's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

heather1999's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

scrapbookbug's review against another edition

3.0

well, I think I got this instead of the first book in Mercedes Lackey Elemental mages series, BUT it was a good book. The characters were very interesting and strong. I am not a big fan of WWII literature, it can be so very depressing. But, she treated the subject really well. It was realistic without being horror movie gory to make her point. Strong female characters. Actually, mostly female characters to begin with! It was classed as YA from the library, but it wasn't obviously YA as some are. This was not an author who was talking down to her audience.

pswords72's review against another edition

5.0

I couldn't stop listening! A heartbreaking, heartwarming, emotional story.

onetrooluff's review against another edition

5.0

Ohhhhhhh boy. This book really floored me. It covers an incredibly difficult, sensitive, gruesome topic in a very humane way. While Code Name Verity half-destroyed me, this horrifying tale of the Ravensbruck women's concentration camp drew me right in, taught me some things I didn't know, and yet managed to leave me remaining hopeful.

It's so important that younger readers get reminded that these things happened - not to people from hundreds of years ago, but in the era of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

I highly, highly recommend this one.

katyboo52's review against another edition

5.0

This is a fantastic book. Well paced and gripping. Even though, because of the way it's written, you know everything will be ok in the end, it's still heart in the mouth stuff at times and is genuinely tense. I have the third book to read as a proof and wanted to make sure I'd read the other books in the series first. Am now really excited to read the next book. This book can be read as a standalone adventure, but the characters recur from the first book and you get a much richer background to the book if you've read Codename Verity first.

lmeshula's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Beautiful writing and a well-told story. Tough to read at times because of the subject matter (this book follows a group of women in a prison camp) but the characters were well developed and was interesting enough to keep me reading.

g00sereads's review against another edition

5.0

will elizabeth wein ever write a book that's not perfect???? i don't think so
once again an incredible book that taught me so much about life, history, and human nature
i cried like 10 times and i'll probably be thinking about it for the next month
can't wait to read the enigma game and give it five stars too

wanderlustlover's review against another edition

4.0

I am so very torn on what to rate this one. Part One and Part Three are solid 5's, or at least 4.5's. But Part Two has such a glaring formatting problem that it kept distracting me from being able to be immersed in the book at all. Which was sad to see, since Wein did glorious things with formatting in her first book, and even did 75% of glorious formatting in this one. The formatting just slipped way too hard for the convenience of ramming the main story out too fast in the middle, without it's outter box context and situational placement.

I deeply appreciate the topic of her novels, but I'm not move to deep sensationalism of my points to that because I've read a lot of books on these topics all through my life. I even just finished read/re-reading Maus only a month ago. And I had another piece related to it right before I picked up these books, too. They were very well done for the "I" point of view of one young girl, even when I felt certain parts of it were more convient and neater than history shows it might have been.

There were several moments I got misty eyed, but the only place that I lost my one tear to the book was the first time a certain character cried in Part Three. I love the poetry throughout it. I love the raw emotion. I love the continued listing of the named throughout each section until you have every single girl's name who was etched inside of their minds and hearts left with you when you walked away from the book. Also, the afterward was a great addition to it. Saying what was real and what wasn't, and whose names were the absolute to history ones.