charisegrace's review against another edition
5.0
Sometimes odd but brilliant.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a Union supporter who lived in Richmond during the civil war. She was shunned, threatened, mocked, constantly in danger of being arrested and through it all she kept working as a spy and trying to better the lives of the Union soldiers in Libby prison.
Elizabeth was a lonely, proud, tortured genius and a very complex woman. Just as she was overlooked during the civil war for being a single woman in her forties so she is also overlooked now. I'm very glad that I was able to learn more about this incredible woman.
I did find the ghost sections quite jarring at first (and those strange Scarlet O'Hara cameos!) but I appreciate now how they gave Elizabeth a voice in the future as well.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a Union supporter who lived in Richmond during the civil war. She was shunned, threatened, mocked, constantly in danger of being arrested and through it all she kept working as a spy and trying to better the lives of the Union soldiers in Libby prison.
Elizabeth was a lonely, proud, tortured genius and a very complex woman. Just as she was overlooked during the civil war for being a single woman in her forties so she is also overlooked now. I'm very glad that I was able to learn more about this incredible woman.
I did find the ghost sections quite jarring at first (and those strange Scarlet O'Hara cameos!) but I appreciate now how they gave Elizabeth a voice in the future as well.
lauraellis's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book of the Union underground in Richmond, told by the ghost of the prime leader, a spinster living with her brother and her widowed mother in a decaying mansion. I found the story compelling, so compelling that it overcame my frustration with the author's choice to have a ghost as a narrator and to jump back and forth in time, rather than telling the story chronologically. Even months after reading it, I find it resurfacing it in my mind and I think that I may look for a copy to add to my library and re-read. This is not a part of the Civil War that often gets told.
gracecharise's review
5.0
Sometimes odd but brilliant.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a Union supporter who lived in Richmond during the civil war. She was shunned, threatened, mocked, constantly in danger of being arrested and through it all she kept working as a spy and trying to better the lives of the Union soldiers in Libby prison.
Elizabeth was a lonely, proud, tortured genius and a very complex woman. Just as she was overlooked during the civil war for being a single woman in her forties so she is also overlooked now. I'm very glad that I was able to learn more about this incredible woman.
I did find the ghost sections quite jarring at first (and those strange Scarlet O'Hara cameos!) but I appreciate now how they gave Elizabeth a voice in the future as well.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a Union supporter who lived in Richmond during the civil war. She was shunned, threatened, mocked, constantly in danger of being arrested and through it all she kept working as a spy and trying to better the lives of the Union soldiers in Libby prison.
Elizabeth was a lonely, proud, tortured genius and a very complex woman. Just as she was overlooked during the civil war for being a single woman in her forties so she is also overlooked now. I'm very glad that I was able to learn more about this incredible woman.
I did find the ghost sections quite jarring at first (and those strange Scarlet O'Hara cameos!) but I appreciate now how they gave Elizabeth a voice in the future as well.
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