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sarahflanders's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail
kelly_e's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Title: The Woman with the Blue Star
Author: Pam Jenoff
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: May 4, 2021
T H R E E • W O R D S
Shallow • Heartfelt • Convenient
📖 S Y N O P S I S
1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Krakow Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.
Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Krakow restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it's a girl hiding.
Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds.
💭 T H O U G H T S
As an avid historical fiction reader, Pam Jenoff has been an author I have been recommended time and time again, and which I have been meaning to try for quite some time. I already owned several of her novels, and I am not exactly sure what compelled me to start with The Woman with the Blue Star, but upon finishing, I don't think it was the right place to start.
Set in Poland, Jenoff was inspired by the real-life stories of people who escaped to the sewers in order to survive during WWII. I definitely thought this was an interesting aspect of the war that I had yet to read about. To me, the strength was really in that first half, where themes of sacrifice and survival were prominent. The focus definitely shifted around the midway point to more surface level themes of budding friendships and romantic relationships. It constantly felt like a stretch for the author to create events and scenarios to make the story work, which made it harder to believe.
One thing I really appreciated was the exploration of family - both biological and found. There is also a real focus on the people as opposed to the war itself - a reminder that there were individuals and groups trying to help during this incredible dark time in history. Overall, this was a quick and okay read, yet nothing I'd highly recommend. I easily figured out how everything would come to fruition, and given both main characters are young, it read more like young adult than adult fiction. I could see how it would appeal to a younger audience.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who likely unlikely friendships
• WWII historical fiction devotees
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Freedom is where you find it."
Author: Pam Jenoff
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: May 4, 2021
T H R E E • W O R D S
Shallow • Heartfelt • Convenient
📖 S Y N O P S I S
1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Krakow Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.
Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Krakow restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it's a girl hiding.
Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds.
💭 T H O U G H T S
As an avid historical fiction reader, Pam Jenoff has been an author I have been recommended time and time again, and which I have been meaning to try for quite some time. I already owned several of her novels, and I am not exactly sure what compelled me to start with The Woman with the Blue Star, but upon finishing, I don't think it was the right place to start.
Set in Poland, Jenoff was inspired by the real-life stories of people who escaped to the sewers in order to survive during WWII. I definitely thought this was an interesting aspect of the war that I had yet to read about. To me, the strength was really in that first half, where themes of sacrifice and survival were prominent. The focus definitely shifted around the midway point to more surface level themes of budding friendships and romantic relationships. It constantly felt like a stretch for the author to create events and scenarios to make the story work, which made it harder to believe.
One thing I really appreciated was the exploration of family - both biological and found. There is also a real focus on the people as opposed to the war itself - a reminder that there were individuals and groups trying to help during this incredible dark time in history. Overall, this was a quick and okay read, yet nothing I'd highly recommend. I easily figured out how everything would come to fruition, and given both main characters are young, it read more like young adult than adult fiction. I could see how it would appeal to a younger audience.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who likely unlikely friendships
• WWII historical fiction devotees
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Freedom is where you find it."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Medical content
drowningthe_true_monroe's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
5.0
It is rare that a book actually slams me with a wave of emotion. This book sure did that and more. I added it as a favorite before the epilogue was up (I listened to the audiobook). As a Jewish person with roots to the places millions died, including some of my family (although I was not aware of this until a few years ago and need to learn more about who they are), Holocaust based novels mean the world to me because I feel the need to get as many depictions of that time as possible. I need to try to imagine the unimaginable and incomprehensible. And while I know this book was historical fiction, I know there were so many true stories very much similar to the heroism, love and friendship depicted in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Antisemitism, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War
Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, and Classism
ailendb's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism and War
tays_books's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Abandonment
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Dementia
shannay_05's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Antisemitism
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, and War
fromjuliereads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
**Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.**
Generally, historical fiction is not a genre that I venture into. I studied history for my minor in my degree, and my focus was on the World Wars, the Holocaust, and the Russian Revolution and following. I think for those topics, I tend to have a harder time accepting fictional accounts when I have read so many nonfiction memoirs and writings about experiences during those times. I say all of this as a preface, because I think it really does affect my reading of historical fiction in so many ways.
I really liked that the premise for this story came from an actual experience, where Jews had to survive by hiding in the sewers. I like that Jenoff changed the location, and fully appreciated the descriptions of Krakow. I could see some of the streets and the main square that I had walked years ago when I was there, and the walk down into the Jewish quarter, the castle. All of it. The descriptions made it easy to picture in your mind where the characters were in the city.
There were many moments that touched on the reality and tragedy of that time in history, especially in countries in eastern Europe. How different people were affected, the things that they saw and experienced, the numerous people who were lost. And how so much of what the Nazis were doing was kept secret. I also liked the integration of a resistance into the story. That was one of the quotes that I actually wrote down from the book: "Because when people look back on the history of this time, at what happened, they should see that we tried to do something." It was a really powerful quote to include, and it was interesting seeing the timing of the quote in comparison to what came next for the characters and the story.
I did find that at the beginning there were some facts and things about the circumstances, setting up for the story, that became a bit repetitive. There were also some other places that could have been edited down.
My biggest criticism, however, is the character development. There are two main characters, Sadie and Ella. And then there are numerous side characters, including Sadie's parents, Pawel, Pan Rosenburg, Saul, the grandmother, Krys, Ana Lucia, Kara, and others. I found that the majority of the characters are not developed fully though, and I had a really hard time with the characters. Ella was the most developed character with a steady personality. Her decisions were to character, and she was the only character I really felt like we got a good grasp on. Sadie was seemingly the main character along with Ella, but I had an incredibly hard time with her character. Both girls are supposed to be 18-19 through the novel. While I can sympathize that Sadie was in an incredibly difficult, trying, and tragic situation, her character was not developed fully. For that age, she was making incredibly selfish decisions, and doing so many things that put herself and the others around her in danger - and not in a good way. It almost seemed like she had no sense of self-preservation, which seemed very unrealistic to me for someone in her situation. She seemed to oscillate between acting like someone incredibly sure of herself, an adult who made smart and conscientious decisions, to a young child who yelled about things in the sewers that echoed and who couldn't make a decision at all, going back and forth between agreeing with someone's decision and then crying and disagreeing with it. I found it so incredibly hard to put the two personalities together into one character. Her character development just didn't work for me in so many ways.
And then there is the ending. While I understand what the author was trying to do, I found it a bit confusing with the change in the formatting for the chapters, and I struggled with the ending. I liked the full circle from the beginning of the book, but the way that it was ended felt a little loosely done to me. I can't quite explain it without getting into full spoilers, which I don't like to write spoilers in my reviews. I think the point was to make you think the story had ended one way, when in fact it twisted to end a way you hadn't expected. And I can appreciate the attempt - but it really didn't work for me. I wasn't looking for a twist at the end. I think it could have been wrapped up in a different way that would have left things more satisfactory.
But that is all just my opinion.
Also, side note. The evil step mother? Really? I understand why it was relevant to the storyline, but I thought we had kind of moved past that trope...
Anyways, this book could be a good read for anyone who likes historical fiction centering around the Holocaust.
Generally, historical fiction is not a genre that I venture into. I studied history for my minor in my degree, and my focus was on the World Wars, the Holocaust, and the Russian Revolution and following. I think for those topics, I tend to have a harder time accepting fictional accounts when I have read so many nonfiction memoirs and writings about experiences during those times. I say all of this as a preface, because I think it really does affect my reading of historical fiction in so many ways.
I really liked that the premise for this story came from an actual experience, where Jews had to survive by hiding in the sewers. I like that Jenoff changed the location, and fully appreciated the descriptions of Krakow. I could see some of the streets and the main square that I had walked years ago when I was there, and the walk down into the Jewish quarter, the castle. All of it. The descriptions made it easy to picture in your mind where the characters were in the city.
There were many moments that touched on the reality and tragedy of that time in history, especially in countries in eastern Europe. How different people were affected, the things that they saw and experienced, the numerous people who were lost. And how so much of what the Nazis were doing was kept secret. I also liked the integration of a resistance into the story. That was one of the quotes that I actually wrote down from the book: "Because when people look back on the history of this time, at what happened, they should see that we tried to do something." It was a really powerful quote to include, and it was interesting seeing the timing of the quote in comparison to what came next for the characters and the story.
I did find that at the beginning there were some facts and things about the circumstances, setting up for the story, that became a bit repetitive. There were also some other places that could have been edited down.
My biggest criticism, however, is the character development. There are two main characters, Sadie and Ella. And then there are numerous side characters, including Sadie's parents, Pawel, Pan Rosenburg, Saul, the grandmother, Krys, Ana Lucia, Kara, and others. I found that the majority of the characters are not developed fully though, and I had a really hard time with the characters. Ella was the most developed character with a steady personality. Her decisions were to character, and she was the only character I really felt like we got a good grasp on. Sadie was seemingly the main character along with Ella, but I had an incredibly hard time with her character. Both girls are supposed to be 18-19 through the novel. While I can sympathize that Sadie was in an incredibly difficult, trying, and tragic situation, her character was not developed fully. For that age, she was making incredibly selfish decisions, and doing so many things that put herself and the others around her in danger - and not in a good way. It almost seemed like she had no sense of self-preservation, which seemed very unrealistic to me for someone in her situation. She seemed to oscillate between acting like someone incredibly sure of herself, an adult who made smart and conscientious decisions, to a young child who yelled about things in the sewers that echoed and who couldn't make a decision at all, going back and forth between agreeing with someone's decision and then crying and disagreeing with it. I found it so incredibly hard to put the two personalities together into one character. Her character development just didn't work for me in so many ways.
And then there is the ending. While I understand what the author was trying to do, I found it a bit confusing with the change in the formatting for the chapters, and I struggled with the ending. I liked the full circle from the beginning of the book, but the way that it was ended felt a little loosely done to me. I can't quite explain it without getting into full spoilers, which I don't like to write spoilers in my reviews. I think the point was to make you think the story had ended one way, when in fact it twisted to end a way you hadn't expected. And I can appreciate the attempt - but it really didn't work for me. I wasn't looking for a twist at the end. I think it could have been wrapped up in a different way that would have left things more satisfactory.
But that is all just my opinion.
Also, side note. The evil step mother? Really? I understand why it was relevant to the storyline, but I thought we had kind of moved past that trope...
Anyways, this book could be a good read for anyone who likes historical fiction centering around the Holocaust.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Minor: Chronic illness, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Medical content
drowning; I also want to add that the author compares the themes in her novel to the pandemic in her Acknowledgements - which felt like a loose comparison of living in a sewer during the Holocaust to the pandemic. It did make me feel uncomfortable, so just putting that out there in case...irl_bookworms's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This novel is a WWII historical fiction of a Jewish story by a Jewish author. When the Kraków Ghetto is liquidated by the Nazis, Sadie disappears into the sewers with her family, only to become trapped there, with no means of escape. When standing near a grate, Sadie is seen by Ella, an affluent Polish girl, and their lives become intertwined, colliding in a harrowing and powerful friendship that will attempt to set them both free.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve seen most of what there is from WWII Fiction and then a story like this comes along and shines a whole new lens on the people who suffered during this time. Despite being ostracized in their world, Jewishness is celebrated in this novel. Small moments, different practises within neighbouring communities, and resilience all glimmer throughout the novel. Be warned this is a tragic story and one that will twist your heart from the first chapter until the last. Some scenes were a little choppier than others, but overall I really enjoyed this book, and even fell for the final twist at the ending. If you want to read more historical fiction, you can’t go wrong with this novel ❤️
*I received an ARC from HarperCollins Canada in exchange for my honest review*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism
Moderate: Death and Death of parent