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A review by knaglieri
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
2.0
I wish I could properly express how disappointed I was in this book, especially after really liking Code Name Verity. Part of the problem, I know, was the horrible audiobook narrator... I've listened to A LOT of books, and she was one of the worst. Her accents were atrocious, especially for Rosia, and there were so many times I thought, "wait, HOW did she just pronounce that??" As an audiobook narrator, pretty much your WHOLE JOB is correctly pronouncing words. Listening to her say, among others, "macaber" for macabre and "skeLEEtal" for skeletal (more than once!) was just too much. Even Rose's American accent was just wrong at times.
But even without the poor narration, I wouldn't have liked this one. I didn't think the journal format worked this time around and I absolutely HATED the poems, and they were far too numerous. And the girl scout songs were so cringe-inducing. But beyond that, the story just didn't move me. Given the subject, it should have I guess, but I never really FELT it, plus I didn't especially like Rose and had a hard time keeping the other prisoners straight. And I got so angry every time Rose would touch on something difficult, which would pique my interest, only to say "I just can't write about it." It happened several times and just seemed like lazy writing by the author.
2 stars for historical accuracy, but that's it.
But even without the poor narration, I wouldn't have liked this one. I didn't think the journal format worked this time around and I absolutely HATED the poems, and they were far too numerous. And the girl scout songs were so cringe-inducing. But beyond that, the story just didn't move me. Given the subject, it should have I guess, but I never really FELT it, plus I didn't especially like Rose and had a hard time keeping the other prisoners straight. And I got so angry every time Rose would touch on something difficult, which would pique my interest, only to say "I just can't write about it." It happened several times and just seemed like lazy writing by the author.
2 stars for historical accuracy, but that's it.