A review by youcancallmefi
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

5.0

 

Fans of Swimming in the Dark, pick this one up. Please. 

How can this be a debut? How can someone harness the power of fleshing out something so beautiful, tender and raw on the background of the devastation of war? 

Maybe it’s because I’m a born pessimist, I tend to hold on to the bad things and bad outcomes. By no reason, go to this book thinking there is a happy ending. Everything here is bittersweet, yet, there is so much love, purity and gentleness. 

When I think about this book, the word that comes to my head is bonds. This story is about bonds and relationships. The main one, between our two boys but also the people that cross their paths, the comrades, the enemies and their family. Bonds of friendship, hate and love. But also bonds between self, coming of age and sexuality with one another and themselves. 

I admire the reverence the author dealt with this story and the amount of research and love poured into it. It made me smile, laugh, scream and cry, sometimes in one go.  Particularly in the scenes where secondary characters learned about the sexuality and relationship of out two MC’s and the support showed by so many. 

Although the narrative is not linear, it was not hard to follow and the pacing was excellent in my opinion. It allows the reader to truly understand the main characters. I was dreading letting them go and I’m already itching to read them again, although it will break my already fragmented heart. 

Be aware there is vivid and gore depictions of war and it’s physical and emotional traumas, so if these are themes that you are sensitive to, proceed with caution. 

In Memoriam is a poignant and tender portrait of love in despair, one that has found a home in my reader heart forever.