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A review by marshmallowbooks
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
3.0
I give this 3.5 stars. It's a fictionalized account of the all too real "Rabbit Girls" of Ravensbruck concentration camp. Told from three points of view, two of which are real people involved in these events, this novel covers a lot of ground, and quite a time frame: from years leading up to the war through more than a decade beyond. More of the story could be told that way, which I appreciated as a reminder that the stories of war and its atrocities didn't end with liberation.
Hearing the story from three very different perspectives (American, Polish, and German) really gave depth to the story and the events going on. I knocked down my rating a bit because I didn't like at at one point, maybe 2/3 of the way through, one of the perspectives drops out completely. I think that hearing from that person more could have been really interesting.
Another reason I dropped the rating a bit is because things slowed down for me in the middle, almost the point that I didn't finish. Instead of stopping, I sped up the audio a bit and powered through, and I'm glad I did. I think what got to me was, because of the amount of time that is covered in the book, for some stretches it seemed like everything was glossed over and barely mentioned. Of course that's necessary to speed things along and get to where more information can be shared. But it also means there was an entire section that seemed to have not point or climax or anything, just getting from A to B. During those sections, since there was nothing happening, the story flat-lined for a bit in my opinion.
Hearing the story from three very different perspectives (American, Polish, and German) really gave depth to the story and the events going on. I knocked down my rating a bit because I didn't like at at one point, maybe 2/3 of the way through, one of the perspectives drops out completely. I think that hearing from that person more could have been really interesting.
Another reason I dropped the rating a bit is because things slowed down for me in the middle, almost the point that I didn't finish. Instead of stopping, I sped up the audio a bit and powered through, and I'm glad I did. I think what got to me was, because of the amount of time that is covered in the book, for some stretches it seemed like everything was glossed over and barely mentioned. Of course that's necessary to speed things along and get to where more information can be shared. But it also means there was an entire section that seemed to have not point or climax or anything, just getting from A to B. During those sections, since there was nothing happening, the story flat-lined for a bit in my opinion.