A review by bnelson13
Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

This was a very hard but very wonderful book to read. I always enjoy stories where it jumps between timelines, telling a story of the main character in the past and then the main character in the future until they finally meet up in the present, and this one was very well done. A lot of heavy topics in this book, not only of a much older man r*ping a young girl in his care and the consequences of that, but also some of the atrocities of WWII and the Nazi treatment of people with diversabilities. It also deals with forced sterilization and eugenics, both during the war in Europe, but also taking place in the United States. 

Susan Meissner did a wonderful job telling the stories of Rosanne and Helen, and I found that this was a hard book to put down. My heart broke over and over for Rosanne and Helen, and the others of this story, but I'm so wonderfully happy that I was able to read it. It's a really powerful story.
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