A review by bookshelvesandtealeaves
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

dark emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Thank you to Penguin UK and Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Let me tell you, this book WRECKED me. I am obsessed and I shall never recover.

Alice Winn paints an achingly beautiful, vivid, horrific story with In Memoriam. It’s a story of love, of fear, of grief, and of human complexities. And obviously, it’s a story about war, one that doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities while still managing to feel hopeful at times and funny at others.

Gaunt and Ellwood are both such vibrant, realistic characters with so much depth to them that it feels more like a true story than fiction. Their lives together, then separate, then together again felt consistently like reading about close personal friends and all I could hope was that they would be reunited so the three of us could be together again. I felt so deeply connected to these characters that it was hard to want to put the book down, and hard to turn that final page.

I think what I’m most grateful for is the ending. Both these boys (and they really are only boys) come back from the war broken and damaged and changed almost beyond recognition, and yet they still get a hopeful ending, if not a happy one. That last line had me crying happy, hopeful, messy tears.

This is a beautiful piece of historical fiction and I can not recommend it enough. I’m sure this will remain one of my favourite reads of the year.