Reviews with content warning for Rape - In Memoriam

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In Memoriam by Alice Winn

5 reviews

basil_touche's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

I can't remember the last time I had to pause during a book in order to comprehend what I had just read. This novel doesn't hide the gruesome aspects of the war, it's shows it all in detail and even I found it difficult to stomach at times. Characters are introduced and dead within a few pages; some you get to know for huge chunks of the book until suddenly there's a part where you see their obituary or their remains. A lot of topics are covered in this (chivalric mindsets of britain to war pre ww1, queer love, colonalisation, duel identities, classim etc) that it feels like it really captures the period.

But this is also a story about love. Gaunt and Ellwood's relationship throughout is touching as you see them pinning for them in their youth, to their optimism for the war being destroyed once they reach the trenches and then how they slowly start to pick up the pieces after. It's interesting to see how each of their traumas display differently, and surprising too.

I listened to the audiobook and Christian Coulson does a wonderful job throughout. He gives each character a distinct voice, along with pretty accurate accents. I think it truly adds something to the book.

A haunting and beautiful debut for Winn.

Content Warnings

paulawind's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

To be perfectly honest, I expected more of a

kill your gays type of a situation

, especially considering time period,

but I’m so happy I was wrong! The more I think about it, it was the happiest ending that would be realistic in this situation.

We’ll always have Brazil, fuck the Old World.
This book was harrowing. I thought I was ready for the horrors of war after reading All Quiet on the Western Front, but this book only awoke my memories. Why do leaders decide to go to war when it is universally acknowledged that it is only bringing pain and suffering? And we do it all over again, for millennia. Maybe the Greeks got it more, when the war was more about man vs man rather than automated machines against civilians.
Coming to characters, side from them dropping like flies every other chapter, I think the author made us care about every (or almost every) death. The character development for both MCs was absolutely breaking my heart but

I’m so glad they found each other back in the end and are learning to love each other again

An almost complete emotional flip Gaunt and Ellwood did throughout the book hit me like a whiplash, but it was done in a way that it made sense. After all

Gaunt’s prisoners of war camp chapters were the most peaceful and cheerful of the entire book, whereas Elwood was facing bloodbath every day, seeing an orchestrated massacre on a daily basis

One of my favourite moments is when Elwood is screaming poetry at Gaunt, very blatantly professing his love in all meaning but the straightforward one, and Gaunt is so deep in denial that even thought he loved him desperately too, he can’t believe it’s really happening. Those characters in a nutshell. At least for the first part of the book. Later it would be Gaunt being gentle and endlessly patient with Elwood when he struggles to say anything at all and bursting in anger, fighting his ptsd. Gosh, I love those boys so much. Going to pretend that the book ended with “And they lived happily ever after”

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