Reviews

Citadel by Kate Mosse

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This is my fifth Kate Mosse novel and the one I've liked the least by far. I almost DNF-ed it on numerous occasions, even when I was 90% through it. To start with, I'm not a fan of fiction based on true events, especially WW2, and above all when the storyline consists of the goodies constantly trying to escape the baddies. It became so repetitive and exhausting after a while. I found it very difficult to stay focused right from the beginning, with so many characters being presented at once and then a whole load of others cropping up constantly throughout, some that are only mentioned once but with the suggestion that we're supposed to know who they are. While I applaud the attempt to bring to the fore the women whose fight against different invaders has been painted out of history, it was all just a bit too clichéd, especially their romantic relationships. The disjointed descriptions made it really hard for me to picture the places described, even though I've visited the area. My overall impression when I got to the end was that yes, I should've DNF-ed it after the first few of the 700 pages and spent my time on something else.

monchandtherats's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

emmererr's review

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5.0

I read it and then I cried in the shower.

littlealk7's review against another edition

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4.0

I am not quite sure where to begin, so here goes. It took me forever to start reading this book. I would pick it up and try so hard to get past the prologue and I just couldn't do it. Months went by. A year passed. Still, every time I tried, nothing made sense and it didn't hook me right away. Then I had a baby and needed something to read one night while I was awake with him. I though "hey, let me download the sample of that book I've been trying to read, and maybe I'll get through it since I have nothing else to do while this baby eats and sleeps!"

I'm so glad I did that. Once you get past that beginning bit, those 700 remaining pages just fly by. I took off a star for two reasons. First, the difficultly getting into it, but second, another issue in general that I have is the style of Kate Mosse's descriptive sections. The paragraphs of sentence fragments were difficult for me to get through.

The dialogue in the book, however, is excellent, as many other reviewers pointed out, and I actually enjoyed the jumps back to 342 AD (the book is mostly set in German occupied France during WW2). Mosse did a beautiful job paralleling the two stories, and subtly tying them together. I disagree with all the reviewers who said that they thought she had enough of a story without the codex sections. Those parts added a dimension to the book that made the supernatural aspect of it a bit more palatable, so I think it actually played a very important role

I'm not sure how I feel about the end, but it touched me deeply such that, as I sit here and watch my baby boy sleep, I'm playing the last few chapters over and over in my mind hoping that such war and destruction of a people is never part of his life.

This is my first Kate Mosse book, and I plan to read more of her work after this. If the other books are better, as others have indicated, I'm excited!

saraheholtom's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

4.0

hijinx_abound's review

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3.0

Audiobook . This book is a WWII historical fiction novel. It is book 3 in a series but I had no idea when I picked it up. I haven't read the other two and I understood the story just fine.
Sondrine is an 18 year old french girl living in occupied France. She lives with her older sister and housekeeper. Her mother died when she was young and her father was killed in the war. She finds herself in the middle of the French resistance and the story unfolds from there.
It is a gritty, yet beautifully written story. It is a very dense book (150 + chapters). This story is interwoven with the story from the past of important religious texts being smuggled out of churches in 400 A.D. It does take a slightly paranormal-y turn but it is more about how women served the resistance during WWII.