Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Diamond Eye

I usually dislike war and battle books but this was such a rich and riveting view of the life of a sniper and a woman in the Soviet army. It has war, hope, devastation, love, family, death, mystery, suspense, all sorts of stuff. I stayed up to 2:30am for two nights in a row to finish this as soon as possible! I couldn’t put it down.

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saliwali's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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just_jess02's review against another edition

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

5.0

Mila’s story is fierce, bold, heartbreaking, infuriating, encouraging, fascinating, and freeing. It is so much packed into a thrilling page-turner. I imagine it would be even more poignant if I were reading it myself rather than listening.

The narration was crisp and stiff- something I didn’t like at first but once I saw how well it fit the story, it was one of the many aspects that gripped me. The dualities of each character created depth and complexity that had me wondering where many moments would lead. Each relationship and interaction was important and necessary. Is it odd to appreciate the efficiency of a novel?

I enjoyed the exploration of what happens behind the facade of strong, courageous, women who cannot show weakness or softness to the public eye. It is so nice to read a book about a female protagonist that is truly through the female experience and challenges the expectations of the ‘male gaze’ while still incorporating the struggles it causes. Mila is unapologetically brash because she has to be and understanding the inside of her mind during those moments made my heart ache and my conscious confused.

This is so well written, well narrated, and just very engaging overall. It is one you want to sit with and think about but also don’t want to put it down to do so.

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cameronmh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-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

4.5

Really beautiful book— easier to digest than her autobiography, but very faithful. Highly recommend the author’s note to anyone who might normally skip it!

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writteninmagic's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

I was fascinated by the synopsis. I hadn't heard of Senior Sergeant Mila Pavlichenko before, so I found the story to be fascinating. The intense battles and stakeouts from Mila's perspective were really well-written. Throughout Mila's life in the Russian army, she faces sexism from nearly all her fellow soldiers and higher-in-commands, but her skills earn respect from her platoon. They underestimated her based on her appearance and for being a woman, but she showed them how deadly she could be.

Although I did enjoy the book, I thought some parts could have flowed better. Some battle scenes were set starting with the words "watch now as—" which I thought was unnecessary and disrupted the action. There were also the chapters with Mila and the unnamed sniper, with sudden perspective shifts between the two of them from one person's perspective in one paragraph to the next paragraph being from the other character's perspective; it made reading it at times confusing because I would read the next paragraph and then realize it was from the other character's perspective.

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izura's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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kuurankero's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This was very interesting book about the worlds deadliest female sniper in history. Lady death, Ljudmyla Pavlytšenko was unknown to me before reading this. So it was very cool to read about her, and I would love to read Ljudmyla's memoir book now.

My only complain is, that the book focused a lot on her lovers. Especially since one of them was apparently fictional. It would have been great to see less of them and more of Lena (I think thats her name, I listened the audiobook) or Eleanor. I never would have expected a USSR sniper and the first lady of the USA be best friends but thats cool about history. You never know the full story.

This book told me a lot of new information on ww2 and gave me new perpectives. I never knew woman of ussr could fight in the forefront. I definetly want to learn more about the female soldiers of ww2 now. Not that I never wanted before. It's always fun to discover new stories of history.

So I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction! Or if you are interested anyway. Such a great book! I also really liked the finnish audiobook version so be not afraid to listen it :D

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smagzisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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