Reviews

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

vivi85's review

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4.0

Read as an audiobook. Kathleen Gati narrating Kasia made this an incredible listen. Very good acting.

tehmegan's review

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3.0

This book was difficult to endure. I didn't like Caroline at all and it wasn't until I was almost finished with the book that I learned that Caroline Ferriday was a real person. While I respected her actions, as a character in a book, I still didn't like her. Herta and Kasia were the real story for me.

I appreciated the German perspective in this book that you rarely get from most WW2 novels. I was horrified at the descriptions of the procedures that took place at concentration camps but I appreciated the explanation of the reasoning behind the experiments (although still no excuse).

The ending made me bump this book from 2 to 3 stars. I appreciated the way it wrapped up and that Kasia was vindicated.

catena724's review

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3.0

3.5 stars
part 2 moves along faster, part 1 is wordy, and some chapters seemed to drag on without any plot development. I almost gave up about halfway through.

navitia's review

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5.0

I will admit this book was not what I thought it would be. I really enjoyed reading about Caroline, Kasia and Herta. Even though some parts of this book I found disturbing I kept reading. I wanted very much to know more about Kasia's mother. I didn't know it was based on a true story till around page 300 when I stopped reading to check some facts. This book tells a part of a different area of WWII I had not known much about, so I dove into reading about The Rabbits and Caroline Ferriday. These women deserve more than a slight mention in history. They deserve chapters if not entire books. I recommend this to anyone who likes reading about WWII.

nancyflanagan's review

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4.0

Knowing that the story was based on real characters and actual events made the reading much more interesting. The author did copious research on Caroline Ferriday and Herta Oberhauser. Occasionally, she succumbed to the historical fiction writer’s temptation to add too many historical details, slowing the story down, but the subject matter (experiments done on Polish girls at Ravensbruck concentration camp) was engaging and the narrative generally flowed.

njnk_59's review against another edition

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3.0

I despise multiple POV books. It feels lazy to me.

The story was OK, but part wrapped up too nicely and neatly, and part indicating ignoring crimes against humanity is pretty much SOP.

ajrb1983's review

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4.0

I have started this book so many times, but I kept pushing it down the list because of book clubs. This time I was determined to finish. Not going to lie, I almost stopped. I got a bit further in, but it was hard to hear the perspective of the German female doctor (I listened to the book, so I have no idea how to spell her name). I pushed through, and I’m glad I did. I’ve listened to a lot of historical fiction about World War II, and this was the first one that had a German’s perspective. It was interesting to hear but made me sad, angry, and uncomfortable. I’ll definitely listen to the next book.

elainesloan's review

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2.0

Some parts were too raw for me. I like to read to relax and unwind.

readinruthie's review

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3.0

Can be heavy at times and doesn't flow quite as smoothly as I'd like, but I definitely learned a lot and it is gripping at times.

hwelty24's review

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5.0

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