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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
This book is based on the sinking of the British evacuee ship SS City of Benares, in mid Atlantic, on 17 of September, 1940. I loved the main characters and was fully engaged with the story. The story follows a mother in London who has made the difficult decision to send her children to Canada on the evacuee ship and a young teacher who volunteers to be an escort of children on board the ship. It is a sad but also hopeful story and after reading the author's historical notes, I could not resist doing some online reading about the tragedy. I haven't read any historical fiction based on this incident and if you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this book.
adventurous
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
emotional
informative
inspiring
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:
No
Discover the locations in the novel here
What a remarkable story. In the hands of Hazel Gaynor it becomes an even more remarkable one. I love discovering true stories about real people who experienced the war.
I was dramatically pulled into the action from the start. Parents are sending their small children abroad for safety. Imagine that! Not just sending them into the countryside which must have been scary enough, but abroad to a foreign country. Miles and miles from home.
The author has been very clever here taking the real life event o f the sinking of the SS City of Benares and dramatizing it, giving it a human angle. The humanity and sense of loss that comes across in this novel is breath-taking. I went through the gamut of emotions reading about the Nazi U-boat which torpedoed the SS Carlisle in the novel. The fear, the pain, the sense of loss and confusion that war ultimately brings.
The title was heart-breaking even before I read any words of the story itself. Those scenes with the life boat drifting along in the middle of the stormy Atlantic will never leave me.
There were many quiet scenes in this, at home with the parents, inside their minds for example which really tore at the heartstrings. I can’t imagine having to send a child away and in a time of war? That must have been scary, horrendous, cruel and …well there are no words are there?
I thought the author created two of the most compelling characters I have read in a long while. Lily and Alice lead the two threads of the story to great affect and each one came across with their strong, unique voice. Both women had very different ‘roles;’ to play in the evacuation of the children but oh my word, heartbreakingly difficult on both sides.
Do you know, what made me really tear up was the innocence and the funny things the children did, despite the harsh environment. Pure childhood innocence made what they were going through even more horrendous as we the reader, and their parents, knew the truth.
I am going to have to lie down in a dark room now to recover. What a book!
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated