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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In 1942, the Japanese entered WWII and began their relentless efforts to capture and hold captive all the foreigners on the islands in the Pacific Islands Chain. This narrative fiction book tells the story of three remarkable women who not only survived 3 1/2 years of captivity but was responsible for saving an untold number of lives. Norah Chambers sends her daughter and one sister to safety while she remained behind to aid in the evacuation of her husband, John, recovering from typhus, and her aging parents. Among 64 Australian nurses returning home is Nessa James. Margaret Drybaugh, a missionary, is part of another group captured after escaping a shipwreck. For the next 3 years, 7 months, these women create a community among the captives. Using innovative methods such as creating a human orchestra, they forge a solid front to protect themselves and to make survival just a little more bearable.
The book is based on the real prison camps for prisoners of the Japanese. The POWs included the civilians caught up the advance of the country’s efforts to dominate the Pacific Islands. Old and infirm men and boys, women and girls and children left behind find themselves at the mercy of their captors. The book has a lot of characters to keep straight but the author has made them unique enough to make this easy. The adherence to historical facts is excellent. Where the Author deviated from these facts, she provided an Author’s Note to explain The characters are well developed and the bond formed between the women was well developed. The atmosphere of the camp was rich and menacing. The description of the women and their relationship to of the camp was warm and touching. I enjoyed a WWII novel based somewhere other than Europe and featured people other than soldiers. Highly recommend to readers of historical fiction, WWII, war, the Japanese, survival, POWs and adult literature.
A powerful and moving story. It took me a little while to get into it but I was gripped by the end and fascinated to read the short biographies of the main characters at the end. Difficult to read in parts but brought to focus some of the unimaginable atrocities suffered by these prisoners of war.
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I received an advanced copy of this book.
Not much is known about women who were held in Japanese POW camps during World War II, and this fictional telling of the story of these women helps open the readers eyes to the conditions and strength that these women endured.
Singapore is falling to Japan during the war, and many people board a merchant ship to escape. Passengers included many Australian nurses. The ship is attacked and sinks two days after its departure. Some of the passengers are able to get themselves to shore, but quickly find themselves captured by the Japanese. The journey is long as the women are moved from camp to camp, deal with hunger, disease, and death, and as they miss and wonder about what has happened to their loved ones. This is an eye-opening read about what the real women likely experienced during this time in the world's history.
Not much is known about women who were held in Japanese POW camps during World War II, and this fictional telling of the story of these women helps open the readers eyes to the conditions and strength that these women endured.
Singapore is falling to Japan during the war, and many people board a merchant ship to escape. Passengers included many Australian nurses. The ship is attacked and sinks two days after its departure. Some of the passengers are able to get themselves to shore, but quickly find themselves captured by the Japanese. The journey is long as the women are moved from camp to camp, deal with hunger, disease, and death, and as they miss and wonder about what has happened to their loved ones. This is an eye-opening read about what the real women likely experienced during this time in the world's history.
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
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:
No
Sisters Under the Rising Sun is yet another WWII historical fiction but this one takes place on an island in the Pacific at a POW camp. It is based on a true story.
I struggled with this one a bit. Look, I'm grateful to the author for introducing me to these women and their heroism but it wasn't all that interesting as a novel. I can't tell you how many times I actually said out loud, "wait... who is this now?" There were so many characters. And most had similar names. I understand that historically many women DID have the same or similar sounding names but the author should have consolidated them.
Characters were also plopped into the narrative out of thin air and readers were expected to just know who they were (and they were NOT historical figures). At 66% a death is written in a way that I guess was supposed to make readers feel shocked and saddened but I just felt confused... Who the heck is this person? They were NEVER mentioned beforehand.
I also had a hard time believing that the women never fought amongst themselves. Really? Everyone was friends and got along perfectly? The only instance of arguing I found was when they were discussing pavlova and who "invented" it.
I listened to the audiobook while following along with the kindle version and I will say that helped keep a few characters separate. The narrator did a decent job with accents (Australian, Scottish, English, American, and English with a Dutch accent) as far as I could tell.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
I struggled with this one a bit. Look, I'm grateful to the author for introducing me to these women and their heroism but it wasn't all that interesting as a novel. I can't tell you how many times I actually said out loud, "wait... who is this now?" There were so many characters. And most had similar names. I understand that historically many women DID have the same or similar sounding names but the author should have consolidated them.
Characters were also plopped into the narrative out of thin air and readers were expected to just know who they were (and they were NOT historical figures). At 66% a death is written in a way that I guess was supposed to make readers feel shocked and saddened but I just felt confused... Who the heck is this person? They were NEVER mentioned beforehand.
I also had a hard time believing that the women never fought amongst themselves. Really? Everyone was friends and got along perfectly? The only instance of arguing I found was when they were discussing pavlova and who "invented" it.
I listened to the audiobook while following along with the kindle version and I will say that helped keep a few characters separate. The narrator did a decent job with accents (Australian, Scottish, English, American, and English with a Dutch accent) as far as I could tell.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No