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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a very powerful and at times complex story, full of obvious evil and wrong, as well as more tricky ethical dilemmas and “grey” situations. I enjoyed reading it, although it was tragically sad. I did feel as though some areas were perhaps a little under developed - would be good to know more about Eva, for example. Overall a solid read and a stark reminder of what people are capable of.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting
fast-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The title is a little misleading because it’s not really about the Rabbit Girls more than a small, peripheral portion in the story. The WW2 focus is really only a parallel, secondary part of the book, the main part taking place in 1989 and being more of a psychological thriller. Good nonetheless tho.
Hoo buddy, this book was unrelentingly depressing - not that you ever expect a book about the Holocaust to be light-hearted or unserious, but this one was particularly bleak. Miriam's storyline in particular took this to a whole other level of sad, and I'm still not sure I know how I feel about the parallels the author attempts to draw between survivors/victims of domestic abuse and those in concentration camps. On the one hand it felt like an unnecessary sub-plot (i.e. how many traumatic abuses can one novel hold) but on the other hand it felt like the author was trying to say something important about the strength of victims in the face of their oppressors. Not sure the latter fully landed.
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Heartbreaking.
This book was well-written and very touching. I have read countless books about World War II and the Holocaust. It never ceases to amaze me how cruel Nazis were. I cried throughout this book and my heart broke for all the women who could not save their children...and for all the children left behind in such inhumane conditions. As a reader, I deeply appreciate the thoroughness of the research involved in the making of this book. As a human being, I hate the reality of the human suffering. You will like and hate this book simultaneously. I know I do.
This book was well-written and very touching. I have read countless books about World War II and the Holocaust. It never ceases to amaze me how cruel Nazis were. I cried throughout this book and my heart broke for all the women who could not save their children...and for all the children left behind in such inhumane conditions. As a reader, I deeply appreciate the thoroughness of the research involved in the making of this book. As a human being, I hate the reality of the human suffering. You will like and hate this book simultaneously. I know I do.
I found the story fascinating, which kept me going through this book. However, I really did not care for the writing style or the characters, I felt like it took me out of the story and was distracting.
This was an interesting WW2 story told across dual timelines. Miriam is caring for her dying father, Henrik, shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall. She’s also in an abusive marriage. When she discovers a prisoner’s uniform, and a collection of letters she realizes are from her father’s mistress from decades before, she sets out to unravel the story of what happened in the last days of the war. Poignant and tragic. Without getting into spoilers, this had some interesting historical tidbits, some unexpected twists, and was overall a nice debut that I enjoyed reading. I found Frieda’s perspective the most captivating overall.
Trigger Warnings:
Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
Trigger Warnings:
Spoiler
graphic concentration camp scenes, medical torture, graphic murder of an infant, domestic abuse, infidelityPlease excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
I started this book on a whim, as it was an Amazon First Read some months back. This is, I believe, Anna Ellory's first book, and I can only hope she's either given up writing or improves greatly with the next.
The book switches point-of-view frequently, resulting in numerous short chapters told from the viewpoint of Henryk, the father, and Miriam, his daughter. One switches from first person past tense (Henryk) to third person present tense (Miriam), and makes for very disjointed reading. The language is also - in light of the subject matter - too simple, considering that one character is a university professor, again resulting in jarring reading. I found it difficult to read more than a chapter or two at a time.
The book is set in Berlin, alternating between WWII Berlin and 1990 Berlin, just after the Wall's collapse. Initially, the story opens with an elderly, infirm Henryk being cared for by his daughter Miriam, who hears him calling for 'Freida,' and discovers that her father was forced into a concentration camp when she discovers the tattooed numbers on his arm. From there, she discovers a woman's uniform from one of the concentration camps in her mother's closet and the letters sewn into the hems.
From there, the book begins to careen dizzily into an amalgam of pain, nightmare, and marital abuse, some of which came out of seemingly nowhere and went from emotional abuse to a particularly vile form of physical abuse, gas-lighting, and a level of manipulation that boggles the mind. When the disparity between the young woman who was, and the middle-aged woman who is becomes apparent, it left me in disbelief - the alteration of personality was too profound without foundation.
The only parts of the book I enjoyed were Miriam's efforts to translate the letters (some of which are written in French, the others in German), and the developing friendship between Miriam and Eva, which culminates one night after Miriam is triggered into taking action against her abusive spouse.
Moreover, I found the ending predictable and contrived, but to dissect it here would spoil the book. Let me leave it like this - in my opinion, Ellory lost control over the threads of her story, turning them into a tangle rather than a well-woven whole. As a result, she forces her desired ending onto the reader with all the disjointed sensation of a magician producing a bouquet out of nowhere when the audience saw where he'd hidden it all along.
I gave the book two stars - my version of an A for effort, because Ellory clearly did her research on the experiments conducted in Ravensbruck, but dropped the ball in translating them into a cohesive whole.
The book switches point-of-view frequently, resulting in numerous short chapters told from the viewpoint of Henryk, the father, and Miriam, his daughter. One switches from first person past tense (Henryk) to third person present tense (Miriam), and makes for very disjointed reading. The language is also - in light of the subject matter - too simple, considering that one character is a university professor, again resulting in jarring reading. I found it difficult to read more than a chapter or two at a time.
The book is set in Berlin, alternating between WWII Berlin and 1990 Berlin, just after the Wall's collapse. Initially, the story opens with an elderly, infirm Henryk being cared for by his daughter Miriam, who hears him calling for 'Freida,' and discovers that her father was forced into a concentration camp when she discovers the tattooed numbers on his arm. From there, she discovers a woman's uniform from one of the concentration camps in her mother's closet and the letters sewn into the hems.
From there, the book begins to careen dizzily into an amalgam of pain, nightmare, and marital abuse, some of which came out of seemingly nowhere and went from emotional abuse to a particularly vile form of physical abuse, gas-lighting, and a level of manipulation that boggles the mind. When the disparity between the young woman who was, and the middle-aged woman who is becomes apparent, it left me in disbelief - the alteration of personality was too profound without foundation.
The only parts of the book I enjoyed were Miriam's efforts to translate the letters (some of which are written in French, the others in German), and the developing friendship between Miriam and Eva, which culminates one night after Miriam is triggered into taking action against her abusive spouse.
Moreover, I found the ending predictable and contrived, but to dissect it here would spoil the book. Let me leave it like this - in my opinion, Ellory lost control over the threads of her story, turning them into a tangle rather than a well-woven whole. As a result, she forces her desired ending onto the reader with all the disjointed sensation of a magician producing a bouquet out of nowhere when the audience saw where he'd hidden it all along.
I gave the book two stars - my version of an A for effort, because Ellory clearly did her research on the experiments conducted in Ravensbruck, but dropped the ball in translating them into a cohesive whole.