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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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:
Yes
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lena Browning is approached by a young, and ambitious director, actress and storyteller: Sienna Hayes. At 85 years old, Lena is finally ready to share her real story.
Bina Blonski was a weathly Jewish woman in 1943, but soon things changed when the Germans rolled in. Bina and her husband Jakub, and his brother Aleksander were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, while her father perished and mother and sister were sent to Treblinka.
Bina won’t settle for giving up, and is able to pass as Aryan woman. In doing so she is able to procure supplies, medicine and joins the resistance efforts. During her time with the resistance she loses many loved ones, and is involved in an unlikely assassin.
Bina does make it to the United States, and she hasn’t forgotten. Many Germans are living in America too, and they haven’t paid for their war crimes. She makes an effort to hunt them down, and get justice for the Jewish lives lost in Poland.
Sacrifice and bravery, with a little movie magic makes this one unforgettably heartbreaking, telling and impossible to put down.
Bina Blonski was a weathly Jewish woman in 1943, but soon things changed when the Germans rolled in. Bina and her husband Jakub, and his brother Aleksander were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, while her father perished and mother and sister were sent to Treblinka.
Bina won’t settle for giving up, and is able to pass as Aryan woman. In doing so she is able to procure supplies, medicine and joins the resistance efforts. During her time with the resistance she loses many loved ones, and is involved in an unlikely assassin.
Bina does make it to the United States, and she hasn’t forgotten. Many Germans are living in America too, and they haven’t paid for their war crimes. She makes an effort to hunt them down, and get justice for the Jewish lives lost in Poland.
Sacrifice and bravery, with a little movie magic makes this one unforgettably heartbreaking, telling and impossible to put down.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
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:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Bina Blonski was a wonderful actress when the Nazi’s began to take over. While she didn’t have the typical look of a Jewish person, there were many that knew of her ethnicity. She is now an old woman that goes by Lena but it has taken a lot to get to where she is today as hollywoods greatest. Things that nobody can even think of a person dealing with. But Sienna is determined to tell her story, she just needs “Lena” to tell it to her.
I don’t even know where to begin with reviewing this book, or even giving a synopsis for it to be honest. So much happened in this book, and it was heartbreaking reading each and every page. I will say the first half moved a bit slowly for me. This one was compared to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, so I went in expecting that. I will say, this book is not comparable in my mind but it is still truly amazing in its own way. The first half is mainly the past; the life of Bina and what she faced when the Nazi’s began to take over. The second half is more in the future and how Bina (Lena) built a life after escaping the war. I cried reading this book several times because I could just not imagine facing the horror and trauma of what Lena and her family went through. I absolutely loved where Lena ended up and how the story came to a close though. I won’t give any spoilers but it was chefs kiss.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For some, revenge is redemption…and sometimes it is all they have left.
Hollywood, 2005. Actress and current It GIrl SIenna Hayes is determined to make her mark by acting in and directing a film based on the life of legendary actress and femme fatale Lena Browning. Lena ultimately agrees, but she has her own agenda for this project and calculates that Sienna will be easily controlled. There is more to Lena’s story than just her brilliant acting career and love affairs, one that was filled with drama and passion, love and betrayal, long before she came to Hollywood. Lena started life as Bina Landau, the daughter of a famed Jewish architect in Poland and member of society’s who trained to be a actress….until Poland fell to Hitler and the Germans.. The Ghetto in Warsaw would become her home and many of those she loved would be killed or sent off in trains to death camps. Others, including Bina, would rise up and fight back against the brutal treatment of those aligned with the German occupiers, despite the heavy cost. In a world where no one can be trusted and allowing one’s mask to slip even for a second can result in death, Bina becomes a true femme fatale, a Jewish woman who uses her Aryan beauty and well-honed acting skills to infiltrate the non-Jewish Warsaw circles and punish those who aid the Germans and their anti-Semitic policies. After the war, when she has become Lena and has achieved stardom in Hollywood, Bina will again be confronted with enemies who escaped retribution and seek to revive their cause. She is a survivor and has done whatever is necessary to do so. As evil tries to conquer her yet again, she will take the last shot, have the last word,..she will not let fear win.
The Goddess of Warsaw features an incredible protagonist in Bina, a young woman betrayed and brutalized in the horror that is life as a Jew during HItler’s rule. She is married to a man who is focused on documenting what is happening while she feels compelled instead to take bold actions to prevent it, is in love with someone other than her husband, and is continually underestimated as a woman and actress who came from privilege. Just to survive that time in history was an amazing accomplishment, but she goes on to conquer another world while never forgetting those who managed to escape justice. The depiction of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, its squalid conditions, the betrayals committed and the bonds formed, all are rendered in stark detail. The characters, from those involved in the rebellion with Bina to those outside who seek to give them aid, and those who through fear or greed or poor judgement collaborated with the Germans, are nuanced and believable. For readers of Chris Bohjalian, Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Jessica Shattuck, The Goddess of Warsaw is a moving and chilling work of historical fiction whose powerful storytelling captured my interest from the very beginning and never let go. Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for allowing me early access to this amazing novel.
Hollywood, 2005. Actress and current It GIrl SIenna Hayes is determined to make her mark by acting in and directing a film based on the life of legendary actress and femme fatale Lena Browning. Lena ultimately agrees, but she has her own agenda for this project and calculates that Sienna will be easily controlled. There is more to Lena’s story than just her brilliant acting career and love affairs, one that was filled with drama and passion, love and betrayal, long before she came to Hollywood. Lena started life as Bina Landau, the daughter of a famed Jewish architect in Poland and member of society’s who trained to be a actress….until Poland fell to Hitler and the Germans.. The Ghetto in Warsaw would become her home and many of those she loved would be killed or sent off in trains to death camps. Others, including Bina, would rise up and fight back against the brutal treatment of those aligned with the German occupiers, despite the heavy cost. In a world where no one can be trusted and allowing one’s mask to slip even for a second can result in death, Bina becomes a true femme fatale, a Jewish woman who uses her Aryan beauty and well-honed acting skills to infiltrate the non-Jewish Warsaw circles and punish those who aid the Germans and their anti-Semitic policies. After the war, when she has become Lena and has achieved stardom in Hollywood, Bina will again be confronted with enemies who escaped retribution and seek to revive their cause. She is a survivor and has done whatever is necessary to do so. As evil tries to conquer her yet again, she will take the last shot, have the last word,..she will not let fear win.
The Goddess of Warsaw features an incredible protagonist in Bina, a young woman betrayed and brutalized in the horror that is life as a Jew during HItler’s rule. She is married to a man who is focused on documenting what is happening while she feels compelled instead to take bold actions to prevent it, is in love with someone other than her husband, and is continually underestimated as a woman and actress who came from privilege. Just to survive that time in history was an amazing accomplishment, but she goes on to conquer another world while never forgetting those who managed to escape justice. The depiction of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, its squalid conditions, the betrayals committed and the bonds formed, all are rendered in stark detail. The characters, from those involved in the rebellion with Bina to those outside who seek to give them aid, and those who through fear or greed or poor judgement collaborated with the Germans, are nuanced and believable. For readers of Chris Bohjalian, Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Jessica Shattuck, The Goddess of Warsaw is a moving and chilling work of historical fiction whose powerful storytelling captured my interest from the very beginning and never let go. Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for allowing me early access to this amazing novel.