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A review by pagesfromhome
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This is a tough one to review because once again it is fictionalizing real people and real events, but since it was presented clearly as a novel, I went ahead and star-rated it based on simply the writing (not the events or people).
There were moments of this book that were completely shining and did an incredible job of transporting and teaching me, but unfortunately, so much of it read like the author had wanted to write a non-fiction book but instead wrote a fiction one. There were three POVs, all of which could have had a single book to themselves, and it spanned almost 20 years in these characters' lives (from just as WWII was starting to just before 1960), meaning that you had to fly through sections of their lives in mere sentences to try to get through it all. But it still felt like the story dragged through other sections so it was simultaneously fast and slow.
It also felt like every character was written with the same style and voice so, while the dialogue and how they literally spoke to other characters separated them, everything else just felt like it was written in the same, rather flat tone despite the vast differences between each character's experience and the use of first-person narration.
I think a story that only covered Caroline's or Kasia's lives would have been far more impactful, or even one dedicated to Herta's although she was despicable, would have been a more stable way to tackle the story of Ravensbruck. That said, this is a challenging story to take on and the author clearly took time and care to tell the story.
There were moments of this book that were completely shining and did an incredible job of transporting and teaching me, but unfortunately, so much of it read like the author had wanted to write a non-fiction book but instead wrote a fiction one. There were three POVs, all of which could have had a single book to themselves, and it spanned almost 20 years in these characters' lives (from just as WWII was starting to just before 1960), meaning that you had to fly through sections of their lives in mere sentences to try to get through it all. But it still felt like the story dragged through other sections so it was simultaneously fast and slow.
It also felt like every character was written with the same style and voice so, while the dialogue and how they literally spoke to other characters separated them, everything else just felt like it was written in the same, rather flat tone despite the vast differences between each character's experience and the use of first-person narration.
I think a story that only covered Caroline's or Kasia's lives would have been far more impactful, or even one dedicated to Herta's although she was despicable, would have been a more stable way to tackle the story of Ravensbruck. That said, this is a challenging story to take on and the author clearly took time and care to tell the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, War, Genocide, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Self harm and Rape