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A review by heidirgorecki
The Lost Girls of Ireland by Susanne O'Leary
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The writing on this, while flowing decently, was simplistic and repetitive in the storyline, the dialogue was cheesy and often unnatural especially for the male characters, and I really disliked Lydia. She was naive, child-like, timid to the point of incapable most of the time, and seemed to be inept constantly. She had to have her 14 year old daughter explain everything to her, even how to do her job, which Lydia had supposedly been successful for years doing. It was bizarre. It constantly turned their relationship on its head where Sunny, the daughter, was the adult and Lydia was the child.
I get that Ireland was neutral during the war and their systems for POWs was quite bizarre, and the crashing of the plane actually happened, but every reference to the Nazi POWs by Lydia in modern times was stripped down to only that they were “German” and completely romanticized, talking about how sweet it was that her great aunt fell in love with a Nazi, or how romantic. I would understand it back in the 40’s given the nation’s stance and being so early in the war before everything came out, but in modern times? When we know the atrocities committed by their military and their ideological and moral stance that post-war are well known? It was like the giant Nazi elephant in the room that no one wanted to mention and completely ignored to make the story interesting.
On that note, Nellie’s translation work was ridiculous as well that she’d just get random mail like that with no security measures. It just all felt super imaginary and not fact checked.
The only reason I kept going on this and didn’t abandon it was I just kept thinking the absurdity of some of the things in here had to resolve themselves. But nope, they didn’t. Not a fan.
I get that Ireland was neutral during the war and their systems for POWs was quite bizarre, and the crashing of the plane actually happened, but every reference to the Nazi POWs by Lydia in modern times was stripped down to only that they were “German” and completely romanticized, talking about how sweet it was that her great aunt fell in love with a Nazi, or how romantic. I would understand it back in the 40’s given the nation’s stance and being so early in the war before everything came out, but in modern times? When we know the atrocities committed by their military and their ideological and moral stance that post-war are well known? It was like the giant Nazi elephant in the room that no one wanted to mention and completely ignored to make the story interesting.
On that note, Nellie’s translation work was ridiculous as well that she’d just get random mail like that with no security measures. It just all felt super imaginary and not fact checked.
The only reason I kept going on this and didn’t abandon it was I just kept thinking the absurdity of some of the things in here had to resolve themselves. But nope, they didn’t. Not a fan.