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A review by backpackingbookworm
Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
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? No
3.0
I really enjoyed Heather Morris' earlier novels and was looking forward to learning more about a time in history that I knew little about. In this instalment, we follow passengers fleeing Singapore in the midst of WWII to escape the Japanese invasion. A few days into the voyage, the ship is bombed and the survivors seek refuge on a remote Indonesian island. There they are captured and held in various POW camps for years, fighting the weather, illness, starvation, and brutality.
I listened to the audiobook for this one and I think that heavily impacted my overall thoughts and feelings. The narrator was good but I struggled to distinguish the different voices and she had a habit of not leaving line breaks between paragraphs which meant I often had to stop and work out what was happening as the story had moved in a different direction.
The coverage of the event itself was well-researched and documented, however, it felt a lot more like 'this happened and then this' unlike The Tattooist of Auschwitz for example, which had a much better flow. It read more like a memoir than historical fiction. I hate to say it, and I imagine this is because we're fairly desensitized to war with the myriad of books and films that now saturate the market, but I was quite bored a lot of the time. That's not to say that what these women went through was easy; quite the polar opposite. I just didn't feel a connection to any of the characters and wasn't as engaged with the story as I have been with others in the past.
I did love the parts about the voice choir which was also the best part about the audio as it actually played a recording of the hymn and Bolero which gave me goosebumps. And of course, I shed many a tear at the end.
I definitely learned a lot and for that I am grateful to Heather Morris for bringing another true story to life. It just wasn't written in a way that I could fully engage with.
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
I listened to the audiobook for this one and I think that heavily impacted my overall thoughts and feelings. The narrator was good but I struggled to distinguish the different voices and she had a habit of not leaving line breaks between paragraphs which meant I often had to stop and work out what was happening as the story had moved in a different direction.
The coverage of the event itself was well-researched and documented, however, it felt a lot more like 'this happened and then this' unlike The Tattooist of Auschwitz for example, which had a much better flow. It read more like a memoir than historical fiction. I hate to say it, and I imagine this is because we're fairly desensitized to war with the myriad of books and films that now saturate the market, but I was quite bored a lot of the time. That's not to say that what these women went through was easy; quite the polar opposite. I just didn't feel a connection to any of the characters and wasn't as engaged with the story as I have been with others in the past.
I did love the parts about the voice choir which was also the best part about the audio as it actually played a recording of the hymn and Bolero which gave me goosebumps. And of course, I shed many a tear at the end.
I definitely learned a lot and for that I am grateful to Heather Morris for bringing another true story to life. It just wasn't written in a way that I could fully engage with.
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.