A review by sandysmith
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt are elite public school boys, set at the start of the beginning of WW1, Gaunt signs up, and Ellwood follows him a while after finding Gaunt jaded and changed. The story is wonderfully written, gore, and the horror of war interspersed with the forbidden love of the 2 main characters, initially unrequited. The supporting characters are wonderful, but few survive. I  loved the school paper and updates throughout the novel. I learnt a lot. Classism and the illegality of homosexuality, which to me was just a beautiful love story that happened to be between 2 men with a shared history. Poignant, devastating,  tragedy of war, shell shock and medical restrictions, the reality of the trenches its moving, brutal, but the tragedy is superby handled.  It's a humdinger of a debut novel. Fantastic but heart wrenching.
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