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A review by jhbandcats
Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was a great story about women spies infiltrating the Nazis in LA in 1940. However, it’s so poorly written that I despaired of ever finishing it.
This is at least the eleventh book by this author so I’d have thought she’d have worked out the kinks or would have an accomplished editor. Instead I was confronted with ongoing minor, nitpicky issues that jerked me out of the story, leaving me annoyed and frustrated.
The book is just over 300 pages. In that time, the daughter refers to her mother as her North Star, her guiding light SEVEN times. They used the Latin for “don’t let the bastards get you down” FIVE times. The mother exclaims “ye gods and little fishes” FIVE times. Maybe if these were fairly ordinary terms I wouldn’t have noticed but the repetition drove me nuts.
And the anachronisms! “Bait and switch” first used 1962. “Am I chopped liver?” first used 1964. The 22-yr-old daughter bristling at being called a girl, insisting on being called a woman.
The daughter gives speeches to her mother about patriotism - completely unrealistic conversation. The mother explains that women have had the vote for only twenty years - as though the daughter just old enough to vote in her first election wouldn’t know this.
There was more. Overall I was so disappointed. The history here was fascinating but this is not the best book to learn about it.
This is at least the eleventh book by this author so I’d have thought she’d have worked out the kinks or would have an accomplished editor. Instead I was confronted with ongoing minor, nitpicky issues that jerked me out of the story, leaving me annoyed and frustrated.
The book is just over 300 pages. In that time, the daughter refers to her mother as her North Star, her guiding light SEVEN times. They used the Latin for “don’t let the bastards get you down” FIVE times. The mother exclaims “ye gods and little fishes” FIVE times. Maybe if these were fairly ordinary terms I wouldn’t have noticed but the repetition drove me nuts.
And the anachronisms! “Bait and switch” first used 1962. “Am I chopped liver?” first used 1964. The 22-yr-old daughter bristling at being called a girl, insisting on being called a woman.
The daughter gives speeches to her mother about patriotism - completely unrealistic conversation. The mother explains that women have had the vote for only twenty years - as though the daughter just old enough to vote in her first election wouldn’t know this.
There was more. Overall I was so disappointed. The history here was fascinating but this is not the best book to learn about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Grief, Death of parent, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Violence, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, and War