A review by mmccombs
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A deeply moving narrative that didn’t necessarily feel new or added anything to the pantheon of WW1 novels, but it was deeply impactful nonetheless.  I really enjoyed these characters and the way in which we saw them change over the course of the war. What is poetry and beauty in the face of so much brutality and senseless violence? I’m currently unable to give this a full 5 stars because I found that the structure was a little bit all over the place. The flashbacks, particularly in the beginning, were not always in the same format or were just thrown in, so I think I would have preferred if this was told chronologically.
I also felt like Gaunt’s return from the dead was like an emotional fake-out, something to make the audience gasp and feel very sad for 50 pages or so, and then his return almost felt like a let down (obviously happy for a reunion, but still, it felt like emotional whiplash!)
On the whole, this was well written, very emotional, and such a compelling story.
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