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A review by _onemorechapter_
The Huntress by Kate Quinn
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
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? No
4.0
๐ญ The Huntress follows three seemingly disparate storylines across the length of the book. Told from three unique POVs, the three stories are also set at different times - one before and then during World War II, one that begins a year after its end, and one set in 1950.
World War II is over, and (now) former war correspondent Ian Graham is standing in its ashes. It might have been enough to say that they've all passed through a long, dark time and come out of it alive, if not unscathed. Ian might have gone about his life and done his best to bury the spectre of war and walk away from it. Most would have. Ian Graham didnโt. Not when Lorelei Vogt, the Nazi war criminal known as the Huntress, is still out there. โIโm done writing instead of doing,โ becomes Ian's mantra as he sets out to hunt down The Huntress alongside his partner Jewish polyglot Tony Rodomovsky and Nina Markova, one of the famed Russian bomber pilots known as the Night Witches.
Meanwhile, in Boston lives Jordan McBride, a budding photographer who welcomed into her family an Austrian refugee named Annaliese as her new stepmother. But Annalieseโs lies and secrecy do little to dispel Jordanโs feeling that there is more to her fatherโs new bride than meets the eye...
Quinn blends fact and fiction to tell a story about three women: a murderess on the run, an aspiring photographer who may be in danger in her own home, and one of the Nachthexen. The Night Witches. These Night Witches were very real. I've heard the term before but knew very little about this all-female Soviet bomber regiment.
Quinn reintroduces the same split time/perspective technique. All of the perspectives were interesting and exciting to me. What I love most about both of the Quinn books I've read is how she puts women back into the history they have long been written out of. She reminds us that women were pilots and spies and fighters and... yes, even murderers. I liked it a lot.
It's a very rich character-driven story, with many layers and secrets. Each of the characters is so well-drawn and complex, with Nina being especially fabulous. It is in turn a portrait of women fighting the constraints placed upon them by the societies in which they live and a thrilling pursuit of a terrifying female villain. I feel I should say it is not much of a mystery if that is something you're expecting. Uncovering the Huntress's identity is not the main focus; exploring the lives and aspirations of Nina and Jordan is.
Nina Borisovna Markova - Sheโs tough, mad, close to invincible, unpredictable, volatile and capable of remaining alive even in the most demanding of circumstances!
The Russian girl who grows up on the banks of Lake Baikal in Siberia is one of my favorite characters, and sheโs fearless. When World War II is looming and about to knock on her front door, she joins the Night Witches, a group of all-female bombers. Nina is shot down behind enemy lines and crosses paths with the Huntress, a Nazi with the worst reputation for murder you can possibly imagine.
A Rusalka, a night witch, a Rusalka-bitch, a lake spirit - Nina is all of these, and to witness her running at you, half-naked, covered in blood with her fatherโs razor in her hand would be quite daunting.
Ian Graham - an Englishman, who, disillusioned with his fatherโs world of drinking and complaining, becomes a journalist at age nineteen. After the Nuremberg Trials, Ian throws down his pen, โIโm done writing instead of doing,โ and starts chasing Nazi war criminals.
Heโs a British war correspondent present from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials. He leaves his life of journalism behind to hunt Nazis who have escaped persecution, and who is the most elusive on his target list? The Huntress.
Jordan McBride - A seventeen-year-old living in post-WWII Boston. Sheโs drawn to photography even though everyone in her family discourages her. Jordan sees the world through the eyes of a Leica camera and has dreams of creating award-winning photography like her two heroines, Margaret Bourke-White, and Gerda Taro, a fearless photographer who died on the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War.
Her mother passed away years ago, and when her father brings home a fiancรฉe, Jordan finds the German woman unsettling and secretive. Jordan uses her camera to find out where her new stepmother comes from and what secrets she may be hiding from her past.
Quinn keeps secondary character Ian Grahamโs sleuthing partner, Anton Rodomovsky โTonyโ on the sidelines, heartily present, but languishing a little, telling me just enough to make me want to know more about him. Donโt let this fellow waste away, I think. Then, voilร , she pushes him out into a starring role. As a reader, I felt incredibly smart, because I knew this guy was capable of more. I knew that he had star-like qualities. Now the author is polishing him up. See how he shines!
What a ride. For a novel that veers from character to character, and from past to present and back again, The Huntress maintains an exhilarating pace. Quinn very skillfully lands hooks at chapter ends that draw me forward, wanting to know more. She uses third person narrative voice to switch between three main characters, stitching her stories and timelines together seamlessly/ There is nothing quite like the thrill of reading a multi-voiced novel and watching for the moment when the protagonists' separate journeys begin to intertwine with one another, the meeting of the waterways. Quinn proves herself up to the task, and when she ratchets up the stakes and the story fires up on all cylinders, nothing could have pulled me away from the page.
Dialogue is credible, peppered with Russian and German slang, and suits the characters. Ianโs โBloody Hellsโ is so well-timed that Iโm grinning many pages later.
The attention to detail in the book is remarkable - especially concerning firearms and airplanes.
Overall, I found The Huntress to be original and heart-pounding. Of all the WWII stories Iโve read, I had not heard of the Huntress. I also was fascinated with the Night Witchesโ work, and I adored all the characters. This book has something for everyone with its engaging mystery, a touch of romance, and a riveting plot. I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure of reading this novel.
Also, One of the reasons I enjoy historical fiction is because I often learn something new, and Kate Quinn didn't fail to deliver when it came to her research regarding the Night Witches of the Soviet Union during WWII.
๐.๐ After Reading the Author's Note I realised several of the characters and plot twists were based on real-life people and actual historical events!
I found it especially appealing that the author used various folkloric female witches (Lorelei/Rusalka/Selkie/Baba Yaga/Nachthexen) to tie the characters to the overall plot.
๐.๐.๐ Ignoring the fact that the character represented by the title was perhaps the least developed character in the book, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Huntress in question is not someone whose motivations or personality we ever really get to know on a deeper level, which was a little bit disappointing. I would have liked to have had some chapters from her point of view. There were already three POVs in this book, so why not add a fourth? I found the Huntress to be quite intriguing, and I would have loved to have gotten a peek into her deranged mind, even if it was only for little snippets between the three parts of the book.
๐ธ๐ด๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐: โญโญโญโญ
๐ธ๐ฎ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐: 4.30 (159492)
๐ธ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, and War Story
๐ธ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐: YES, YES, & YES!!
This novel is a historical fiction loverโs dream!!
๐ธ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐๐:
โThe dead lie beyond any struggle, so we living must struggle for them. We must remember because there are other wheels that turn besides the wheel of justice. Time is a wheel, vast and indifferent, and when time rolls on and men forget, we face the risk of circling back. We slouch yawning to a new horizon and find ourselves gazing at old hatreds seeded and watered by forgetfulness and flowering into new wars. New massacres. New monsters like die Jรคgerin.
Let this wheel stop.
Let us not forget this time.
Let us remember.โ
โJordan considered. โHe knows how to look. Really look, when a woman is talking.โ โAh.โ Her stepmother sighed. โSome men ogle, some men look. The first makes us bristle, and the second makes us melt, and men are at an utter loss knowing the difference. But we do, and we know it at once.โ
โBuilding a generation is like building a wallโone good well-made brick at a time, one good well-made child at a time. Enough good bricks, you have a good wall. Enough good children, you have a generation that wonโt start a world-enveloping war.โ
โMoments like this should have been glorious, and they never were. The monsters always looked so ordinary and pathetic, in the flesh.โ
โIโm done loving sweet-souled long lashed idealists who dream of flight.... She would find some clear-eyed hunter with a heart like a diamond.โ
โIt was the first thing I noticed about him. He could admire a lady as though he were admiring a beautiful porcelain vase, without making her feel he was affixing a price tag.โ
โBecause I happen to believe that principle should be stronger than the need for vengeance.โ
World War II is over, and (now) former war correspondent Ian Graham is standing in its ashes. It might have been enough to say that they've all passed through a long, dark time and come out of it alive, if not unscathed. Ian might have gone about his life and done his best to bury the spectre of war and walk away from it. Most would have. Ian Graham didnโt. Not when Lorelei Vogt, the Nazi war criminal known as the Huntress, is still out there. โIโm done writing instead of doing,โ becomes Ian's mantra as he sets out to hunt down The Huntress alongside his partner Jewish polyglot Tony Rodomovsky and Nina Markova, one of the famed Russian bomber pilots known as the Night Witches.
Meanwhile, in Boston lives Jordan McBride, a budding photographer who welcomed into her family an Austrian refugee named Annaliese as her new stepmother. But Annalieseโs lies and secrecy do little to dispel Jordanโs feeling that there is more to her fatherโs new bride than meets the eye...
Quinn blends fact and fiction to tell a story about three women: a murderess on the run, an aspiring photographer who may be in danger in her own home, and one of the Nachthexen. The Night Witches. These Night Witches were very real. I've heard the term before but knew very little about this all-female Soviet bomber regiment.
Quinn reintroduces the same split time/perspective technique. All of the perspectives were interesting and exciting to me. What I love most about both of the Quinn books I've read is how she puts women back into the history they have long been written out of. She reminds us that women were pilots and spies and fighters and... yes, even murderers. I liked it a lot.
It's a very rich character-driven story, with many layers and secrets. Each of the characters is so well-drawn and complex, with Nina being especially fabulous. It is in turn a portrait of women fighting the constraints placed upon them by the societies in which they live and a thrilling pursuit of a terrifying female villain. I feel I should say it is not much of a mystery if that is something you're expecting. Uncovering the Huntress's identity is not the main focus; exploring the lives and aspirations of Nina and Jordan is.
Nina Borisovna Markova - Sheโs tough, mad, close to invincible, unpredictable, volatile and capable of remaining alive even in the most demanding of circumstances!
The Russian girl who grows up on the banks of Lake Baikal in Siberia is one of my favorite characters, and sheโs fearless. When World War II is looming and about to knock on her front door, she joins the Night Witches, a group of all-female bombers. Nina is shot down behind enemy lines and crosses paths with the Huntress, a Nazi with the worst reputation for murder you can possibly imagine.
A Rusalka, a night witch, a Rusalka-bitch, a lake spirit - Nina is all of these, and to witness her running at you, half-naked, covered in blood with her fatherโs razor in her hand would be quite daunting.
Ian Graham - an Englishman, who, disillusioned with his fatherโs world of drinking and complaining, becomes a journalist at age nineteen. After the Nuremberg Trials, Ian throws down his pen, โIโm done writing instead of doing,โ and starts chasing Nazi war criminals.
Heโs a British war correspondent present from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials. He leaves his life of journalism behind to hunt Nazis who have escaped persecution, and who is the most elusive on his target list? The Huntress.
Jordan McBride - A seventeen-year-old living in post-WWII Boston. Sheโs drawn to photography even though everyone in her family discourages her. Jordan sees the world through the eyes of a Leica camera and has dreams of creating award-winning photography like her two heroines, Margaret Bourke-White, and Gerda Taro, a fearless photographer who died on the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War.
Her mother passed away years ago, and when her father brings home a fiancรฉe, Jordan finds the German woman unsettling and secretive. Jordan uses her camera to find out where her new stepmother comes from and what secrets she may be hiding from her past.
Quinn keeps secondary character Ian Grahamโs sleuthing partner, Anton Rodomovsky โTonyโ on the sidelines, heartily present, but languishing a little, telling me just enough to make me want to know more about him. Donโt let this fellow waste away, I think. Then, voilร , she pushes him out into a starring role. As a reader, I felt incredibly smart, because I knew this guy was capable of more. I knew that he had star-like qualities. Now the author is polishing him up. See how he shines!
What a ride. For a novel that veers from character to character, and from past to present and back again, The Huntress maintains an exhilarating pace. Quinn very skillfully lands hooks at chapter ends that draw me forward, wanting to know more. She uses third person narrative voice to switch between three main characters, stitching her stories and timelines together seamlessly/ There is nothing quite like the thrill of reading a multi-voiced novel and watching for the moment when the protagonists' separate journeys begin to intertwine with one another, the meeting of the waterways. Quinn proves herself up to the task, and when she ratchets up the stakes and the story fires up on all cylinders, nothing could have pulled me away from the page.
Dialogue is credible, peppered with Russian and German slang, and suits the characters. Ianโs โBloody Hellsโ is so well-timed that Iโm grinning many pages later.
The attention to detail in the book is remarkable - especially concerning firearms and airplanes.
Overall, I found The Huntress to be original and heart-pounding. Of all the WWII stories Iโve read, I had not heard of the Huntress. I also was fascinated with the Night Witchesโ work, and I adored all the characters. This book has something for everyone with its engaging mystery, a touch of romance, and a riveting plot. I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure of reading this novel.
Also, One of the reasons I enjoy historical fiction is because I often learn something new, and Kate Quinn didn't fail to deliver when it came to her research regarding the Night Witches of the Soviet Union during WWII.
๐.๐ After Reading the Author's Note I realised several of the characters and plot twists were based on real-life people and actual historical events!
I found it especially appealing that the author used various folkloric female witches (Lorelei/Rusalka/Selkie/Baba Yaga/Nachthexen) to tie the characters to the overall plot.
๐.๐.๐ Ignoring the fact that the character represented by the title was perhaps the least developed character in the book, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Huntress in question is not someone whose motivations or personality we ever really get to know on a deeper level, which was a little bit disappointing. I would have liked to have had some chapters from her point of view. There were already three POVs in this book, so why not add a fourth? I found the Huntress to be quite intriguing, and I would have loved to have gotten a peek into her deranged mind, even if it was only for little snippets between the three parts of the book.
๐ธ๐ด๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐: โญโญโญโญ
๐ธ๐ฎ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐: 4.30 (159492)
๐ธ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, and War Story
๐ธ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐: YES, YES, & YES!!
This novel is a historical fiction loverโs dream!!
๐ธ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐๐:
โThe dead lie beyond any struggle, so we living must struggle for them. We must remember because there are other wheels that turn besides the wheel of justice. Time is a wheel, vast and indifferent, and when time rolls on and men forget, we face the risk of circling back. We slouch yawning to a new horizon and find ourselves gazing at old hatreds seeded and watered by forgetfulness and flowering into new wars. New massacres. New monsters like die Jรคgerin.
Let this wheel stop.
Let us not forget this time.
Let us remember.โ
โJordan considered. โHe knows how to look. Really look, when a woman is talking.โ โAh.โ Her stepmother sighed. โSome men ogle, some men look. The first makes us bristle, and the second makes us melt, and men are at an utter loss knowing the difference. But we do, and we know it at once.โ
โBuilding a generation is like building a wallโone good well-made brick at a time, one good well-made child at a time. Enough good bricks, you have a good wall. Enough good children, you have a generation that wonโt start a world-enveloping war.โ
โMoments like this should have been glorious, and they never were. The monsters always looked so ordinary and pathetic, in the flesh.โ
โIโm done loving sweet-souled long lashed idealists who dream of flight.... She would find some clear-eyed hunter with a heart like a diamond.โ
โIt was the first thing I noticed about him. He could admire a lady as though he were admiring a beautiful porcelain vase, without making her feel he was affixing a price tag.โ
โBecause I happen to believe that principle should be stronger than the need for vengeance.โ