Lilac Girls: A Novel (Woolsey-Ferriday)

This was a book club pick that I am in. I found it to be a good read and finding out that this was based on two of the four women that had been there in real life was interesting to say the least. Although I have not personally visited Ravensbrook, I have visited Dachau..to say the least, it is intense...if historical fiction is not your "cup of tea"..then I would advise you to just skip this book. However I would suggest you to be open minded about this historical fiction piece, and give it a try. I was able to finish it in 3 days.

Beautiful book

Beautifully written historical novel about the Polish “rabbits” who were experimented on by Nazi doctors at Ravensbruck. The chapters written from Caroline’s point of view were a much needed break from the atrocities described in the other chapters. Caroline’s story of how she worked on behalf of the “rabbits” to help them reminded me that one woman can make a difference. Highly recommend.

Meh. Just not that into historical fiction.

Book club book, don't think I'm going to finish it. I will see after discussing.

The writing is atrocious. It's just too distracting from what is a mediocre book. From the very first page, there are sentences like this,
"He'd fired people for a lot less than being twenty minutes late, but the one time of the year the New York elite opened their wallets and pretended they cared about France was no time for skimpy boutonnieres."

What?

Or take this introduction of a brand new character:, "Gerda, a pretty, chestnut-haired girl from Dusseldorf, had attended the School of Midwifery there. She was an excellent nurse, but even Gerda couldn't handle the Revier."

I don't even know how to describe it. It's both choppy and long-winded. It mashes seemingly insignificant details in with key narrative.

Polish, German, and French words are sprinkled in with straight, northern american prose. It is jarring and feels out of place.

Story: At barely 1/4 of the way through the book, it's irresponsible for me to review it. From what I've read so far, there is nothing new here. Same old female characters, crisis of war, cruelty and death of innocents, men being shitty men. I was hoping that Herta would turn out to be lesbian - that would be a good twist. As of page 147, the story had not pulled me in despite the cliff hanger at the end of each chapter.

Learning: There's a good chance that I'd learn something about Ravensbrook. I'll read the Wikipedia article.

Ending: Obviously cannot talk to the ending, but let me guess: predictable.