Lilac Girls (Woolsey-Ferriday, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jul 13, 2018 Book Concierge rated it liked it

Shelves: audio, book-club, historical-fiction, concierge, strong-women, library, world-war-ii, france, germany

Audiobook performed by Cassandra Campbell (Caroline), Kathleen Gati (Kasia)and Kathrin Kana (Herta)
3.5***

Using three different narrators, the novel tells the WW2 story of the women prisoners held at the notorious Nazi prison camp Ravensbrück. Kelly used two real-life women: Caroline Ferriday, a New York socialite and Broadway actress, and Dr. Herta Oberheuser, a German physician who became the only female surgeon operating at the prison camp. The third narrator is Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teen Audiobook performed by Cassandra Campbell (Caroline), Kathleen Gati (Kasia)and Kathrin Kana (Herta)
3.5***

Using three different narrators, the novel tells the WW2 story of the women prisoners held at the notorious Nazi prison camp Ravensbrück. Kelly used two real-life women: Caroline Ferriday, a New York socialite and Broadway actress, and Dr. Herta Oberheuser, a German physician who became the only female surgeon operating at the prison camp. The third narrator is Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager who is sent to the camp along with her sister, mother, and several friends after her work in the Resistance is discovered. In the author’s note at the end of the novel, Kelly states that she Kasia and her sister, Zuzanna, are loosely based on Nina Iwanska and her sister Krystyna, who were both operated on at Ravensbrück. She further populates the novel with a variety of fictional and real characters supporting these three central figures.

I was most interested in the scenes that take place at Ravensbrück. I knew some of the story of this horrible place and the “experimental surgeries” performed on the women there, but Kelly made it personal and vivid. I also really like how she explored the PTSD (though it wasn’t called that then) suffered by Kasia and Zuzanna and the other “Rabbits” in the years following their release from Ravensbrück.

As for Caroline’s love story with Paul Rodier – it is completely fabricated. I understand why Kelly did this– she was trying to make Caroline more real and to give her a stronger connection to France and what happened in that country during WW2 – but I thought it was a distraction from the central plot. If I were her editor I would have cut it.

I also thought that of the three women, we learned the least about Herta Oberheuser. She was the only woman tried for war crimes at Nuremberg. I wish that Kelly has spent a bit more time fleshing out her character.

All told, this is a good historical fiction debut about a fascinating and important, but less-well-known, episode of WW2. I would read another book by Kelly.

Cassandra Campbell (Caroline), Kathleen Gati (Kasia)and Kathrin Kana (Herta) do a marvelous job narrating the audiobook. Using a different voice artist for each narrator really helped to keep the stories straight.
...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2018 Bea rated it it was amazing

I found this book hard to read, delightful to read, and very disturbing. I know and understand the person of Herta...how wanting something so much can lead to compromising one's sense of right and wrong to the point of justifying it and believing the justification. BUT, I do not like even the small part of that that I find within...and no longer accept it. I can understand the feeling of loss and confusion and fear of both Caroline and Kasia, although I have very little in common with either of ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 16, 2017 Brandy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was a difficult book to read. I have read the Ravensbruck book by Sarah Helm which details the events of what happened at the concentration camp but in a much more impersonal way. This book gave those women faces and voices. It made it much more real. I struggled with the decision to finish it but in the end I'm glad I did. Be prepared when you read this one. It's heartbreaking but something everyone should read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2017 Sonya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2017

3.5 stars - The true life stories this book is based on are fascinating and I spent much time online reading about the actual people (Caroline Ferriday, Herta Oberheuser, Nina Ivanska and the other "rabbits" at Ravensbruck).

With this book, however, I found it difficult to become very attached or involved with the characters. I found myself much more drawn to the characters in The Nightingale and perhaps it was a bit unfair to this book to have read it so soon after reading that one because I ab ...more

Like · see review

Dec 12, 2016 Gretchen rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2016

A solid historical novel focusing on 3 different women in WW2. I struggled initially with the separate threads. All three women are living very different lives, and I didn't enjoy the switching between storylines. But the content was strong, and I enjoyed following the story, even knowing that happily ever after wasn't realistic.

Recommended for those who enjoy world war 2 stories. ...more

Like · see review

Jul 30, 2017 Lauren rated it really liked it

I read this on a 12 hour trip between Illinois to Wisconsin and Minnesota and back to Illinois. I knew a little about Ravensbrück but had never heard of the two real characters that this novel was written about. I thought the most interesting characters were Kaisa (who was fictional) and Herta Oberhueser (who was a doctor at the camp). The story had me transfixed to that time period and interested to see how all three would eventually be intertwined. I really enjoyed this WWII novel. 4.5 Stars

Like · see review