Lilac Girls (Woolsey-Ferriday, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

May 19, 2016 Kathryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, library, fiction, hardcover, read-in-2016, wwii

I really enjoyed this book. I read this in hardcover rather than on my Kindle since I was able to get this immediately at my library, instead of waiting on a long reserved list. I missed being able to use the X-ray feature and dictionary, but I loved the book. The story was told through the points of view of 3 characters. Kasia Kamericz (sp), a Polish young woman who was sent to Ravensbrouk concentration camp, Herta Oberheuser, the only female doctor at Ravensbroucke, and Carolyn Ferriday, a pri ...more

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Feb 05, 2018 Yvonne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: war-stories, historical-fiction, world-war-2, holocaust

Firstly I think the cover is a little misleading because it's not really a depiction of at least one of the three women whose perspective we're allowed to see. That one is most definitely not a lilac girl as she turns out to be a Nazi doctor in a concentration camp that did gruesome experiments on her female prisoners. Secondly this is a book in search of an identity as it careens from chick lit to riveting holocaust drama depending on whose point of view is being highlighted. Thirdly, I wasn't Firstly I think the cover is a little misleading because it's not really a depiction of at least one of the three women whose perspective we're allowed to see. That one is most definitely not a lilac girl as she turns out to be a Nazi doctor in a concentration camp that did gruesome experiments on her female prisoners. Secondly this is a book in search of an identity as it careens from chick lit to riveting holocaust drama depending on whose point of view is being highlighted. Thirdly, I wasn't that fond of the little cliffhangers and all the foreshadowing only to have it switch to one of the other women for a couple chapters.

Stories about life in concentration camps tend to stick in my head & this one was no exception. It's compelling drama but can be too much to read about especially knowing this really happened and it's just so overwhelmingly sad. The chapters involving Kasia, the polish girl sent to Ravensbruck really held my interest. While Kasia is a composite of a couple of real Ravensbruck 'rabbits' , the two other women in this fictional stories did actually exist, The German doctor Herta Oberheuser & the socialite Caroline Ferriday. But I found their depiction less engaging.

The chapters on Caroline Ferriday focused a lot on the socialite details of her life as well as some drama involving her and a married man. It's funny that that's the fictional side of the story and that's the one that lets down the book as there was something about it that was just superficial. Parts of it was also boring. That's a shame really as the real life Caroline was heroic but we only get that focus in the final chapters.

As for Herta, I'm not sure we got as much from seeing things from her point of view as we could have. There was one scene where she went from being horrified about what was happening at the camp & insisting she would leave to the next time we see her (after a couple of chapters on the other women) she's doing the job and worse with nary a problem.

I think just because of things like that and the choppiness of the writing there's no way for this to be a 5 or a 4 star book. But it was interesting as a historical fiction and I did learn a few things that I didn't know before. I'd say a decent debut and read if you're interested in the subject matter. ...more

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