I love Elizabeth Wein and Code Name Verity (see my post here). Since reading Verity, I discovered that there are more books in the series, and while not completely related (you can read them in any order), I've been excited to read them all. Rose Under Fire has been on my tbr list for AGES, and I finally got around to it.
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein shines a light on the darkness of Ravensbruck, the Nazi prison camp for political prisoners (at least at first). Rose Justice was an American who went to Britain to help with the war effort. While there, she met Maddie (one of the perspectives of Code Name Verity), a pilot for the civilian ATA. After a ferry trip over France, Rose is intercepted by Nazi fighters and is forced to fly deep into Germany. Once there, she's sent to Ravensbruck, the infamous work camp for political prisoners. Wein spares no details in showing the horrific conditions of prisoners in the camp. What will happen to Rose and her friends, the Rabbits?
This book is chilling. There is no other word to describe the novel. It is chilling to read of everything that happens at Ravensbruck. While I think we try and give voice to those who lost their lives in camps like these, we often focus only on the death camps like Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen (where Anne Frank died). This book does not pull punches or gloss over what it was like to be at Ravensbruck. In her afterward (which I love to read because she gives valuable information about the kind of research she did), Wein clearly shows that while Rose Justice is fictional, the other characters in the novel are based on someone real. Their experiences happened. The experiments performed on the Polish girls (dubbed Rabbits) happened. Their experiences are frightening and horrific to read about, and I think it's a part of WWII that we often gloss over. This is an important story and shines a bright light on a very dark corner of human history.
In all, I loved this book. I was utterly moved by the detail and the events in this story. I liked catching back up with Maddie and Jamie's stories, as well as *spoiler* Anna Engel. If you read Code Name Verity, you know that Engel was involved in Julie's and Maddie's stories. She is also has a part to play in Rose's story. I loved that Wein involved her back in this story.
This book is a little difficult to criticize because I found myself comparing it to Code Name Verity. I didn't like Rose's narrative voice nearly as much as I loved Julie's. I also felt that more could have been done with describing their actual escape because while the camp is certainly the central focus of the story, their escape from that camp feels far too easy.
I loved the discussion of the Nuremberg Trials. Again, that's part of history that I think we don't see very often. Wein uses a newspaper article composed by Rose to tell this part of the story. While I think this is a good device, I think it would have been better overall if she had just kept going with Rose's journal entries. I think the consistency of Rose's voice would have been better, and her recounting of details would have been more linear and easier to understand.
One of the major complaints I've seen in comments about this book stem from one line in the novel. After Rose is in Paris, Maddie comes and stays with her on VE day. While talking about Ravensbruck, Maddie says to Rose, "I don't think Julie would have made it." or something similar. This line bothered a lot of people because they got so attached to Julie's character. I was not bothered, and let me explain. Yes, I love Julie. She's brilliant and amazing, and her inner strength is undeniable. But think of how Maddie described her the last time she saw her. What kind of condition was Julie in before even going to Ravensbruck? I don't think the camp would have broken her; weeks of torture hadn't done that, but I think it would have killed her. Look at the equally cunning and defiant French resistance girl (I can't remember her name). She did die as well. Yes, the Rabbits were able to make it out, but only because of a certain amount of luck, and I'm not sure Julie would have had the same cards.
This book can be a difficult book to read. It is incredibly heavy and this book stuck with me for days after I'd finished it. Just because it's difficult, doesn't mean it isn't worth it.
I rate this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Comments
Post a Comment