An engrossing war tale in which real-world events remain as riveting as the tenacious fictional protagonist.
In this debut historical novel, a Welsh-German girl comes of age in Hamburg during the Nazi regime and World War II.
Catrin Kieffer is a teenager when the Nazi Party rises to power in Germany in 1933. The social upheaval devastates her close-knit family and circle of friends. A Jewish family flees to America and, later, men leave for war. Cat wants to join the fight as well and finally gets her chance as a courier for the Resistance. She retrieves covert messages from a man known as Simon. This is especially dangerous once she’s on the radar of SS Maj. Hecht, who knows her father is an engineer for the Reich. Cat defies the SS by rescuing Jewish families’ pets. A Nazi order prohibits those families from owning pets and other residents from taking in the stray animals. She ultimately helps save humans and animals alike when she and her loved ones are under a constant threat of Allied bombings in Hamburg. Meanwhile, disfigured World War I veteran Rudy Von Silvren is a spy working with Simon. He met Cat when she was a young girl, but she only knows him as the Shadow, the enigmatic man who watches and protects her. McGinnis’ epic tale alternates first-person narration between Rudy and, predominantly, Cat, who’s a formidable protagonist. When she coolly stands up to rude, arrogant SS officers at a dance hall, Simon is surprised as Cat debunks the stereotype of “compliant” female spy. She further displays strength as a maternal figure to a feline mother and her four kittens, for whom Cat cares deeply. The author allows romance for Cat, who falls for Ben Robie, an American, and she may have similar feelings for Simon. But the book overall is uncompromising: Cat experiences a great deal of loss, and, accommodating the historical time period, her situation becomes increasingly dire. Throughout the absorbing story, McGinnis’ prose is relentlessly sharp: “We were the inmates, the citizens, of Dante’s Inferno. We were the undead, the Nosferatu.”
An engrossing war tale in which real-world events remain as riveting as the tenacious fictional protagonist.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5177-0422-3
Page Count: 642
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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