3.5 rounded down. I enjoyed reading about WW2 in the Philippines, as there aren’t that many books that take place in the pacific and out of all the WW2 books I’ve read (and there are many!) this is the first in that country I’m even aware of. The story itself was very interesting and informative.

That being said, I didn’t really care for the writing style - it had very little character development and was more event-oriented, which I’m not a huge fan of in a novel. It was put together well as far as describing what was taking place but I didn’t feel invested in the characters or like I even was being brought along with them in their experience, emotions, etc, the majority of the time. A lot of it felt like documentary-ish or an observing narration more than anything.

There were also a couple weird gaps at the end in the last chapter or so that I was trying to follow and were confusing. A couple things repeated and then a few more pieces, I couldn’t quite figure out what was happening, as if the ending was sort of put on paper and then not edited, alluding to events but never clarifying, or making conclusions that were grand leaps based on what was written.

I felt like it was better than a 3 star, but shy of 4 because of the style and vagueness at the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.