This was almost a DNF but there was so little substance I was blowing thru it quickly and kept with it. It didn’t get any better by the end of it tho.

The dialogue was as mechanical and stilted as the characters. It was bizarre how it would volley back-and-forth with single sentences each between the characters. Often the sentences would be as little as 2 to 3 words like they were trying to save their breath and couldn’t afford to say anything of worth. The repetitiveness of the dialogue also didn’t help. The exact same phrases would show up a couple chapters later, sometimes multiple times.

To make matters worse, Nathaniel was terrible at his job as a spy. He didn’t know how to blend in, wasn’t observant, is extremely simple, and had no clue what was going on around him half the time. And Dinah was a 20 year old who acted like a 12 year old - impulsive, naive, obsessed with and wholly (weirdly) dependent on her sister. The romance between the two felt very forced.

Overall it was just such a surface story without substance, and was not believable at all, and honestly rather annoying.

Both heartbreaking and inspiring, what Miriam and Lailah endured alongside the women in the Afghan and Taliban-ruled culture. I can’t even fathom having to survive in that environment where women are treated and viewed so poorly and despised like that - the violence is incredible. The kinship Miriam and Lailah found in each other was beautiful in the midst of all the ugliness.

While the characters and descriptions were rich and well done, the book was so heavy and sad, it was not the easiest to read and didn’t capture me either. Some of the content and the retelling of grief and the struggle of faith seemed fairly repetitive and a bit redundant as well and made the book drag a bit. Just ultimately a very heavy read without much joy. Ended well, but happiness felt very few and far between.

The only reason I read this book was to screen it for my daughter who was assigned it in her high school honors class.

For any other parent who is trying to gauge content, there is no sexual content at all (I know there is a review from the 80s from some mother about this and it’s ridiculous), and only a few very mild swear words. Once they “—“ out an F word, so you don’t even see that. Nothing else I would say is questionable or too adult. All in all, no big deal content wise.

However, the human nature elements aside that I’m assuming they’re going to look at in class, the book was so boring and rambled so much, it was painful trying to read thru it. And the ending was pretty awful honestly…

Such a great story of Hanna and Tilde and also Klara. The book took varying perspectives of the women during the start of WW2 in Berlin. I loved seeing Tilde as a passing gentile and of Hanna and Klara caught up in the role of being expected to be docile and submissive German Wives against their will.

Very well written, great characters, and I was fully invested in each of their stories. Really enjoyed it.

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