Really enjoyed this one! I did not see a lot of it coming and even when I started figuring some of it out, I still didn’t figure out the whole thing till the end. Enjoyed the candid simplicity of Fern with her sensory disorder and social deficits - so many things are so true but no one actually comes out and says them. I will be reading more by the author - hard to put down!

Lots of great thoughts about family and friends that are made into family, as well as honest looks at different forms of prejudice taking place at the time from Silvio to Dominica’s nursing to the Britalians.

I didn’t know about the Britalian situation and discrimination in the UK and Scotland, nor about the deportation and internment. It was similar to the situation in the US with their own internments. So very sad. Such a dark moment in history that seems like that generation tried to hide and forget in light of the Nazi’s atrocities. As if the more severe action of the Nazi’s and Fascists was a convenient opportunity to hide the shame of what the Allies had done. But it was still heartbreaking discrimination and prejudice nonetheless and hopefully as the stories come to light we can learn from them and avoid it in the future.

I did find in the book that it was really hard to keep track of all the peripheral characters. The concept of injecting pieces of their story was interesting but because there were so many names and were so infrequently mentioned, I couldn’t remember who we were talking about or what happened before.

You’ve got to love a good Nazi-Hunters story, and it was another interesting look into seldom-discussed Operation Paperclip.

I enjoyed the mystery/spy aspect of both hunting down a Nazi as well as trying to find a lost child after he was stolen following the concentration camp. There were so many families trying to find each other post-ww2 and being split as an infant or toddler had to be even more daunting without all the DNA testing they have today. I also loved the familiarity of the recurring characters from the Lilac Girls.

There were, however, odd inconsistencies I couldn’t get past in the book.

There was almost zero emotional or reactionary description - actually describing what the characters felt or how they were responding. You had to infer into the conversation or scenario what emotions were being expressed or how they were feeling. The dialogue would bounce back and forth and then state verbally to there being high emotions - one character telling another to calm down, relax, not be mad, stating happiness, etc - but never actually painting that picture in a way that you’d ever know outside of dialogue. It gave it a somewhat two dimensional feel to the story and made it seem mechanical or insincere.

There were also weird gaps in the dialogue and storyline - the characters would be talking and all of the sudden switch topics. Or move scenes and you had no idea what happened in between, as there would be no explanation. I found myself reading over sections trying to figure out what I missed only to confirm it legitimately wasn’t there. The recruiting of both women also was a little bizarre and rushed without context or explanation.

I did feel oddly confused by both Josie and Arlette - for being in the resistance, recruited out of the blue, and with the training and experience they had - they were strangely naive and childish. It just felt, again, inconsistent with the necessary criteria for someone in their roles as spies or resisters.

Overall I liked it, but it just felt a little like it didn’t come together or flesh out like it could have.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishers for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are solely mine.

There were some good concepts in the book and I liked learning about the Nigerian culture, even as difficult as a lot of it was. But the book itself I really lost interest in quickly and struggled to get thru it, with the broken English playing into that as well. It just dragged way too much for me and had a lot of detail that made me lose interest quickly. I know I’m in the vast minority but it just wasn’t one I really enjoyed.