I was so disappointed by CILKA’S JOURNEY, a historical fiction novel depicting one woman’s experience in a Siberian prison camp immediately following her liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau. In short, this book lacked in so many ways. Most problematic for me was my sense of emotional distance from the entire story due to the writing itself. Heather Morris’s prose is marred by an element of restraint as it never becomes emotive and instead merely “reports” and “tells.” The pacing is also far too quick, which is largely due to the flat writing—countless scenes are glossed over rather than time being spent on exploring the full weight of the events. (I’ll refrain from citing specific examples in an effort to avoid spoilers.)
Problematic as well are the glaring oversights peppering the entire novel. Just for starters, the novel never gave me a sense of how cold the prison must have really been considering that it’s in the Arctic Circle. Sure, Morris references the cold in passing, but not once does she really make me feel the agony of the frigid temperatures. Even the prison conditions themselves don’t seem all that deplorable as depicted by Morris, and I know that certainly wasn’t the case. Frankly, the historian (Owen Matthews) who wrote the afterward for CILKA’S JOURNEY stirred up more emotions in me than Morris did in his account of the horrid conditions of the prison. Finally, Cilka herself doesn’t read as a genuine person. Morris continuously depicts her as quite literally angelic, and as such Cilka is always brave, always kind, and always sacrificial. I’ve read fictional characters who seem more real to me than Cilka. While I’m sure the actual Cilka was an admirable woman who absolutely deserves praise and recognition, human beings are complicated by nature, and I would have liked to have seen that kind of complexity in Morris’s characterization of Cilka.
I wish I could give this novel more than two stars. Cilka’s story itself deserves more than even five stars, and sadly CILKA’S JOURNEY just didn’t live up to the task of doing her justice. Thank you to BookishFirst and St. Martin’s Press for a free ARC copy of CILKA’S JOURNEY in exchange for an honest review.
Problematic as well are the glaring oversights peppering the entire novel. Just for starters, the novel never gave me a sense of how cold the prison must have really been considering that it’s in the Arctic Circle. Sure, Morris references the cold in passing, but not once does she really make me feel the agony of the frigid temperatures. Even the prison conditions themselves don’t seem all that deplorable as depicted by Morris, and I know that certainly wasn’t the case. Frankly, the historian (Owen Matthews) who wrote the afterward for CILKA’S JOURNEY stirred up more emotions in me than Morris did in his account of the horrid conditions of the prison. Finally, Cilka herself doesn’t read as a genuine person. Morris continuously depicts her as quite literally angelic, and as such Cilka is always brave, always kind, and always sacrificial. I’ve read fictional characters who seem more real to me than Cilka. While I’m sure the actual Cilka was an admirable woman who absolutely deserves praise and recognition, human beings are complicated by nature, and I would have liked to have seen that kind of complexity in Morris’s characterization of Cilka.
I wish I could give this novel more than two stars. Cilka’s story itself deserves more than even five stars, and sadly CILKA’S JOURNEY just didn’t live up to the task of doing her justice. Thank you to BookishFirst and St. Martin’s Press for a free ARC copy of CILKA’S JOURNEY in exchange for an honest review.