I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first book due to some of the controversies that have come up since it was published. When I heard there was going to be a sequel it called to me like a siren. I knew I was going to regret it, but I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to see what would happen and see if maybe my issues would be addressed.
Well, my issues were addressed, but in this way that said that my issues did not matter at all. The further I read into this book, the more it felt like a cash cow situation. There are flashbacks to the other story she told. Yet most of the flashbacks just felt like they were forced into the story to explain what was currently happening so real writing skill wasn’t required. I do have to admit that Morris has improved since the last book. This book actually read like a book. There were clear jumps in time. It was just a better book technically over all. Everything else is worse.
I really can’t think of anything nice to say about this book. By the end I was reading it just to see how much worse everything could get. This story at least felt more believable, but that is also because I know a lot less about the prison camps of Russia. So she could have done absolutely no research and it still would have felt more believable than her first book. I am concerned, seeing how the first book went, that this book is also filled with things that are drastically untrue and fly in the face of thousands of other accounts of what happened, but this time I have no proof so I am going to just enjoy it as the story instead of being any form of reality. Not having to go “wait a second” every few pages, because of history issues was nice. The story flowed better, but it still wasn’t what I would call an enjoyable read. There was no character development. There were very few feelings. It was just “Cilka did this” and “this happened to Cilka”. I wanted it to be more fleshed out. Considering Morris admits some of the characters are 100% made up, I was hoping for more fleshed out characters. There were no fully fleshed out characters. Every character was clearly good or bad. Everyone was run by one character trait.
The love plot is so basic and dull. They fall in love from a distance. Cilka is in love before she even meets him. There is no reason why the relationship would have been one to root for. The only thing I can see bonding them together is trauma. This probably would have been addressed with more fleshed out characters. If the characters felt real, then maybe emotions would have been possible.
At one point, while I was reading I got this feeling that Morris thought, “How can I make the Holocaust sadder? More rape on page!” and so this book was created.
Well, my issues were addressed, but in this way that said that my issues did not matter at all. The further I read into this book, the more it felt like a cash cow situation. There are flashbacks to the other story she told. Yet most of the flashbacks just felt like they were forced into the story to explain what was currently happening so real writing skill wasn’t required. I do have to admit that Morris has improved since the last book. This book actually read like a book. There were clear jumps in time. It was just a better book technically over all. Everything else is worse.
I really can’t think of anything nice to say about this book. By the end I was reading it just to see how much worse everything could get. This story at least felt more believable, but that is also because I know a lot less about the prison camps of Russia. So she could have done absolutely no research and it still would have felt more believable than her first book. I am concerned, seeing how the first book went, that this book is also filled with things that are drastically untrue and fly in the face of thousands of other accounts of what happened, but this time I have no proof so I am going to just enjoy it as the story instead of being any form of reality. Not having to go “wait a second” every few pages, because of history issues was nice. The story flowed better, but it still wasn’t what I would call an enjoyable read. There was no character development. There were very few feelings. It was just “Cilka did this” and “this happened to Cilka”. I wanted it to be more fleshed out. Considering Morris admits some of the characters are 100% made up, I was hoping for more fleshed out characters. There were no fully fleshed out characters. Every character was clearly good or bad. Everyone was run by one character trait.
The love plot is so basic and dull. They fall in love from a distance. Cilka is in love before she even meets him. There is no reason why the relationship would have been one to root for. The only thing I can see bonding them together is trauma. This probably would have been addressed with more fleshed out characters. If the characters felt real, then maybe emotions would have been possible.
At one point, while I was reading I got this feeling that Morris thought, “How can I make the Holocaust sadder? More rape on page!” and so this book was created.