I am always on the look out for stories which tell of women's experiences throughout events in history which have previously focused predominantly on men's stories. This is why I was so drawn to The Nine which details the author's great aunt Helene's harrowing experience as one of nine women who endured labour camps, torture and death marches due to their acts as part of the French and Dutch resistance during WW2.
The journey of Helene and the other eight heroic women was moving and very difficult to read at times but their bravery and survival makes for an incredibly worthy story to be told and I am glad to have read it for this reason.
The structure and style of storytelling in the book made for quite a fragmented reading experience at times. There are some quite dry passages of contextual information which, while important for the story, were not the most engaging to read. The relationships between the women and with other people in their lives are depicted in a non-linear way so the timeline was a bit confusing at times too.
Overall I think this is a really important and interesting story but the style didn't really work for me and stopped me from loving this book as much as I hoped to.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.
The journey of Helene and the other eight heroic women was moving and very difficult to read at times but their bravery and survival makes for an incredibly worthy story to be told and I am glad to have read it for this reason.
The structure and style of storytelling in the book made for quite a fragmented reading experience at times. There are some quite dry passages of contextual information which, while important for the story, were not the most engaging to read. The relationships between the women and with other people in their lives are depicted in a non-linear way so the timeline was a bit confusing at times too.
Overall I think this is a really important and interesting story but the style didn't really work for me and stopped me from loving this book as much as I hoped to.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.