The history lover in me was drawn to this book because I thought it might offer a more human view into what the war was really like. Boy, did it ever. Yes, this is a piece of fictional work, but for me, it was very interesting to envision what things might have been like for those involved first hand in the war. Studying history as my undergrad was great- but it was always approached with a sort of systematic method. We did analyze the why, who, what, where, etc. But it was still very methodical and hard to get that sense of what life was truly like for people smack in the middle of it.

Anyway, I truly loved the friendship between Maddie and Verity. It was so genuine and fierce and added this whole new dimension to the story. I felt that the scenes of torture in the prison where graphic but I expected them to be much worse. I did feel on edge each time Verity was threatened with torture or beaten.

For me, the strength of the characters is what made this tale such a favorite. I found myself wondering if I would be able to handle what they went through. I did cry in this book several times. At the end of the book Elizabeth Wein gives a great narrative on how her research progressed while writing the book including what was based on fact and what was not. I liked her insight on why she chose to include certain things.

I really enjoyed this book and even if you're not in to history, you will too. I highly recommend the audio book which is narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell. There is a lot of German, French, and other languages in this book and I think it would have slowed me down and ruined the suspense of some moments if I'd been trying to read it myself. The narration helped the flow of the book.