LitPick Review
Girl in the Ashes is a historical fiction novel based in Paris during World War 2. The novel circulates between the lives, both past and present, of three women: Odette, Ilse, and Agnes. The lives of these women share commonalities, as well as obvious differences as you get to know each character and their motivations, both before the war and during. Odette, a nurse, is driven by Death after the brutal murder of her mother at a young age. She takes it upon herself to kill the men who wrong women and children. Ilse is a German doctor, who works at the same hospital as Odette and allows Odette into a special patient area, where testing and experiments of vaccines are continuously performed on patients in an attempt to ensure the strength and survival of the Germans. As Ilse says about this, “If there was a one percent chance the vaccine could save a German life, then there is a one hundred percent chance they would keep trying.” Agnes plays a major influence on Odette after the murder of her mother and assists Odette in the aftermath. Finally, Aloysius, who is the son of Agnes is a pivotal character throughout, as he is always within the background, having grown up with Odette and remains her closest friend. The lives of the three women are all driven by Death and intersect through the height of the war until the fall of Germany.
Opinion:
This novel was definitely worth a read, as it provides a viewpoint of World War 2 in a different perspective than many other novels based on this timeframe. The author does a great job drawing you into the novel through the use of imagery from the very first page, as Odette is in the midst of killing a man who abused his daughter. The use of imagery, and creating a strong visual for the reader, is a true strength of the author throughout the novel. Particularly, the murder of Odette's mother by the grocer is revisited throughout the novel, each time getting progressively more vivid for the reader, as more information is gleaned with each memory.
Another strength within this novel is the ability to provide background into each of the three women in the novel. By providing a back and forth, past and present, interaction, the reader is able to begin to see what motivates and drives each woman. Whereas, Odette is meant to be the main character and is influenced by witnessing the murder of her mother, Agnes and Ilse are just as major of characters in the book. Although Odette witnessed the murder of her mother, it was Agnes who, basically, taught Odette how to hide murders as she assisted Odette after the death of her mother. Ilse can see the draw of Death within Odette and brings her into the patient testing area of the hospital, which is where, I felt, Odette began to have feeling and remorse.
The character development was equally well done. The author was able to seamlessly connect the past events of the characters lives with the present. By doing this, the reader was able to see what drove each character to their future behaviors. For instance, the murder of Odette’s mother is an obviously life changing event for her and is an event the author continues to retell, with slightly more detail in each retelling. Through this, you can see what drives Odette to Death.
Whereas I enjoyed the character development and ability to learn their motivations, the plot organization of the novel was confusing and portions did require you to reread to determine the timeframe of each character. The back and forth between characters and events was confusing at times, as the chapters jumped from character to character and intertwined past and present. I found myself backtracking, sometimes paragraphs, sometimes pages, to determine what was happening in the next section. This left gaps within the story, which gave some plot portions a sense of being incomplete. I found this prevalent within the middle of the novel. There were several loose ends that I felt could have been answered by the end. One such topic revolves around Ilse and a young girl patient who appears to be surviving the vaccine testing that is being performed on patients. This girl was present throughout much of the first half of the book, but little is said about her in the last half. I felt the girl played a pivotal role, as through the interactions between doctor and patient, you see a touch of humanity in Ilse. An additional area I would have liked to see further clarified is about Aloysius and his case of the teeth that begins early in the novel. Are these related to Odette? However, as you near the last third of the novel, the writing becomes more focused and the content picks up leaving you anxious to get to the end to see what happens.
This is a novel that left me unable to predict the ending and the author, again, did a great job intersecting the characters and connecting how the actions of one impacts all.
