• If you’re looking for a light summer beach read, Elizabeth Wein’s Rose Under Fire, a companion novel to the absolutely superb Code Name Verity, is not for you. If, instead, you’re looking for a phenomenal story that hums along until it sucks you in so quickly you don’t know what happened, filled with characters who captivate you, and a plot that because of circumstances of the story and how much you care for these girls will keep you on the edge of your seat because you know what is coming, then this is a must read. But be warned – it packs an emotional wallop that will leave you drained.

Rose Under Fire tells the tale of Rose Justice, a young American pilot who comes to England during WWII to ferry planes for the British military. A series of unfortunate events lands Rose in Ravensbruck, the largest of Germany’s female concentration camps. Refusing to make bombs, a job that would allow her better food and lodging, Rose is enveloped in the general prisoner population, learning to survive through the help of a group of amazing women.

 Would I recommend it? Yes, yes, yes! Once again, Elizabeth Wein weaves a story that compels you to keep reading even though you fear the outcome. This is a story that can never be told enough for fear of history repeating itself and it’s this certainty coupled with strong female characters you fall in love with that keep you turning page after page. I would recommend reading Code Name Verity first. It’s not completely necessary, however, there are connections that will be deeper if you do.  

What I liked…

• One of the things that is so well done in this story is how, through stories she tells, Rose shows us how disconnected life in America was during the war years. Europe was knee deep in it years before the U.S. got involved. The war was in their backyards, falling from the skies above their homes, marching through their towns, so much more than a newsreel which is what it was to Rose until she became a part of it.
• Rose is a poet and it is poetry and stories that helps keep her and those around her alive – it is an escape, an inspiration, and a currency. In the end, it also educates the world.
• Rose is adopted by the Rabbits, a group of women the Nazis used as surgical Guinea Pigs. She is taken under the wing of their camp mother.
• The friendships Rose develops inside the camp are heartbreakingly wonderful. The women care for each other, look out for each other, hide each other. Their goal is to stay alive and tell the world what has gone on behind the walls.
• The story is told in flashbacks and the contrast between the Parisian Ritz and Ravensbruck is striking – the food, the comforts, the insaneness.
• The psychological damage was something I never thought much about. The starvation and staying alive dreaming of food. The inability to even explain what happened. The part of you that can’t go home because you aren’t you anymore but your family doesn’t understand.
• The ‘look’ that identifies a camp survivor – how many people had that look?
• While the story doesn’t go into graphic detail, it also does not shy away from the truth.
• Anna! She’s back!  And she’s as complicated as I hoped she would be!

 What distracted me?

•  I started this book expecting the wonderful British voice of the previous book, but Rose is American and that hit me square in the face from the first page. But I got over it – quickly.
• I kept stopping and searching Ravensbruck and Rabbits and the doctors and the trials…and this isn’t a bad thing!

What I would consider before handing this to my kid:

• It is a story about a concentration camp told from the perspective of a prisoner. There is death, there is torture. Rose is flogged. She builds a gas chamber. She is on a crew that removes dead bodies from the infirmary. Horrific disfiguring experimental surgeries performed on Rose’s friends are described. A fellow prisoner and friend is sent to the gas chamber because she steals Rose’s coat so Rose can escape and tell the world. Grade 8 on up.

 Final Thoughts: This is a powerful book. It does not shy away from the horror and left me emotionally drained. Most of all, it made me think, and that is the highest compliment I can give a book. Read this one.