Getting around to reading a book (other than a textbook) can be tough in college, we know this. When you’re cramming in between classes, Her Campus Lasell’s got you covered.
Introducing Cristina Reads Too Much, a weekly segment where we break down and spill the tea about the best books RN and give our honest reviews and ratings.
The Rundown:
Loosely based on real events, this World-War-Two-set novel from beloved historical novelist Kate Quinn tells the intertwining stories of three individuals whose lives become entangled during a search to identify a Nazi war criminal known only as The Huntress, who notoriously killed six Polish children. During the war, a young Russian woman named Nina Markova falls prey to the elusive murderess. A fearless pilot in the legendary all-female Red Air Force regiment,the Night Witches, she wreaks havoc on the Germans by dropping bombs–until one day, she finds herself behind enemy lines. There, she comes face-to-face with The Huntress, only for her to vanish into thin air not long after. Several years later in 1950, burned-out British war journalist Ian Graham takes on the role of Nazi hunter, and makes it his personal mission to identify The Huntress and take her to trial. He seeks Nina out to help him, believing her to be the last person to see her. Through Nina’s chapters, we learn of her years in the Red Air Force as a Night Witch, of her secrets and ultimately, her encounter with The Huntress. Meanwhile, young aspiring photographer Jordan McBride is coming of age in postwar Boston. When her long-widowed father brings home a German woman named Anneliese Weber and her four-year-old daughter Ruth, Jordan is excited at the prospect of her lonely father remarrying but can’t deny her suspicions about her new stepmother. Anneliese claims that she is a widow who left Germany for America at the end of the war, but after a little snooping, Jordan realizes that her narratives don’t add up. When their search for The Huntress brings Nina and Ian to Boston, their stories become entangled with Jordan’s in a way nobody ever thought possible.
My thoughts:
Engaging, dramatic, and beautifully written, The Huntress was a story that I could not put down! Quinn expertly crafts both strong female and male characters, and intertwines the narratives of Nina, Jordan, and Ian beautifully. I loved the little mystery happening throughout, and was pleasantly surprised when I correctly guessed the identity of The Huntress (which I can’t disclose for fear of spoiling the book). The characters and the plot are largely fictional, but Quinn weaves in some interesting historical tidbits as well–the Night Witches were a real regiment, and The Huntress is based on two women who did indeed murder Polish children during WWII. Just read this book, you won’t regret it.
My rating:
5 out of 5 stars
Favorite Quotation:
“The dead lie beyond any struggle, so we living must struggle for them. We must remember, because there are other wheels that turn besides the wheel of justice. Time is a wheel, vast and indifferent, and when time rolls on and men forget, we face the risk of circling back. We slouch yawning to a new horizon and find ourselves gazing at old hatreds seeded and watered by forgetfulness and flowering into new wars. New massacres. New monsters like die Jägerin. Let this wheel stop. Let us not forget this time. Let us remember.”