The Woman with the Blue Star
Historical Fiction
Park Row Books
May 4, 2021
Advance readers copy
352
Free from publisher
1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.
Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Kraków restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding.
Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by harrowing true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an emotional testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.
My review:
3.5 stars
Despite the plethora of World War II stories out in the world, this one did have something different that I hadn't encountered before. This is a historical fiction account of two Jewish families who lived within the sewer system of their city in order to escape almost certain deportment to concentration camps. The very idea of this was fascinating, but made for some extremely tense moments during reading. The ever present danger of being discovered was of course the main focus, but when the sewer starts to flood from excessive rain, I was on the edge of my seat! I loved the explorations that the younger members of the families made to find different avenues to navigate underneath the city, but also to map out a way to escape if necessary. The story mainly focuses on two young women, one who lives in the sewer, and the other who discovers her there beneath a grate, and tries to help her. I was really enjoying this one, until the obligatory romances had to come into play. Ugh, just not my thing, and a great way to bring a bit of my enthusiasm down 🙁 Nevertheless, I did really enjoy the tension packed ending, and the epilogue was absolutely lovely! The writing in this one was straight forward and I never felt that the story dragged. The friendship that develops between Sadie and Ella was poignant and very believable.
As with most World War II novels, I always learn something new, and this one was no exception. While I could have done without the romance, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the story and would definitely recommend, especially for fans of WWII historical fiction and stories about unlikely friendships.
