Kate Quinn has done it again! This tremendously talented author (one of my favorites) has once again written another engrossing, transportive work of historical fiction with a strong, formidable female protagonist at its center. In a provocative narrative based on the real life story of Lyudmila "Mila" Pavlichenko, a Russian librarian and history student turned deadly sniper, Quinn returns to the WWII time period of her previous novel, except this time, the focus is on the Soviet front and the physical battles fought during the war. Mila's story is fascinating in its own right, but through her beautifully rendered prose, Quinn truly brings this little-known war heroine to life. I love the way Quinn writes her characters in all her books and this time around was no exception. With the character of Mila, I appreciated how, despite the moniker "Lady Death" and a tally of 309 kills to her name, the focus throughout most of the story wasn't really on her fame per se, but rather, on her humanity. Mila was formidable, but never hostile, and in the face of everything she had to deal with — taking care of her son as a single mother, pushing back against the bias and prejudices she had to endure on a daily basis in her field of work, fending off those with bad intentions toward her, being tasked with defending her country against foreign advances, etc. — the tremendous strength and fortitude she consistently displayed was nothing short of admirable.
This was a meticulously researched, engaging story that I found difficult to put down. I learned a lot about a segment of WWII history that I was less familiar with, which I appreciated, as I always hope to learn something from my reading experiences. Kate Quinn's novels have all been 5 star reads for me up to this point and while this one was indeed wonderful, it did fall a tad bit short this time around, mostly because I felt parts of the story leaned a little too much into the technical aspects related to weaponry and battle, which has never been a subject of interest for me. Also, I felt the storyline involving Alexei went on for way too long, and the way he seemed to keep popping up all over the place honestly kind of annoyed me.
One thing I do have to mention — given the context of what is going on in the world currently involving Russia and Ukraine, it was honestly hard to read this book and not feel impacted in some way by the similarities of war. This would be the one caution about reading this book during this time.
That notwithstanding though, The Diamond Eye is a magnificent story that is absolutely well-worth the read. Highly recommended!!
Received ARC from William Morrow and Company via NetGalley.
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