LitPick Review
Girl in the Ashes is a captivating book centered on the life of Odette, a young woman with a scarred past. At a very young age, Odette Lefebvre saw her mother die in the hands of a vile man. Since then, she made it her duty to rid Paris of it's corrupt men. Not women. Not children. Men only. She lured her victims into her cellar where she administered the only justice she knew: death. But since the Germans occupied France, she promised herself to keep a low profile, and she had to remain even more cautious now that her best friend Aloysius, who also happens to be a police officer, is tasked with investigating the disappearance of one of her victims. However, despite her efforts to avoid attention, Dr. Kohler Isle, the new German head doctor, seemed to take a peculiar interest in her. With Isle in the picture, Odette's secrets might just be subject to a looming threat of exposure.
Opinion:
Girl in the Ashes is a really captivating story, set during the German occupation of France. I love how the author portrayed how uncertainty covered Paris at the time. Parisians were not sure what the fate of their country would be. Would they live the rest of their lives in constant fear, unease, and hunger, or would they someday be free from the grip of the Germans? The book is not just about violence and death. It also deals with some deep emotions. Throughout the book, we could see how Odette kept remembering the past. The book kept going back in the past and forward in the present. It shows how Odette couldn't really move on from the past, thus making her shut everyone out of her emotions. Though the story is dark and intense sometimes, it also shows moments of beauty and hope; moments that showed that even the most unlikely of characters could be capable of love. I love that the characters are flawed. Their flaws make the characters feel more real and relatable. Odette wasn't the person others perceived her to be. Aloysius was just a simple character but was also a polio survivor. Agnes, Aloysius' mother, had her own secrets. Even minor characters like the butcher have a story to tell. The tension between Dr. Kohler and Odette made the book even more captivating. It's sure to keep readers hooked.
