Code Name Sapphire

On top of finishing reading The Poetics of Passion yesterday, last night I finished reading Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff who I did a Q&A with last summer. The book is based on a very true story about resistance fighters trying to attempt to stop a train heading to Auschwitz concentration camp. The book is from the point of view of three women Micheline the leader of the Sapphire resistance line, and two Jewish cousins Lily and Hannah. Hannah is forced to flee Germany and attempts to go to Cuba, but when the Cubans don’t except them she is forced to go to Belgium to stay with Lily and gets involved with the resistance.

Pros

My favorite character I have to say is Micheline the leader of the Sapphire Line. I also like her brother Matteo. She’s a no nonsense leader and out of the three leads she is the most interesting. I honestly wish the book was just from her point of view. I like the fact that this book brings attention to an actual event that many people didn’t know about. While there are many books about World War II, I like the fact that many of these World War II Books are bringing about topics many people may not know about and sometimes people we may not know about.

Cons

Oh lord there were too many. The book started off interesting but then I took breaks from reading it and when you take multiple breaks reading a book because you chose to that’s not a good sign. There were also many things that seemed too stupid, convenient and convoluted. The love triangle with Lily, Matteo and Hannah took away from the story. Another example is Hannah is visiting her cousin Lily in a concentration camp and I’m thinking, “Wait a minute? Concentration Camps don’t have visiting hours.” Hannah and Lily are both Jewish so if anything they would have thrown Hannah in the camp with Lily. There’s a lot more I could gripe about but I don’t want to spend the entire review giving any huge spoilers.

Overall

It’s unfortunate. The story had such promise and could have been great if it didn’t meander on and on, the characters were likeable and if there wasn’t a stupid love triangle mixed in. I hope another author writes a book about the event to help those escape that train to Auschwitz.