Rose Under Fire

"While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners: a once glamorous French novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed, a resilient young Polish girl who has been used as a human guinea pig by Nazi doctors, and a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force. But will that be enough to endure the fate that's in store for her?" I've been waiting so long and have been so excited for Rose Under Fire, the companion to the brilliant Code Name Verity. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my hands on an ARC, but the book finally came out September 10th. Like Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire takes a little while to actually get into, before it becomes the amazing, touching, heartbreaking book I knew it would be. As other reviewers have said, Rose Under Fire is less emotionally intense and less intense in general than Code Name Verity, but it's still a great book, and might be a better one depending on what your preferences are. Oddly enough, I didn't cry during Code Name Verity, or Rose Under Fire for that matter, but to me, Rose Under Fire felt much more close, more real, perhaps because before Rose is captured there are lots of descriptions of daily life and that makes her experiences in the concentration camp all the more awful in comparison. Still, I felt very emotionally wrought and rung out after reading both of these books. They're the kind of books where you need to read something light right afterwards to recover. Rose Justice is an interesting and good new character. I'm glad that we got to meet an amazing new narrator, who I really fell in love with. That said, I didn't love most of the poems that were in the book, though a few of them were pretty good. It was a nice idea, but it didn't work very well for me; I'm not exactly sure why. There were lots of excellent anecdotes in Rose Under Fire; maybe it was less sensational, but in some ways that made it a better read. I really enjoyed a lot of the descriptions, and it was a lot of the small things that Rose writes about that really got me, that hit me, and made me feel like crying or laughing or both. The very first one was Rose's description of the barrage balloons: "I can't get over how beautiful the barrage balloons are. I can't even talk about it to anyone - they all think I am crazy. But when you're in the air, and the sky above you is a sea of gray mist and the land below you is all green, the silver balloons float in between like a school of shining silver whales, bobbing a little in the wind. They are as big as buses, and I and every other pilot have a healthy fear of them because their tethering cables are loaded with explosives to try to snarl up enemy aircraft. But they are just magical from above, great big silver bubbles filling the sky. Incredible. It is just incredible that you can notice something like that when your face is so cold you can't feel it anymore, and you know perfectly well you are surrounded by death, and the only way to stay alive is to endure the howling wind and hold your course. And still the sky is beautiful." I loved those two paragraphs. I also loved the scene where Maddie and Rose confront the boys who are trying to take apart the bomb. I mentioned the little things that hit me really hard. One of those was just a candlewick bedspread. Here's part of the passage: "It was the stupid candlewick bedspread's fault! Mrs. Hatch's bedspreads feel the same as the ones Mother has out on the sleeping porch. Anyway, I had the candlewick on my bed pulled up to my chin last night, and after I thought about the house party, I started thinking about the sleeping porch...I got so homesick I began to cry. I just couldn't stop thinking about the sleeping porch. It's funny what sets you off. You miss people the most - really it is Polly and Alice and Sandy and Fran whom I am lonely for - but it is the candlewick bedspread that makes me ache with longing to be home." There was also another really poignant small moment, when Rose is first captured by the Germans: "Someone came in and gave me a cup of fake coffee and something a lot like a bologna sandwich, which I would have eaten if I had realized it was the last bologna sandwich I was ever going to see. But I just couldn't eat. I have dreams about that sandwich." That was so awful, as well as being a great piece of foreshadowing. Wein also includes some good descriptions of the war itself. "They've [the Germans] lost. They must know they've lost - that they're on the run. It's all so pointless. It shouldn't take another year. But I bet it will. It's not desperation - there is something inhuman in it. That is what I find so creepy. Five years of destruction and mayhem, lives lost everywhere, shortages of food and fuel and clothing -- and the insane mind behind it just urges us all on and on to more destruction. And we all keep playing." It was very chilling. I had tons of passages marked in the book, but I can't spout all the of the amazing quotes in Rose Under Fire; it would just take too long. It was somehow more emotional to me, not necessarily better, but more relatable. Both of these books are definitely among my favorites. Just like Code Name Verity, there are great female friendships in Rose Under Fire: between Maddie and Rose before Rose is captured, and between the woman suffering in the concentration camp. Really, just as many awful things happen in Rose Under Fire as in Code Name Verity: torture and worse. It's just, I suppose, a more quiet book. And the ending is happier, at least in some ways. I loved that Rose was an American; it was a different take and one that makes sense. I enjoyed reading from her perspective a lot; she can kind of look at England and Germany with an impartial eye, but she cares just as deeply about the war and about flying. She narrates the story of her experiences in the camp from after she's rescued, so we know she doesn't die. But she's been deeply scarred, inwardly and outwardly. Elizabeth Wein's writing style is so distinctive and easily recognizable, and yet I can't quite put my finger down on what it is that makes her writing her's and makes it so deeply moving. Any ideas? Like in Code Name Verity, the book is narrated through personal writings and some letters, although the set-up is different, and it's not as ingeniously plotted or thriller-like. Because, you know, Code Name Verity had that whole mystery which took your breath away, which is a whole level of complexity that Rose Under Fire didn't really have. Still, I just freaking loved it. The book has some great similes and metaphors, such as in the passage about the barrage balloons. The writing is just beautiful, and it captured this amazing story. I would highly, highly recommend Rose Under Fire, whether or not you've read Code Name Verity (although it will spoil the ending of CNV).

I very much liked Code Name Verity- and so began this book. This happens after the events in Code Name Verity. It goes into detail about what went on in Ravensbruck- and it is eye opening and sobering. My one complaint is the language used by 2 characters- Anna and Roza- lots of F words- and I understand it was part of their character- but personally, it wasn't necessary and if this is targeted towards YA- that's a no. So if you're a parent looking at this for your teen- be aware of that-- otherwise the story was very good.

This book is just beautiful in its emotional wallop and engrossing story telling. And when I say beautiful, I definitely don't mean the world our characters are in. The author does not pull the punches in dropping her readers into the harsh and gritty world of the concentration camp our characters are in. Within that horrific world, though, she's able to shine a light on the camaraderie between these women as they struggle for survival and the light of hope they refuse to let extinguish. Our main character, Rose Justice, at first made me raise an eyebrow. I had a hard time believing that the British government would hire an 18 year old girl to do any kind of flying for them, no matter what training she had. But overall, whether that point is true or not, Rose won me over with her pluck, her determination, her strength of character, and her courage. Despite the truly horrid circumstances she finds herself in, she won't give up the struggle to survive. The other women in the camp were extremely three-dimensional to me. They were all unique individuals caught up in this atrocious place and struggling to survive it in their own unique ways. Some used sarcasm, some used sheer grit, some used emotions, and some used intelligence. I liked that variety as it gave the everyone their own personality and made it so that no one was a background character. The horrors of the setting and the emotions they evoked were definitely not glossed over. Whether it was bombed-out London, the interior of the camp, or the Nuremburg trials, everything was vivid and stark in its reality. I felt the emotions inspired by the setting that the characters experienced. I experienced the settings with the characters: the horror of the camp, the freedom of flying for Rose, the tenseness in the courtroom, and the moments of readjusting and panic in the Hotel Ritz. Everything was vivid and stark in its realism and emotional wallop. This book was an incredible look at WWII, the Holocaust, and its effects on the individuals that experienced both. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who isn't afraid to read this subject matter and be emotionally moved. It's a book to savor and contemplate long after reading.

Absolutely fabulous book! It is one of four that go together—Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire, The Pearl Thief and The Enigma Game. I suggest reading all four of them and in the order that the author suggests. That’s not exactly a difficult thing to do since after you finish one, you’ll be very happy to have more to read! These can easily be stand alones but the characters all cross over into each of the books. Elizabeth Wein is an incredible author and these are books that keep popping into your mind long after you’ve finished reading them. I will be rereading all of them again very soon.

This is part of the author’s Code Name Verity series. Rose has grown up flying planes in the U.S. and volunteers to be part of the auxiliary force to transport military planes in the U.K. during WWII. She gets an assignment to take a flight of passengers over to Paris. As she is bringing a plane back, she encounters a V-1 flying bomb and attempts to knock it off course. This act leads her to be captured by German forces who are shocked to find a female pilot once she is on the ground. Due to confusion on the ground, she ends up with a group of French female political prisoners and is incarcerated at the Ravensbrűck concentration camp. Her story is told via letters and flashbacks after her escape and liberation and the follow-up trials for crimes against humanity. The author portrays the girls and women that were experimented on at the camp with horrific surgical procedures and infected with various agents, known as "the Rabbits". While her story is fiction, it is based on actual events at the camp and is a moving and horrifying portrayal of what went on during the war, with both the depths and the heights of the human experience.

What an insanely powerful and heart-wrenching book. I picked up Rose Under Fire after reading Wein's other historical novel, Code Name Verity. Her inimitable style is similarly perfect for a book that delves into the horrors of Ravensbruck, and the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II. The novel, as narrated by Rose Justice in her journal, is intense and unrelenting in it's goal of showing the true nature of the work and concentration camps run by the Nazi regime. It is not an easy book to read; it is a painful one. And yet that is why it needs to be read and needs to be talked about. Events that happened over 60 years ago are still brutally fresh in the minds of many survivors, but that will not always been true. Novels like this ensure that we will not soon forget what happened in those camps, and hopefully will inspire us all as a human race to prevent similar occurrences in the future. Wein once again is masterful in her command of difficult topics. She never lets us pity Rose, but rather shows us Rose's journey and makes us feel as if we were there. She plays not on our sympathy, but on our empathy, as a good writer should. I am in awe of her skill. Rose is an ideal narrator, because as an American outsider, we share her disbelief at her surroundings and at the violations of basic human principles she sees. And she is ideal because she is a tremendous character, who can teach all of us how to survive when we truly feel the world is against us. Read this book. Do not put it down. Finish it. And talk about it. Although it may be fiction, what it can teach us is absolute truth.

As I've said many times before, I am a sucker for WWII espionage and strong women in that role. In fact, because I am such a sucker, I've bought some books with that premise that I wish I could get my money back on. This is not one of them. Unlike other readers, I had not read the prequel - this was my first taste of Rose. It starts right off in the action and continues all the way thru. I learned about the strange respect German's had for women flyers and about the 'Rabbits' in concentration camps (women experimented on by operations, poisons, and torture of the worst fathomable kind). I choose to think that Rose got her gumption by being American, but I discovered courage and gumption was rampant in Britain, Poland, Paris, and even Russia at that time - thank God. Strangely, most of this novel takes place in the year 1945. I say strangely because so much happened in that 1 year that it was almost unbelievable. I became disillusioned when the storyline became long and repetitive. I thought that was terribly unfair of the author - there were so many things happening and they each deserved their own due diligence. I was also disappointed with how weak the main character became. When you see what Rose endured, it should have made her tougher, not weaker. And to top it all off, the author proclaims everything about Rose and what she endured was completely made up. What a letdown......not that I only read true stories, but I felt the author diminished the theme and took away from the Nuremberg findings by her blatant statement of 'make believe.' Saying the storyline was based on many of the findings from the Nurenberg trials would have given more credence to a very long narrative. I doubt I'll read anything else from Jenoff.

I read this book for two reasons, with the first being it is the Goodreads February Discussion for Books Hot Off the Presses and the second is my participation in the 2014 HUB Reading Challenge. This book is on the list of the 2014 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. Rose Justice is a transport pilot, who grew up outside Hershey, PA. It is during the war that Rose's plane is intercepted, she is captured by the Germans and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she is a prisoner for six months. Rose and the other captives (who are there much longer)endure beatings, torture, experimentation, and deprivation. It is during her imprisonment and after, as she recuperates in Paris that the full story emerges. What was so wonderful about this story was the "family" Rose formed while in Ravensbrück and it was these bonds that enabled them to endure and in many cases, survive. Wein weaves the importance of family throughout the whole book; with Rose's Hershey family, her pilot friends who are her family before her capture and the Rabbits, Lisette, Irina, Roza, Karolina and others who are her camp family. Rose uses her poetry and storytelling with her concentration camp friends to as a way to remember life before and survive each day whatever way they could. It is during her imprisonment (and after) with the Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials and the Doctors' Trial against Nazi war criminals that Rose emerges as a much stronger person; a writer and medical student, and is able to bear witness in her own way to the atrocities of the camp and let the world know the names of all 75 of the Rabbits who were maimed (and many killed) by Nazis due to their experimentation. Readers will love the women (pilots, survivors, and those who do not survive) in this book; their bravery, fury, compassion, defiance, craziness, and beauty. Highly recommended!

I read Code Name Verity, Wein’s first YA WWII novel about women during the war, quite a few years ago now. At the time, I loved it, as the World Wars are a time period I’m very interested in learning about. So, when I stumbled across the fact Wein had published another similar novel, I was over the moon. However, part of me worried it wouldn’t live up to the expectations of the first book. That worry was pretty stupid, because of course Rose Under Fire was great. It tells the story of a young American girl who puts her passion for flying to use as she delivers planes for the allies in Britain, taking them to where they need to be for repairs or where fighter pilots need them. Rose is frustrated by the fact that the female ATA pilots cannot travel abroad. However, she has a few family connections, and strings are pulled that allow her to fly to a part of France recently liberated by the allies. That’s where something goes wrong. The story has a slow start, but it’s not a bad kind of slow. It sets up Rose’s character well, the position of women in the air force, and what it was like for those in Britain during the Blitz. Wein is brilliant at crafting a believable voice for her first-person narrators. Both Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire are written in diary format. The little descriptions Wein throws in of Rose’s childhood are detailed yet short, building up a believable portrait of Rose Justice. Rose is headstrong yet romantic, and it’s these qualities that get her through the horrors of the war as one headstrong mistake lands her in enemy territory, away from the relative safety she has known in Britain and America. We don’t initially find out quite what’s happened to Rose. Her diary ends abruptly a quarter of the way through when she is supposed to be heading home from France and the voice changes to a friend. From this section, we glean that Rose has gone missing, presumed dead. Then, Rose’s voice returns some six months later. She has made it back from Ravensbruck, the concentration camp for women. The rest of the book follows Rose as she writes about the horrors she has witnessed and endured, as well as the struggles she faces readjusting to life after the war. Wein details a horrific and vivid depiction of Ravensbruck, making sure not to dress-up the story in a way that makes it easier to read. This part of the story is harrowing, yet tinged with hope, as Rose finds a surrogate family in the camp, with two stand-out characters being Roza and Irina. Roza in particular was a captivating character, especially because of who she was. Roza is one of the Rabbits, Polish girls who were experimented on by the Nazis in Ravensbruck. These experiments involved, in very simple terms, cutting into the girls legs and studying infection, as well as removing parts of bones. As a result, Roza struggles to walk, but what has been done to her only enhances her already feisty, and sometimes heartless, nature. Roza can be really quite rude and spiteful, and it seems these are qualities she has had since childhood. Yet, despite the fact she can say some very nasty things, I really warmed to her. She’s determined, vicious, intent on justice for what has happened to the Rabbits. You can’t entirely blame her for her sometimes savage remarks after the way she’s been treated since her capture at age 14. She was definitely the most nuanced, as well as flawed yet likeable, character. Then there is Irina, who is a Soviet fighter pilot. Like Roza, she can also be a bit hard, but together with Rose she is instrumental in the survival of this ragtag family of girls: Rose, Roza, Irina, Karolina and Lisette. They are determined that the world will know what has gone on here, that the world will find out what was done to the Rabbits. As the American, Rose is singled out as the one with the connections to get the story out there. I really grew to love these characters. Even at the darkest moments, they stick together, intent on getting Roza and the other Rabbits’ story out of the camp. Sometimes when reading, I struggled with the fact that this all really happened. Whilst Rose’s personal story or Karolina’s or Lisette’s didn’t specifically happen, Ravensbruck did exist, and so did the Rabbits. I thought the story was brilliantly written. Harrowing, hopeful, and not afraid to shy away from the realities of the war and the lengths these women would go to to make sure the world knew, to make sure that at least some of them got out alive. Perhaps my only criticism, which is not actually a criticism, is that it ended too soon. I was so engrossed that when I turned the final page, I was shocked to see the notes from the author. I turned back and forth, confused, and then re-read the final passage, in disbelief that I wouldn’t find out any more. I cannot recommend Rose Under Fire and Code Name Verity enough. Even if you’re not a fan of WWII fiction, I urge you to read them. The writing and characterisation is great, and the stories open your eyes to the atrocities that have been committed, and the hope that endured.

Okay. This book was so close to my heart. I cried so often because of the way this author written she's a brilliant author god. This story obviously was mounted with grief but I like how it was handled and ohgod the concentration camp. I never knew it was that bad. I was like so scared and sad. But I loved this book from the very beginning. I love both code name Verity and this with all my heart. If you don't read this, you're life is incomplete. Trust me

Frankreich, 1944: Die junge Amerikanerin Rose Justice ist als Pilotin für die RAF tätig, als sie den Deutschen in die Hände fällt. Rose landet im KZ Ravensbrück, wo sie die Grausamkeiten der Nazis am eigenen Leib erfährt. Die Freundschaft mit einer kleinen Gruppe Frauen in ihrer Baracke und ihre Lyrik halten Rose halbwegs auf den Beinen und sie hofft, bis zur Befreiung durch die Alliierten durchzuhalten. ROSE UNDER FIRE ist nach CODE NAME VERITY der zweite Roman von Elizabeth Wein, der sich mit den Frauen in der RAF und deren Schicksal während des Zweiten Weltkriegs beschäftigt. Beide Bücher stehen für sich alleine, es gibt allerdings ein paar lose Verbindungen. Wer alle zwei Romane lesen möchte, sollte unbedingt mit CODE NAME VERITY beginnen, da es ansonsten zu großen Spoilern kommt. In ROSE UNDER FIRE erzählt Rose in Form von Tagebucheinträgen von ihren Erlebnissen. Sie ist mit ihren 18 Jahren noch recht naiv und als Amerikanerin vom Krieg in Europa natürlich unberührt, erst nach und nach wächst sie an ihren Erlebnissen. Rose ist nicht nur Pilotin aus Leidenschaft, sie ist auch eine angehende Dichterin, die ihre Erfahrungen in zahlreichen Gedichten verarbeitet. Rose findet in Ravensbrück schnell Anschluss an eine Gruppe Frauen, die sehr unter den Nazis gelitten haben. Sie wurden von den Lagerärzten als Versuchskaninchen missbraucht und schrecklichen medizinischen Tests unterzogen. Die Figuren in ROSE UNDER FIRE haben mir sehr gut gefallen. Die Gruppe rund um Rose ist eine verschworene kleine Familie, die gemeinsam durch dick und dünn geht. Roza, Irina, Lisette und all die anderen waren mir sehr sympathisch und über ihre Freundschaft zu lesen, ist sehr bewegend. Die Handlung von ROSE UNDER FIRE hat mich ebenfalls völlig überzeugt. Der Überlebenskampf der Frauen ist packend und ergreifend geschildert. Die Spannung kommt auf keinen Fall zu kurz im Roman. Alles in allem ist ROSE UNDER FIRE ein großartiger historischer Roman, den ich uneingeschränkt empfehlen kann.

What a book it was both heartbreaking and uplifting. I have read many books on this subject and this is one of the best. The characters really drew u in and felt like u were their. How anyone could survive and thrive something like that is a testament to their strength. And the perpetrators who committed the crimes may they rot in hell. And may we never forget.

Following "Code Name Verity" was always going to be a huge challenge, I'll make no bones about that. Sadly "Rose Under Fire" suffered not only from following a great act but also from not being as painfully/wonderfully gripping as its predecessor. The most obvious problem was that the main part of the story is told in retrospect. Despite the appalling things Rose experiences, somehow the edge was taken off for me because we knew her ultimate fate was freedom and a return to the people she knew. There was still the fate of all Rose's friends and even passing acquaintances to add tension, but there was never anything like the terror from Verity of not knowing until the very end what happened to Julie. That said, the harrowing representation of the camp was absorbing and terrifying and literally awe-inspiring. If Wein's mission was to tell the world, that she most certainly did. And that in itself earned the 4th star for this review. It may not give the 5-star dizzying highs of Verity, but I would still highly recommend reading it nonetheless. The story of the Rabbits deserves to be told, to be remembered. Lest we ever forget.