Great story. Couldn’t put it down. Great character development. Definitely recommend.  Would be a great book to gift.

— I recieved an eARC for this via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review —
What a book. I simultaneously loved it and constantly wanted to cry. I couldn’t put it down and could’t bear to read on. 
A beautifully written and haunting tale of the lives of two girls in a concentration camp, with a lot of morally gray areas and decisions. I loved (well, loved might be the wrong word, more like enjoyed how well it was crafted) the inner turmoil Ella and Rose had, trying to make sense of their world and their position in it.

Book: The Red Ribbon 
Author: Lucy Adlington 
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Hot Key Books, for providing me with this ARC. 

Okay, this one has been compared to the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which I have never read. The Red Ribbon is set at Auschwitz, which is one of the worst concertation camps. Ella has found herself a job there-as a seamstress. Finding a job is about the only way she can stay alive; I think we all know what happens to those who cannot work. 

So, anyway, Ella. I loved her character. No matter what happens, she finds a way to hold onto the good in life, which is mostly inspired by her best friend, Rose. The girls really do seem like normal girls doing normal things-expect they are at Auschwitz. Her point of view is extremely strong.  Lucy casually mentions things from Ella’s past and sometimes you don’t always catch it. It really hits you hard and makes you really think about history. It just brings the horrors to life. 

Rose was the one who held everything together. I really do think that without her, Ella would not had come as hard as she did. Rose is so sweet and caring, yet loyal and strong. She kind of reminded me of that person who enters the room and puts a smile on your face. I just found myself cheering her on. 

The writing was beautiful and emotional. The last book that hit me like this emotionally was The Radium Girls. Those of you who have read it, know what I’m talking about. The Red Ribbon is one of those books that makes you stop and think. It really makes you question what is going on in the world. Granted, The Red Ribbon is modern, but it still makes you stop and think. Lucy does a wonderful job at writing about something that is kind of a touchy subject. Most Holocaust books are kind of genetic with the same plotline, but this one really hits home. Though the characters are not real, you find yourself clinging to them and wondering what happens to them. You laugh, you cry, and you for them. To make you feel that way, requires a very talented author. 

So, The Red Ribbon comes out September 18, 2018. I encourage you to go out and pick it up. It’s a quick read and is for middle schoolers, but I think all ages will enjoy this one. If only I taught middle school, then I could use this book in my reading program. 

(Review is on Goodreads and will be posted on Amazon on publication day.)

This was absolutely fantastic. I loved it from start to end, it made me angry and made me cry, and the story of the girls being seamstresses inside a concentration camp, sewing outfits for the high-up ladies, was utterly fascinating!

I wanna start by saying I received an EARC of this novel by netgalley  for an honest review. When I received this on net galley I didn't expect to have already been published in 2017. I was happy to say I actually really liked this novel. At first I skeptical but as I continued reading I started to really enjoy it. This novel is an emotional ride you won't regret taking. I highly recommend looking for this one at your local bookstore and giving it a try.

Haunting, horrific and devastating. this novel captures some of the horrors of Auschwitz. Ella and Rose become friends while being forced to work in Madame H's sewing shop. This book describes the day to day life in such a way that you feel like you are reading a memoir. This novel will definitely stick with me for a while.

Rose becomes Ella's friend and bunk mate in the Birchwood, Auschwitz camp where they work tirelessly away on garment after garment for their customers.



Marta is their boss and watches over their work and punishes or approves the girls work while taking credit for made garments most of the time especially when it comes to Carla their main recurring customer.



Ella talks of life with her grandma learning to see whilst Rose has a posh upbringing as her mum was an author and father a gentleman. She often feels Rose lives in a fantasy made up.



However the horrors of concentration camps we learn about in history play out in this book, ideas of liberation, hard labour, dangerous illness and has chambers, bartering for food as well.



We see strong bonds of friendship woven between our two main characters as they act like sisters taking care of each other both holding onto hope of escaping and finding their ways back home or to each other with the red ribbon they share binding their friendship.



We learn of the harsh truths of life and how strong they fight to survive I'm sure is how it was really for many girls, women and boys, men too. They hold into hope with their ribbon helping them fantasize about The brighter future they stand to possibly reach eventually.



The girls lives were harshly real and each page was stitched with words bringing their story to a very real seeming emotional and hard life.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

When I first started reading this book, I had forgotten that it was about the Holocaust. It read, if you didn't know better, like a future dystopia, where children were grabbed off the street and forced to work at whatever they could, in a place away from the rest of the world.

Part of this is sort of on purpose, because to make us truly see how horrible this is, the author always refers to Birkenau as Birchwood, which is the translation of the word into English.  She refers to Paris as the City of Light.   She wants, I expect, to see if she can bring us fully into the story, into the horror that were the concentration camps, but removing the language that we are used to. 

And it works. Although this is fiction, it is based on fact, that there really was a contingent of women sewing for the commandant, and his wife, and the officers, while the ovens and the gas chambers happened all around them.

Very good, sad story. But hope is always there. Very realistic. 

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

"The Red Ribbon" is a beautifully written novel about the atrocities of the Holocaust and the people who were forced to suffer in Auschwitz.

The novel doesn't shy away from the horrific things happening at concentration camps during WW2 and shows how the prisoners and even some of the guards were struggling to survive and to decide what choices to make.

I really liked that the characters were all so different from each other and how their choices were all understandable if not always entirely palatable. I was especially impressed by Adlington's attempts to humanize one of the guards without downplaying how awful her actions and the ideology she follows truly are.

The main focus of the novel, of course, is Ella and she is a wonderful protagonist to follow. Her determination to survive and her struggle to make the right choices and make the best of a situation that shouldn't exist in the first place make her a well-developed, sympathetic, and very human character.

Overall, this novel deals with a heavy subject matter in a beautiful and heart-breaking way.