*May contain spoilers* 3.5 Stars

I'm a little embarrassed how long it took me to actually finish this book. But having finally finished it I have mixed feelings about the overall book. I'm a lover of historical fiction and having read the first installment in this series I was anticipating to realllly love this book. I'm shocked to see how most couldn't put it down as I thought there were SEVERAL sections that seemed to move so slowly; and then it sped up so fast at the end to give it the sweet tidy ending everyone knows is coming-it fell a little short for me. I'm amazed that it's based on a true story and Cilka's story, like so many of that time, is one of bravery, courage and endurance.

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so tough to read. The things these women went through in the Siberian Gulag, just gutted me. But Morris has a way of making sure she gives the reader a break from all the dismal things, and I love how she weaves a thread of hope through all of her stories. I'll definitely read her next book, but I'm not sad for a break from her harsh stories for a while.

I loved the Tattooist of Auchwitz and was really excited to read this sequel. It did not disappoint. It was heartbreaking, inspring, tragic, and hopeful. I loved it and would definitely recommend it.

While I liked this book, it simply does not compare to The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I still suggest reading it if you were a fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but be warned that you may not love Cilka's Journey as much as you liked the other. Cilka's story was very well-written, but it was not as capturing as The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Cilka’s Journey is the fictional story of Cecilia Klein , Cilka survived three years at Auschwitz-Birkenau only to be deemed a collaborator by the Russians who liberated the camp in 1945. She is sent to the Soviet Gulag in Siberia..
The story was heartbreaking and terrifying.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

I am so happy that I was able to read this book before it was published. Now I won’t have to wait several months before the library has an available copy. Cilka’s story is so amazing and incredible. I enjoyed this book even more than the Tattooist of Auschwitz. The writing is much better in this novel than Morris’s debut. I will be recommending this book to everyone I know.

Unpopular opinion here and I'm sad to say I'm okay with that. Anytime I read a book regarding the holocaust I expect to be overcome with grief at the injustice that occurred. Cilka's Journey did not capture for me the horror that befell Cilka. The writing was just too clinical. The characters never came to life enough for me to connect to them emotionally. I actually dreaded picking up this book and found myself skimming towards the end.

I absolutely loved this continuation of the Tattooist story. I was so happy to read about what happened to Cilka after the previous story ended and was so devastated to find out she was being punished for just surviving. I just couldn't stop reading and hoping that Cilka found her happy ending.

Cilka's Journey, by Heather Morris continues the story of the book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, In this book Cilka finds that after she has survived the Auschwitz- Birkenau prison camp, she is not freed, but sent to a labor camp in Siberia. This is the punishment for her sleeping with the enemy to survive Auschwitz. In Siberia, she is befriended by a female doctor, who helps her learn skills in nursing. As Cilka grows into being a woman, she learns even more about survival and love.

I have not read the Tattooist of Auschwitz, but after reading CILKA’S JOURNEY, Tattooist of Auschwitz must be a sequel. If you’ve read Sophie’s Choice, you’ll have a understanding of the choices young Jewish women were forced to make in concentration camps to survive. Cilka became the mistress of a camp officer as well as overseeing the cabin where women were placed before going to the gas chambers. After the war, she is punished more by the Russians who send her to a Siberian camp as further punishment for conspiring with an enemy. Excellent story about the resilience of people and how simple things can bring hope and happiness.

I picked up "Cilka's Journey" not knowing it was the follow-up to "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" but had no issues following the story even though I haven't read the first book.

The novel is based on a true story and follows teenaged Cilka who, after being imprisoned in Auschwitz, thinks the nightmare of WW2 is over after it is liberated but finds herself again imprisoned, this time in a gulag in Siberia. Life in the gulag is brutal on many levels - the hard labor, the cold and the treatment of the women by other prisoners are unimaginable - and Cilka's strength, courage and resilience in the face of such despair are inspiring. The book was hard to read at times but in the end, Cilka's ability to love and to forgive after all of the trials she faced should be a lesson to us all.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

1★ [Did Not Finish]
“A train bound for Vorkuta Gulag, Siberia, 160 km north of the Arctic Circle, July 1945 -
The floor of the closed railway wagon is covered in straw and each prisoner tries to claim a small space on which to sit. Older women wail, babies whimper. The sound of women suffering—Cilka hoped she’d never have to hear it again.”

I had not intended to read this, because I was not impressed with The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the first book where we met Cilka as a character in passing. But I had already requested a preview copy, so I decided to have a look.

It opens in January 1945 when the Russians are liberating Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. Everyone is to be set free except those who are suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.

Cilka and many others are still in captivity and off to Siberia. I followed their train journey, braced for the cold, the hunger, the filth and the overall despair. As they were travelling, Josie, a 16-year-old girl, stood up to help another girl who was sobbing and terrified.

“The train jolts forward, dropping Josie to the floor. A small giggle escapes from her. Cilka can’t help but giggle too.”

Giggle? The circumstances were so dire, I expected a gasp or a cry of fright. For me, it went downhill from there.

I did read a bit more but gave up. I hid the rest of my remarks under a spoiler on Goodreads, since I know there are so many Goodreads friends who loved this.

It probably didn’t help that I’d just read Sulari Gentill’s excellent Paving the New Road about the rise of Hitler in the early 1930s. She manages to write about the times without lapsing into modern slang.

I am very grateful that Morris’s two books are introducing many readers, particularly young ones, to the stories of the Holocaust and the gulags. We must never forget.

If you want to read a true teenage memoir of the Holocaust, read Night by Elie Wiesel. It is terrific: short, simple, and real. [I reviewed it here, if you're interested. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )

We first met Cilka Klein in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, one of the prisoners that befriends Lale and Gita. In this heartbreaking story, we learn about Cilka's story before, during and after the war. The subject matter is tough, but Cilka's strength and resiliance is awe-inspiring. Very good book.

A terrific book that I was able to receive thru Net Galley to read and review.
This was a book.about a teenage girl named Cilka,that was taken to a death camp in Germany with her mother and sister when she was 16 yrs.old.
She caught the eye of a camp supervisor there,when she first arrived and was spared elimination from the gas.
She was housed in a little room,off of the death house though and watched thousands of women go into the chamber,even putting her own mother on a death cart,to perish.
She was raped repeatedly by the two head men there,but was able to survive Auschwitz.
When the war was over,she was sent to Siberia on a charge of consorting with the enemy.She survived the horrid ordeal for 10 yrs.
She was starved,raped,beaten and just about every other vile thing you could imagine.
But by the grace of God,there was a wonderful,young female doctor that helped her,by teaching her ways to help herself and in the end,helped her escape.
She met and fell in love with a man who was also beaten,tortured and left for dead more than once.
They both were on the same train leaving Siberia,married and lived over 50 yrs.together.
Although,this book is a novel,there is also some truth as the author actually had knowledge about some of the happenings.
I have easily read at least 100 or more books about the Holocaust,but this one was really hard to read.
I at times,found myself not wanting to continue reading,because some of it,was so horrific,but yet I wanted to know what finally happened to Cilka.

Though I really enjoyed reading Cilka's Journey, I can't help but reflect on it critically and this review will sound negative. In many ways I loved the book, but there are several aspects I struggle with.

I loved the story of Cilka's Journey and I eagerly turned the pages to read what happened next. I also came to care for many of the characters. However, I thought the prose left much to be desired and found the writing straightforward and flat vs. descriptive or emotive. Cilka was wrongly put in a terrible place, but she seemed to get every privilege and make everything golden wherever she went. Despite being based on truth, it felt unrealistically sweet for such a bleak setting and horrific part of history.

This is my own personal struggle, but I've also never gotten along great with novels that are fictional accounts of real peoples' lives. It makes me uncomfortable to read an author’s take on what a real person from history thought and felt without having known her. I knew that's what I was getting into with this book. I still struggle with it. It's my own problem, not the book's.

Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the story itself and found Cilka to be admirably heroic. I’m held back from giving a full 5 stars for the reasons shared but I thought this was an incredibly engaging story of resilience.

A heart wrenching story. Extremely difficult to read in parts due to the realism of all of it however a very important story that deserves to be listened too.

Beautiful story of courage, loss and Love here is yet another amazing story from author Heather Morris. I've come to call her the best at her craft...which is historical fiction about the holocaust. Cilka's Journey was an amazing tale that you will need tissues and make sure you don't start too late into the night. I didn't stop once I started.

After I read and enjoyed The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I requested a copy of Cilka’s Journey because I was moved by the portrait of Cilka painted in Lale’s tale.

But before I started the sequel, I decided to do some research about The Tattooist (hello, history major!) and quickly realized that while marketed as “based on the true story,” it was more fiction that anything else. It bothered me that it was getting so much attention when an organization such as the Auschwitz Memorial had reported its many factual errors.

I hoped going forward into Cilka’s story Morris would learn from the points of contention with The Tattooist and present a more honest portrait of Cilka in this next chapter. But unfortunately I read more of the same. Cilka, based on Cecilia Kovachova, is painted as the mistress/sex slave to two SS commandants, something her step-son vehemently denies. And he also contests the assertion that she would have stolen drugs from patients in need, and that indeed she was known for her moral integrity. He maintains that the picture she painted for him of her life was not the one represented in Morris’s novel.

While I understand and respect the concept of creative license, I personally believe that books marketed as “based on someone’s real life story” should be held to a slightly higher standard than traditional historical fiction. The other option would be to abandon the claim of truth and call it strictly fiction.

It is an emotional and moving portrait of a woman who survived unspeakable horrors in both the camp and the gulag. As a work of fiction, I have no problem with it. In fact, Morris’s writing is exceptional. I only wish she and her publisher had been more honest in the promotion of her novel as a novel, and not someone’s “true story.”

Loved this book! It was a great follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz; it took me a bit longer to get into, but once I had a better understanding of the characters, it was easier to follow and understand. I love novels that give me a different perspective or tell a different story than those that have been presented before.

I made myself wait until I finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz before starting Cilka's Journey thinking I'd need the first but you could read this one on its own if you wanted to. I actually enjoyed Cilka's Journey a little more than The Tattooist - Cilka is an amazing character! Yes, its fiction based on stories of a real person but just knowing someone like her existed helps me have faith in humanity.