DNF at 31%. I was quite interested at the beginning but got bored as time went on.

Thank you Harper Perennial for the e-arc!

Inspired by the real stories of female snipers and interpreters that fought for the Soviet Union in World War II. The Night Sparrow gave a perspective into the war that I hadn’t read about before.

As can be expected with war stories, this book is violent and tragic. It covers many heavy topics and isn’t for every one.

Thank you to Harper Perennial for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.2/5 Stars

The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders follows Russian sniper and translator, Elena Bruskina, during the second world war. The novel is written as a dual timeline story. One timeline follows Elena through her life in the Minsk ghetto as a Russian woman of Jewish descent. After losing her family to the various cruelties inflicted by the Nazis, Elena joins the Central Women’s Sniper Training School to avenge their death’s at the hands of fascists. She meets many incredible women in training who become friends.
The second timeline follows Elena as she becomes a German translator for the Russians as they search for Hitler as Berlin falls to the Russian army. Has Hitler escaped? Is he hiding? Is the dead?
While this novel is a work of historical fiction, it is based on very real female Russian snipers. Shelly includes a quote from a publication, radio broadcast, or diary before the start of every chapter. I felt that this inclusion really allowed the reader to stay connected to the fact that the story is based on actual occurrences. I certainly enjoyed the perspective of a Russian women at the end of World War II, a perspective that I had very little knowledge about. I also had not considered the urgency to find Adolf Hitler at the end of the war to determine if he was dead or operating from a new, remote location.
The writing style of this novel was very Hemingway-esque. It was direct and clinically portrayed the horrors that Elena experiences in her travels. The author does not romanticize or avoid descriptions of the atrocities that occurred around Elena. I, personally, found the writing style to be wonderful in portrayal of wartimes. I also found Elena’s story to be a refreshing, not oft explored perspective to the second world war. This novel was fascinating and inspired me to delve further into research into female Russian snipers who defied social norms to make an enormous impact in the defeat of fascism.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Night Sparrow is a powerful and emotional read that shines a light on the untold story of Soviet female snipers during WWII. Elena’s journey is heartbreaking, and the relationships between the women are raw and moving. The historical detail is excellent, though the content is intense and often heavy. A tough but important read that stayed with me.

KThis is my 1st book by author Shelly Sanders, and I will be looking for more of her books.
This historical fiction is based on the true stories of real female snipers and interpreters who worked in the Red Army during World War II. The story opens with the Nazi invading Russia, and Elena Burskina, a Jewish university student, and her family, forced into a ghetto and thousands shot including her father and brother. Her tipping point is she her sister is hung and her mother shot. She escapes the ghetto and is the 1st to join the Central Women’s Sniper Training School opens in Moscow. She is sent to the front with her fellow women snipers and experiences the brutal ugly of war, having to kill or be killed, seeing her team mates killed, dealing with men taking advantage of them, poor food, terrible conditions and the subsequent mental trauma of war. The descriptions of war are well done, you can feel the despair, fear, the biting cold, camaraderie and the struggles to survive.
When she is wounded, she is transferred to be an interpreter with the assignment of helping find high ranking enemies. The double dealing, interviews and building suspense are well portrayed as they race to find them before they can escape.
The book was very interesting and engaging, and I learned more about the Russia's involvement during WWII as well as these heroic women. The book has some foul language, war brutality and mentions of rape without being graphic, yet realistic and heartbreaking to read..The writing was sometimes a bit uneven, but didn't detract from the overall plot.
I highly recommend this book for those who want to read a balanced, realistic unique POV of WWII. The courage, resilience and determination of these young women and those in their lives shines brightly and makes this a worthwhile read.
A very big thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC, it was a privilege to read. All opinions expressed are my own.

What genres that you are looking forward to reading this year? I am enjoying reading lots of historical fiction.

Elena Bruskina is a university student studying German in the Soviet Union when it is invaded by Nazis. She is Jewish and she and her family are forced into the Minsk ghetto. After her family is killed, she escapes and vows to get revenge. She joins an all-female sniper unit in Moscow. She eventually also becomes redeployed as German translator searching for Hitler. Will Elena make it through the war, and will she make a difference?

My thoughts on this novel:
• Author Shelly Sanders used facts from real life Soviet women snipers and interpreters to write the story. Each chapter starts with a real quote from the women that served.

• This story really showed the horrors of war.

• It was disturbing to learn about “front line wives” where Soviet soldiers would pick a woman to be their front-line wife even if they didn’t want to be. These women were ostracized when they returned home.

• Soviets were the first to discover the Eagle’s Nest. Elena is there to witness the horrors and to help prove that Hitler is indeed dead.

• There were unique difficulties as Elena is Jewish and witnesses the murder of her family and other Jews because of their Jewish heritage. The Soviets didn’t identify groups there were as denial that the Nazis were targeting and killing Jews.

• The book tries to walk a fine line to say that Elena understands that the actions that the Soviet government takes towards its people and that Soviet soldiers take on German citizens are not ethical or good.

• I’m not sure about the time shifts in this novel. The narrative centered on one person, Elena, but it told the story through showing different points of time during the war. It would flash from the ending of the war to the beginning when Elena was first training. I don’t think this added to the story. It made things more confusing. I would have liked it better if the story was just told straight through from the beginning of the war to the end. To be honest, it made me not care as much about some of the other characters as I knew they would die.

• There is a great detailed author’s note at the end of the novel as well as a very thorough bibliography.

Overall, The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders is an intriguing historical fiction novel that focuses on the little-known story of female Soviet snippers and interpreters.

Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy! I am VERY picky when it comes to WWII and Holocaust stories. As a Jewish girl, it means a lot to me that the stories are written with care. And I feel that Shelly Sanders did just that. It may not be the best book I've ever read, but it was done with such tenderness and care that I enjoyed it.

4.5 ⭐️ This was such a great and powerful story focusing on real events and real people particularly the young Soviet women trained as snipers and interpreters during World War II. You can feel how much heart and research went into this novel especially after reading the author’s note. This is a reclamation of history.
As with most wartime inspired historical fiction novels, this story can feel heavy at times especially with the emotional weight of trauma, loss, and vengeance. Not only are these women on the front lines but they were also surviving constant threats of violence and SA.
What I appreciated most was how the author gave voice to women left out of wartime narratives. The fictional character Elena feels heartbreakingly real and knowing she was inspired by true figures like Roza Shanina and Masha Bruskina made her journey all the more powerful. The inclusion of historical details such as Hitler’s death, the use of female snipers, and the secrecy and silence enforced by Stalin’s regime was fascinating and unlike any other WWII story I’ve read. It’s a haunting, beautiful reminder of what women endured and accomplished and how easily those stories are lost if we don’t seek them out.

An important but relatively unknown piece of wartime history

Elena Bruskina was a university student in Minsk. when the Germans invaded her city in 1941. While her family was not particularly devout (not surprising, given that people in the Soviet Union were expected to revere the Party, not their God) they were Jewish and as such quickly rounded up and placed in a Ghetto by the Nazis, forced to wear the yellow star and work in menial jobs. First her father and brother were taken, presumably killed although her mother refuses to acknowledge that likelihood, then her younger sister who joined the partisans was publicly executed. Before she could secure false identity papers so that she and her mother could escape from the ghetto and avoid the increasing killings there, her mother and the families with whom they shared living quarters were also rounded up and killed in the street. Elena was able to escape to the surrounding forests by an old friend and there she would work with the partisans. Desperately wanting to revenge the deaths of her loved ones, Elena wanted to be given a gun and join a fighting unit, but was relegated to more womanly tasks like cooking and stealing food. A sympathetic superior hands her a newspaper containing an appeal for Russian women to join the newly formed Central Women's Sniper Training School and she immediately submits her application. After months of training, she and other women like her are sent to the Eastern Front, where brutal weather and risky conditions are worsened by the misogyny and abuse they will endure from many of the Russian men with whom they serve. She loses several of the women snipers in her platoon in the heat of battle and severely injures her arm, rendering her useless in the task for which she was trained. She is instead recruited to work as an interpreter for SMERSH (the counterintelligence division within the Red Army) given her fluency in German, and will be tasked with an unimaginable assignment in the final weeks of the war...to help interrogate captured Germans and use that information to hunt down Hitler himself.
The contributions of women who served in the Red Army as snipers and as interpreters are not well-known, and in this novel author Shelly Sanders combines real historical figures with fictional ones to bring their stories into wider circulation. Women were generally presumed to not be capable of serving in frontline roles in active combat until very recently, yet there were thousands of these Soviet women who were willing to sacrifice everything in the name of patriotism (only one in five would survive the war). Many regardless of their rank or position were forced to become "frontline wives" to Russian officers, becoming their sexual partners whether they agreed to the situation or not, and would be regarded as little more than whores by other female soldiers and particularly by women civilians if they were lucky enough to return home alive. The government thanked them for their service and "suggested" that they not talk about their actual achievements, and the military kept a lid on the egregious abuses for years. The journey and experiences of the fictional Elena are taken from or inspired by the memoirs left behind of real life Soviet women who served during the war, and the brutality and carnage they saw is devastating. The pacing was a bit uneven at times, and the timeline bounced back and forth, but I was fascinated by the peek into a forgotten corner of history, Fans of Ariel Lawhon, Martha Hall Kelly and Kate Quinn as well as readers who enjoy historical fiction (particularly of this time period) will find The Night Sparrow well worth exploring. My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for allowing me access to this well-researched story of women whose contributions were minimized during the war and shunted to the side when it was over in exchange for my honest review.

I received an advanced copy of The Night Sparrow from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Sanders's work is well researched and informative. An avid reader of historical fiction, The Night Sparrow, told a story that hasn't gotten enough exposure. It was interesting to track Elena's path from the Minsk ghetto to the Berlin. The dual timeline added to the story's interest. A great read for any WWII historical fiction fans

The Night Sparrow was one of those books that I could not read it all at once. I found myself taking breaks and reading something that was much lighter or made me laugh. The story was very heavy. The horrors of World War Two are never easy to read, but they are a necessity. Becoming immersed with woman snipers was something, now that I know about, will not forege.

Follow along with Elena Bruskina as she joins the resistance after loosing her family to the Jewish ghetto. It isn't enough. She wants to do more. She needs to do more to avenge her family. She found that more as a member of the Russian female snipers.

As I read the pages I couldn't stop crying. Open the cover and survive the extensive training. Climb through muddy water in clothes that don't fit. Experience the treatment they endured, after all they were only women. When they pass, if they pass, they will soon learn the training was the easy part.

Fight alongside the Russians as they stomp out the nazi armies. Shake in fear as the enemy approach. Try to concentrate as they mark a target, take aim, pull the trigger and hope you hit the target as you expose yourself. Details are intense. The Story is very graphic at times. Experience war from the safety and comfort of you reading space ad remember. All of it reminded me that there is no glory in war, only loss.

Not for the light hearted. Based on research and true events, Elena portrays Soviet Jewish women who were snipers in WWII. The emotional thoughts and reasons behind choosing to become trained killers is enlightening. The harsh reality of war and the treatment of these women is hard to read. The author’s note is a must read.

I had never heard of the women snipers during the war, so this book was so interesting! I really like Elena in this story, she was so strong and competent. Zina, Rays and the others were a great platoon for this story. That it is based on real life women is fascinating to me.

I really enjoyed this book!

I want to thank NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for this advanced reader copy and this is my honest review.

Only made it 14% through before the atrocities in and around the ghetto in the flashbacks were too much for me. So horribly sad and vicious!

A hardcore look at a Soviet Woman sniper during WWII that’s hard to put down, even during the worst parts.

The Night Sparrow is an intense novel focused on the Second World War and follows the story of a young Jewis woman from Russia who will take great risks in order to stop the Nazi's and Hitler. I will admit that this was a very good novel as it is very fast paced the details of the environment and the characters are so intriguing. I will admit there are some scenes that are a little bit graphic so proceed with caution. Despite that it is a very good story.
Our main heroine of the story is a young woman named Elena Bruskina who journeys from her home to become a sniper to take out the Nazi's. I would have to say that she is brave for the work she has to do as I would never be able to stomach it. Although she puts on a brave face for the majority of the time she does have moments of weakness such as vomiting at some of the heartbreaking images that she witnesses.
Overall, I was very impressed with how the female snipers came about and were portrayed. There are some similarities with The Nightingale which by the way is also an amazing story but overall, both books are very different.
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own.

Shelly Sanders’ The Night Sparrow is a powerful and inspiring story set against the brutal backdrop of World War II. Following Elena Bruskina’s harrowing journey from the Minsk ghetto to the front lines of battle, the novel vividly captures her transformation from a grieving daughter into a fierce sniper fighting for justice and vengeance. Sanders masterfully portrays Elena’s emotional turmoil, her unwavering determination, and the camaraderie among the all-female sniper platoon. The plot is fast-paced and filled with tense, adrenaline-fueled moments, especially when Elena takes on her daring secret mission. The book beautifully highlights the resilience, friendship, and sacrifices of these brave young women, inspired by real-life heroines of the war. While the story contains many intense scenes, it also offers poignant reflections on loss, hope, and the human spirit's ability to endure even the darkest times. Overall, The Night Sparrow is an engaging and heartfelt tribute to the courageous women who fought during one of history’s most tumultuous eras.

This was a fascinating read about the Red Army’s female snipers during WW2. The author does an outstanding job bringing this time period to life including difficult situations that these women dealt with in the army unit. The tremedous research and character development made this book feel very authentic. I did not know a lot about these women as they fought against Germany and put their lives at risk. A fascinating read!

I feel like this was a Red Army, female POV version of Kristin Hannah’s, The Women.

Another telling of how women have constantly been taken advantage of and used for the male benefit, but never given the credit they deserve.

Parts of this book were atrocious, horrific and unfortunately known facts of this era. The most unfortunate part though is I feel this isn’t a “common knowledge” topic.

At times, this book felt one-note and a bit flat, though overall, I truly believe it’s an important POV and story to tell. The quotes at the beginnings of the chapters were also an eye-opening touch.

There’s parts of this book that should make you wretch. They may not be the most gruesome, but definitely the most haunting and raw:
“For every Jew killed, they receive forty pounds of salt, a liter of kerosene, and twenty boxes of matches.”
“Marsha’s absence was a presence.”
“It only takes a second to die.”

I have read many books on this horrific era of WWII, the displaced women who fought back when Hitler invaded Russia. I am no stranger to the horrors that those people who lived through this war endured, often losing every family member and friend they ever had—entire lives undone by a tyrannical nut bag bent on world domination.

The setting was so real that I could almost feel the terror, the tears, and the horror Elena faced. I applaud her decision to retaliate and join the Russian sniper unit for women. The sheer magnitude of the horrors these poor souls had to face almost overwhelmed me. At other times, I was jubilant at the guts and gumption these women faced against difficult odds.

I even had tears in my eyes one night; the writing was so honest, poignant, and realistic that I had to put the book down so I could sleep.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII history, as seen through the eyes of Elena or any other woman who gave of herself to better the future for her people.

I gave this story five stars because the empathy I felt for these characters and the lives they must have endured kept me reading until sleep calmed my troubled mind. A book rarely evokes such a response from me. As a history major, I am constantly amazed at how much more there is to learn about this dark historical period.

Please give it a go. But have the tissues ready, along with a pot of tea.

I want to thank Net Galley, the author, and the publisher, for the opportunity to read this as a free ARC. This review is voluntary and is mine alone.