My rating: 4 of 5 starsA copy of Rose Under Fire was provided to me by Disney Hyperion for review purposes.'Hope is the most treacherous thing in the world. It lifts you and lets you plummet. But as long as you're being lifted, you don't worry about plummeting.'Rose Under Fire tells the story of Rose Justice, an American pilot who is captured and sent to the concentration camp Ravensbrück which held primarily women and children. The beginning of the story is a short, day to day accounting in epistolary (journal) form of her duties as a pilot. After, she transcribes everything she remembers from her experiences in Ravensbrück and how she managed to be one of the few who lived to tell the tale.The horrors that Rose and the thousands of other women suffered through at Ravensbrück will break your heart. There isn't a lack of detailing either, the story is vividly retold making it disturbingly palpable. It also doesn't help to know that while the story is fictional, Elizabeth Wein's story is based on fact and is a slight retelling of actual survivors from Ravensbrück.Over a six year period between 1939 and 1945 over 130,000 women and children resided at the camp; some were transported to other camps, some survived till the end of the war and most died within those walls. Out of that inconceivable number only a reported 15,000-32,000 managed to survive. The most horrid aspect of what went on at this camp are the details of the medical experimentation that was done on a reported 86 women that were known from then on as 'Rabbits'. I will avoid detailing this as you'll receive enough within the book itself, but the fact that even a single one of those women were able to survive is astounding.Rose Under Fire is a companion novel to Code Name Verity. It's not necessary to have read CNV prior, but I would definitely recommend it. Code Name Verity came close to being a DNF for me only because it was overly focused on the mechanical aspects of piloting but Julie was an amazing character. Rose Under Fire is a much more prevalent and typical tale of a WWII survivor; an incredible character possessing a perseverance that was truly admirable.
