Set in the alternative World War II scenario of his Front Lines novels, Michael Grant, author of the bestselling GONE series, has written this story exclusively for World Book Day 2017.
Rio Richlin doesn’t have superpowers. She is an ordinary young woman. A soldier in the American army, wearing a uniform, carrying a rifle, and fighting alongside thousands who are trying to make a difference, trying to change the world.
At least, that’s the plan. Right now she’s part of a squad on a training exercise in some place called Wales. They’re cold, they’re wet, and Rio’s pretty sure they’re also lost. Spending the night in a creepy old inn wasn’t part of the plan at all…
Rio's only training. But soon, the fate of the world will be in the hands of the soldier girls.
Review: Dead of Night is set in the world of Michael Grant's Soldier Girls series, a reimagined version of history where American women were actually included in the draft to become soldiers in WWII. As far as the timeline goes this is set somewhere in the middle of the first book, after Rio and her squad have finished their first 13 weeks of training in America but before they're sent to the frontline. They're actually in Wales on another training exercise when they get lost in the fog. Unable to find their way back to base they take shelter in a village pub that they stumble across.
I don't really want to say too much more because it would be easy to give too much away but this was a fun story and a nice addition to the series. It's very different to the full length novels though, where they are very much grounded in reality and almost feel like you're reading true life war diaries this story is a little more surreal and it took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on. I think the nature of the story won't necessarily appeal to everyone but I thought it was very clever and I enjoyed reading something different, I do think events that unfold have a profound effect on Rio so whether they're real or imagined you'll definitely notice the difference in her from Front Lines to Silver Stars.
This has quickly become one of my favourite series so it's one I'd highly recommend, I'm not sure that Dead of Night is the best place to start but if you're read Front Lines then it's well worth giving this a try.
Source: Received from Egmont in exchange for an honest review
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The second novel in the epic new young adult series that Michael Grant is calling his best yet!
It's WWII but not as you know it from school. This time the girls are on the Front Lines and not on the Home Front. Summer 1943. The enemy has been bloodied, but Nazi Germany is very far from beaten. Now the American army is moving on to their next target: the Italian island of Sicily.
With heavy memories of combat, the three young soldier girls – Rio, Frangie and Rainy – now know what they are willing to do to save themselves, and understand the consequences of those actions. On the front lines, they will again come face to face with the brutality of war until they win or die, while simultaneously fighting their own personal battles. No one will emerge unscathed.
In the tradition of The Book Thief, Code Name Verity and Between Shades of Gray, Front Lines gives the experience of WWII a new immediacy while playing with the ‘what ifs?’ of history.
Review:
If you thought Front Lines was good then you've honestly not seen anything yet because Silver Stars ups the stakes in every way possible, the danger is greater than ever and the characters have completely come into their own. If you're new to this series then I'd recommend reading the books in order but to give you a brief recap this is an alternative history of WWII imagining one major change - that female soldiers were recruited into the American army and served alongside the men on the front lines. Pretty much everything else is accurate to what really happened and these books are so well written and believable that you actually feel like you could be reading someone's personal diary as they tell you their own life story.
We continue to follow the stories of the three main characters introduced in the first book. First you have Rio Richlin who joined the army with her best friend Jenou after finding out her sister was killed in action. Then there is Frangie Marr who signed up as a medic mainly because her family needed the money, she faces even more prejudice than the others because not only is she a woman she's also black and racism was very prevalent during this time. The third main character is a young Jewish woman Rainy Schulterman who joined the army with the intention of shooting nazis but was quickly recruited into the intelligence community. Each girl has a separate story to tell but there are times when their stories link and I love getting to see the war through their very different experiences.
Rio has been fighting on the front lines for a long time now and she's rising up through the ranks because of her experience. She's become quite a ruthless fighter and has had to try and lock her emotions away but she feels a growing distance between her and her best friend and she's struggling to cope with everything that she's seen and done. As a medic Frangie is right there at the front too tending to wounded soldiers who wouldn't have much of a chance without immediate treatment. Her job definitely isn't a risk free one and she constantly finds herself facing danger while trying to protect others. Rainy has the most dangerous job of all though and is sent on an undercover mission to Italy, she has no backup and not much of a plan on how she's supposed to get herself home again so her story is fraught with danger and she suffers badly when she's captured along the way.
I have totally fallen in love with all three of these girls, I feel their pain and suffer alongside them and I'm desperately hoping they'll all make it through the war alive but we're constantly being shown how much danger they're facing and I'm worried that at least one of them won't survive it. I don't think I can praise this series highly enough, it's dark and can be quite painful at times but it's also totally addictive and utterly absorbing. Michael Grant has done a stellar job with these books, you can tell they're meticulously researched and they really are a must read.
Source: Received from Egmont in exchange for an honest review
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Just when you thought Michael Grant’s GONE series had taken us to the darkest limits of his imagination, the evil genius of young adult fiction is back to take you to the Front Lines of terror. In the tradition of The Book Thief, Code Name Verity and Between Shades of Gray, Front Lines gives the experience of WWII a new immediacy while playing with the ‘what ifs?’ of history. It’s WWII, but not as you remember it from history lessons! This time the girls aren’t stitching socks for the brave boys at the front. Meet 17-year-old Rio Richlin and her friends Frangie Marr and Rainy Schulterman, three of the newest recruits in the US Armed Forces. They stand shoulder to shoulder with the boys from home as they take on Hitler’s army.
In the face of reluctant colonels and sceptical sergeants, the teenage soldier girls must prove their guts, strength, and resourcefulness as soldiers. Rio has grown up in a world where men don’t cry and girls are supposed to care only about ‘money and looks’. But she has always known that there is something wrong with this system and something else in her. Far from home and in the battlefields, Rio discovers exactly who she is and what she can accomplish
The first in an exciting new young adult trilogy. Front Lines is the saga of a modern teenage heroine in an alternate past that could only have come from the man who gave us GONE, BZRK and Messenger of Fear.
Review:
I have to admit that Front Lines isn't the type of book I usually pick up but I was intrigued by the premise when Egmont sent me a copy for review so I decided to give it a try. This is my first book by Michael Grant (although I've heard amazing things about his Gone series) but it definitely won't be my last because he's an incredibly skilled writer. I think it's a difficult thing to rewrite history in a way that's believable, you're walking a fine line between creating something amazing and incredibly thought provoking or coming across as insensitive, especially when you're writing about something like WWII and the millions of people who died during the conflict. Luckily Michael Grant has come down on the correct side of that line and Front Lines is just an incredible read on every level.
It's obvious that the author done a huge amount of research into WWII and a lot of the battles and scenarios included in this book are based on real events. He's just made one major change, one that meant women were not only allowed to voluntarily enlist in the army but were actually subject to the draft just like men were. It doesn't sound so shocking now but we're talking of a time when the army was segregated so that white and black soldiers didn't even serve in the same platoon so adding girls to the mix just makes things even more complicated. Michael Grant doesn't shy away from the racism and anti-semitism that was much more prevalent at that time and the female soldiers are also subjected to prejudice because of their gender. It's not always comfortable to read about the attitudes of some of the white male soldiers but it is completely believable and realistic to how things would have been in that era.
Front Lines follows the journey of three female American soldiers who all signed up for very different reasons and whose army careers take them in very different directions. First we have Rio Richlin who almost enlists by accident thanks to her friend Jenou, Rio has already lost her sister in the war and she wants the chance to make a difference herself but she's not quite prepared for the shock of becoming an infantry soldier. Frangie Marr has always dreamed of becoming a vet but money is tight and her family need the paycheck that she can get by enlisting so she puts her future on hold to sign up, her path sees her training as a medic but that doesn't mean she's safely away from danger, in fact she's right there on the front lines patching up the wounded soldiers as fast as possible. Rainy Schulterman knows something horrible is happening in Europe, the complete lack of contact the Jewish community is getting from family and friends abroad is enough to convince her that she needs to play a part in this war and of the three she's the most determined to get over there and start kicking some Nazi butt.
I don't want to talk much more about these three girls individual stories, instead I'd like to focus on the friendships they make along the way and the loves they find and lose while going through their training. We get the chance to meet some wonderful side characters from all walks of life, there are moments of sheer terror but there is also humour and companionship, it's the bond they all form with the other members of their squads is what will help them push through the fear they feel. None of the girls expected to be sent to the front lines but times are desperate and the army needs every able body it can get if they want to have any chance of winning. We're talking young girls and boys who are barely old enough to get married and yet they're now half a world away from home and fighting for their survival. I know girls weren't really on the front lines but the point is they could have been and hundreds of thousands of boys were in this exact situation. It's a sobering thought when you look at things through their eyes and see just how terrified they must have been.
This is the kind of book that I think should be included in school curriculums, it puts such a personal spin on the horror of WWII and the inclusion of female soldiers just makes it even more accessible for everyone to read. Front Lines is an outstanding novel and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy.
If you're still not sure whether you want to read this book check out the trailer below, I'm pretty sure it'll convince you to give it a try:
Source: Received from Egmont in exchange for an honest review
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