Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Timanttisilmä

I usually dislike war and battle books but this was such a rich and riveting view of the life of a sniper and a woman in the Soviet army. It has war, hope, devastation, love, family, death, mystery, suspense, all sorts of stuff. I stayed up to 2:30am for two nights in a row to finish this as soon as possible! I couldn’t put it down.

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thebranchlibrary_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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ravensandlace's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Title: The Diamond Eye

Author: Kate Quinn

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: misogyny, teen pregnancy, pedophilia, guns, war, blood, rape, injury, death

I am so disappointed. I so badly want to like this author. She writes about topics that are incredibly interesting to me. The last book I read was about women breaking codes for the Allies in World War II. How awesome is that? This book is about a Russian woman sniper who killed over 300 Nazis. You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound cool to read about. Especially if you are interested in World War II like I am. But alas, I am having a heck of a time trying to like her books.

One of the positives about her books and this book in particular is she writes about females in history that everyone should know about. This one is about Mila, a Russian sniper who took down over 300 Nazis, like I mentioned above. I like to think I have a pretty extensive knowledge of World War Two but I never heard of Mila. Although, when I did a small Wikipedia deep dive, there were some discrepancies on whether or not she actually did kill as many Nazis as she said she did. There was mention of some issues of whether or not she was in the places she said she was. But I admit, I didn’t read too much more about it. Propaganda was very prominent during World War II so I’m not too sure what to truly believe.

I liked Mila well enough, although I did think she was a little rough around the edges. But then again, she grew up during an extremely difficult time in Russian history. So I can forgive that. The amount of misogyny she had to endure made me so mad. Is it that hard to believe a woman can be a sniper? Apparently, in America, it is. I especially couldn’t stand Mila’s ex-husband. He made me so mad. Not to mention, he turned out to be a real piece of garbage. We also did get a POV of the man who assassinated Teddy Roosevelt. I thought that was pretty interesting but his POV was boring.

Overall, while I didn’t love this book, it was okay. I just found myself to be pretty bored during most of the book. I really want to keep reading her books, however. She has such interesting novel topics, but there is something about her writing. I think maybe she just puts so much detail in her books that it just becomes too much and it’s hard to wade through. I just don’t know if I can look past it. I shall give her books one more go because I decided whether or not to give up on Kate Quinn.

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saliwali's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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just_jess02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Mila’s story is fierce, bold, heartbreaking, infuriating, encouraging, fascinating, and freeing. It is so much packed into a thrilling page-turner. I imagine it would be even more poignant if I were reading it myself rather than listening.

The narration was crisp and stiff- something I didn’t like at first but once I saw how well it fit the story, it was one of the many aspects that gripped me. The dualities of each character created depth and complexity that had me wondering where many moments would lead. Each relationship and interaction was important and necessary. Is it odd to appreciate the efficiency of a novel?

I enjoyed the exploration of what happens behind the facade of strong, courageous, women who cannot show weakness or softness to the public eye. It is so nice to read a book about a female protagonist that is truly through the female experience and challenges the expectations of the ‘male gaze’ while still incorporating the struggles it causes. Mila is unapologetically brash because she has to be and understanding the inside of her mind during those moments made my heart ache and my conscious confused.

This is so well written, well narrated, and just very engaging overall. It is one you want to sit with and think about but also don’t want to put it down to do so.

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writteninmagic's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

I was fascinated by the synopsis. I hadn't heard of Senior Sergeant Mila Pavlichenko before, so I found the story to be fascinating. The intense battles and stakeouts from Mila's perspective were really well-written. Throughout Mila's life in the Russian army, she faces sexism from nearly all her fellow soldiers and higher-in-commands, but her skills earn respect from her platoon. They underestimated her based on her appearance and for being a woman, but she showed them how deadly she could be.

Although I did enjoy the book, I thought some parts could have flowed better. Some battle scenes were set starting with the words "watch now as—" which I thought was unnecessary and disrupted the action. There were also the chapters with Mila and the unnamed sniper, with sudden perspective shifts between the two of them from one person's perspective in one paragraph to the next paragraph being from the other character's perspective; it made reading it at times confusing because I would read the next paragraph and then realize it was from the other character's perspective.

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