The Red Ribbon
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As 14-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz, as readers may recognise it. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death. And this place is all about survival. Ella seeks refuge from this reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive. Is her love of clothes and creativity nothing more than collaboration with her captors, or is it a means of staying alive?
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A meaningful, hopeful novel set in World War Two. Ella was a strong and adept character, while most?? side characters were equally admirable in their ability to maintain their humanity and morals in such a desolate environment. The plot was fairly engaging, and I finished it in about a couple of hours. Although I was quite confused because there was partially nothing about Birchwood when I first searched it up, and then I realized it was another name for Auschwitz. Especially since I didn't read the blurb, I thought it sounded quite dystopian a couple of chapters in until the book explained the setting.
