👶👶 The Altar Girl, by Orest Stelmach

I have hesitated to write this review because it's very difficult for me to write a negative review on a novel that someone has poured their heart and soul into. I especially struggle with such a review when the author is clearly very educated, as evidenced by his vocabulary and knowledge. To boot, he certainly did his homework, managing to teach me something along the way. Unfortunately, this novel fell short of my expectations.

Much of the novel seemed contrived. For example, shortly after an intensely perilous moment in her life, the protagonist quotes, “ If nothing else good came out of it, my current predicament was going to help me lose those last seven and a half pounds.” Although I’m sure this was intended to inject humor, it seemed poorly placed, considering what had just happened to her. In addition, many of the metaphors seemed nonsensical, "The flame illuminated a pair of lush lips, the kind that could suck a grapefruit dry from across the room." Hmmm... Furthermore, the storyline was very predictable and implausible, and I never ended up caring for any of the characters, because their development was minimal.

However, I must give credit where credit is due. I give the author kudos for enlightening me a bit about Ukrainian Displaced Persons. I would guess that many are unaware of what became of these people during WWII, and this gave a very small taste of their plight. It piqued my curiosity enough to further research the history of DP’s. For this reason, I increased my rating to two stars.

Read 12/30/15