Heather’s Bookshelf: The Legend of Lilia
Author: Christopher P. Redwine
Released: 02/16/22
Genre: Historical Fiction
“‘A girl who paints flowers on her plane that can shoot down the fascists as well as the men,” he said, contemplating it. He took another look at the insignia of the white lily before replying, “I’ll see what arrangements can be made.”’
“The Legend of Lilia” is based on a true story and introduces Lilia Litvyak, a teenager learning to fly. Living in Moscow in the 1930s, her father is taken and executed during the Great Terror. As the war continues to spread, she utilizes her skills as a pilot to train men to fly. It isn’t until Germany invades the Soviet Union, that women were recruited to fly in an all-female regiment.
Lilia and the other women in her position have to wait and fight just to make it to the front line. When she finally gets her chance, everyone is quickly shown just how effective of a pilot she is. She shows her worth and demonstrates it to multiple squadrons and commanders. Along the way, she finds some true friends and even love.
Lilia faces countless hurdles, including an injury that temporarily sidelines her and countless personal losses, but she continues on her quest to protect her country and avenge her father.
Trigger Warning: violence, war crimes, murder, sexism, animal death, child death
Overall, I enjoyed this story. The author clearly did quite a bit of research in writing it, and describes some of this in a brief epilogue. Lilia is such an intriguing protagonist. The tragedy with her father in the beginning of the book sets the tone for the rest of it and clearly establishes her motivations and drive. However, though I found her to be intriguing, I did not especially feel a connection to her or most of the other ancillary characters (with the exception of the love of her brother). Her relationship with the other women pilots and with Aleksei were touched on, but I really think more development there would have provided that emotional connection that was otherwise lacking. The story feels more like a movie in that the POVs change and there’s some prose that gives insight into what’s happening around the characters but interrupts the flow of story. This would make a great screenplay, though. There is a scene near the end of the tale that is absolutely horrifying and does not seem to fit with the rest of the story or the mood of the tale. While it makes an impact, it doesn’t seem to fit in this story. The story ends abruptly and while there is some insinuation of what could have happened, as this is historical fiction, I would have almost liked to see a theory written through or even a “clue-like” ending of the different possibilities panned out.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A historical fiction about a woman fighter pilot during WWII- her successes and losses. Intriguing and well researched, but suffers from POV and structural challenges.
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