ibeforem
Written on Jul 10, 2019
The Guineveres is the story of 4 girls named Guinevere who befriend each other after each being left at a convent to live until they are 18. It is wartime (though we don't know which war, exactly), and after a failed escape attempt, they are assigned to taking care of young, comatose soldiers in the convent's sick ward. For the girls, these soldiers aren't a chore, but a possible way out of their current lives.
I finished this, but it was a really slow read. You get each girl's back story, but I wanted these earlier in the book. Once I read a back story, I felt like it was easier to tell each girl apart; before that, I had to concentrate to realize who was who. There are also stories of several saints interspersed in the story. I felt very lost in time, because some times I felt sure it was WWII, other times it felt more like Vietnam, and I could have been completely wrong and it was actually WWI -- there's no real way to tell. Being unable to place the time period was disorienting. Also, the treatment of the soldiers by the girls made me uncomfortable at times. They were treated more like dolls than like human beings.
Overall it's not a terrible story, but it was too slow for me and by the end I found I didn't really care what happened to each girl.
I finished this, but it was a really slow read. You get each girl's back story, but I wanted these earlier in the book. Once I read a back story, I felt like it was easier to tell each girl apart; before that, I had to concentrate to realize who was who. There are also stories of several saints interspersed in the story. I felt very lost in time, because some times I felt sure it was WWII, other times it felt more like Vietnam, and I could have been completely wrong and it was actually WWI -- there's no real way to tell. Being unable to place the time period was disorienting. Also, the treatment of the soldiers by the girls made me uncomfortable at times. They were treated more like dolls than like human beings.
Overall it's not a terrible story, but it was too slow for me and by the end I found I didn't really care what happened to each girl.