All the Lights Above Us
All the Lights Above Us
By: M.B. Henry
[This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022]
“The dice are on the carpet!”
The six code words broadcasted far and wide alerting people across Europe that the invasion of France was on the way.
June 6, 1944 was D-Day. When over 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France— one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. It’s often been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe.
There is an endless supply of WWII novels out there. What makes this book unique is that it focuses on one 24 hour day.
All the Lights Above Us— titled for the thousands of aircraft lights and bombs that lit up the sky that day—follows five different women in Europe and how they were affected and challenged by the events of D-Day.
The Cast of Characters:
Mildred, Berlin, Germany- (denounced) American actress at a German radio station responsible for broadcasting propaganda on the airwaves, trying to convince herself she’s not doing anything wrong. Nickname: Axis Sally, real historical figure.
“Germany gave her fame and fortune, where America gave her scandalous headlines and terrible scorn. Germany fed her, while America starved her. Germany transformed her from a nobody into an icon.”
Theda, Portsmouth, England- independent woman who hated the idea of marriage and feels like she doesn’t belong since she cares more about books and traveling than homemaking but finds herself caring for soldiers at the hospital.
“A very sad truth, Theda Brown. Sometimes the biggest roadblock to women is the judgment and criticism of other women.”
Flora, Caen, France- stubborn daughter of deceased parents of the Resistance who has taken up their mantle and tried to prove her usefulness to the Resistance by doing whatever secret tasks she can, like delivering encrypted messages.
“She just couldn’t understand why no one ever took her seriously."
Adelaide, Sainte-Mère-Église, France- traditional elderly woman billeting (and mothering) German troops in her home, struggling with her usefulness in old age and the tension with her daughter (who views motherhood differently) and wishing she could be with her daughter and granddaughter out in the country.
“Day in and day out, all Adelaide did was mother. But no one had ever called her a good mother, at least not to her face. She couldn’t even say the words to herself in the mirror, because without the validation, she didn’t know if they were true.”
Emilia, Caen, France- beautiful woman who was destined for the ‘birthing houses’ of Lebensborn to produce more Aryan offspring with German men until she made her escape and ended up working with the Gestapo typing up interrogations.
“She admired those women who had bucked male authority, who made their own mark on the world. Women who never felt the need to run away.”
To visualize where each character is at.
Themes
All the Lights Above us shows us the terror, the panic, and the danger of that infamous day. It shows us how women from a variety of ages, stations, loyalties, and locations handle the impending invasion. How they muster the courage to do what needs to be done.
Another major theme of this book is the roles and expectations of women during that time. Each character has a male counterpart and an important moment in which they must decide whether they stand up for themselves or ‘fall into line'.’
A less admirable theme is the gore. If this was a movie, it would definitely be rated R for violence and gore. It’s different when you read it than when you see it, but there are a lot of descriptions of destruction, injuries and death.
To give you an idea if you think you can handle it, some of the wording is like this:
“Germans tackled paratroopers to the ground like wildcats. They shredded them to Swiss cheese with bullets.”
“Putrid, rotting algae mixed with the sharp odor of decaying flesh.”
“Teeth cracked, blood spattered, and the jaw broke.”
It’s not super graphic, but it’s enough to make you cringe.
Recommendation
Because there are so many WWII books out there, it’s hard for me to recommend this over some of the other books out there. The idea of focusing on a variety of characters while looking at one day in history is interesting. But I felt like we didn’t get enough time with each character.
I thought that the author was going to intersect all of their stories in the end somehow as we see done in Cloud Cuckoo Land, but only Flora and Emilia interact. I think it would have made more sense of the larger cast of characters if their stories intersected or culminated at the the end.
Instead it feels a bit shallow. It seems like more time was spent describing the war movements/actions/violence than each character’s story. I’m not sure what I would have rather had because there’s only so much ‘character development’ that can happen in the span of one day and to do more back and forth between past and present to create historical depth would only have added to the complexity and flow of the chapters.
I would say if D-Day in particular interests you, or books with many characters, or you just want to read all the WWII stuff there is, then I think you’ll like this book.
If you’re just looking for a really good WWII novel, I’m not sure this is the one I would hand you. It’s not a bad book and I don’t discourage anyone from reading it— there were parts that were gripping— it just didn’t keep my attention like other WWII books I’ve read.
“Wrapped in each other’s arms, they watched the dizzying light show out the window. Flares, antiaircraft fire, bullets, and shells. Liberation.”
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
This book releases May 10, 2022. You can use my affiliate link below to purchase.
Share this book review to your social media!