This was a well done portrayal of 2 women’s perspectives on opposite sides of WW2, centering on the Theresienstadt ghetto, and the crazy way the Nazi’s used it for propaganda. 

I thought the voices of Hannah and Hilde were really personalized perfectly. So often I feel like books with dual perspective sound too similar between characters but this was beautifully done, helping you see the frustration and desperation of Hannah, and yet the utter arrogance and selfishness of Hilde. 

I didn’t realize this book carried over from Cradles of the Reich with Hilde’s character. Not technically a sequel but it could have been. I always like books that cross over characters - it helps me feel more invested in them, so that was a good surprise since I read that last year. 

I’ve read many WW2 books and have known of Theresienstadt in vague references but never directly read about it so this was a good new setting to learn about. The author did a great job explaining the misunderstanding the ghetto camp has, as being viewed as “not as bad” because of how it was portrayed as a giant lie to the outside world. Both the cunning and the depravity of the Nazis is still astounding to me. 

I will say I don’t really understand the title choice of the Glimmer Girls since that was only sort of a here and there background feature of the camp and the characters in it weren’t really known for that. I thought I was going to learn more about the mica mining but hardly did. But regardless, I thought it was well done and I’m glad I learned about this piece of the war and holocaust. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.