Before reading The Sandcastle Girls I knew almost nothing about the massacre that took place almost unnoticed by the rest of the world in Armenian in 1915. Bohjalian tells the story by alternating between a contemporary (female) narrator and her grandmother as a young woman, which gets a bit confusing from time to time since there are a lot of details to keep straight -- especially in the year of the genocide in which between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottomans (now Turks). But the author's use of the modern-day story makes it possible to delve into this horrific time without being overwhelmed, because you realize from the start that some of the main characters do survive. Please note that I don't use the star rating system, so this review should not be viewed as a zero. A well written story set with a backdrop of the Armenian genocide during WWI. It brings to life a personal view of the inside of the genocide, from the viewpoints of those being led to their slaughter, some naive Americans trying to help the persecuted Armenians, soldiers who became unwilling pawns of their government.The changing narrators and time and place were sometimes confusing, probably because I was only able to read in short snatches.As someone with no previous awareness of the Armenian genocide, I felt a sadness for the victims, more than a hatred for the perpetratorsI highly recommend this book
What do You think about The Sandcastle Girls (2012)?
Decided not to finish. Too gruesome and I didn't want to live that for the duration of the book
—Belove
Rollicking story of Armenian genocide. Hard to put down love story too. Good storyteller.
—GabriellaWulff
This was an extremely slow moving book! I did , however , like the ending .
—Gen
I didn't finish this. It was awful and I could go no further.
—b_ulch_18
