PanThe New York Times Book ReviewAlthough Kelly’s novel is clearly the result of exhaustive research, the deficiency in Lilac Girls rests, unfortunately, with its characters. Caroline comes off as a dilettante, and Kasia starts out as something of a Joan of Arc, a passionate if naïve operative in the Polish resistance whose feelings of guilt when she takes down her entire family after a botched assignment aren’t plumbed in any meaningful way. Herta, arriving at Ravensbrück oblivious to its real purpose, is aghast when she learns its secret. But the next time we see her, she’s encased in ice: heartless, cruel, infuriating. What happened? Like everyone else, she’s a stereotype with no narrative force of her own. Postwar, things only get worse ... Lilac Girls is an earnest attempt to tell the Rabbits’ story, but it sinks under the weight of its own ambition.
