Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I picked this free book through the Amazon First Reads program (or something like that). I love stories set in WWII and I am always looking to read something from a different angle. I enjoy books that move back and forth in time and reading about a character in the present discovering something about their family. I also enjoy sewing as a hobby. So the description of this book rang a lot of happy bells for me. I’m sad that it fell so short. In terms of storytelling and writing, there are so many better books out there. The author’s pitch for the not very scientifically sound idea of inherited trauma dropped this down to two stars for me. The parallel stories have potential. It is set between 1940-45 in Nazi occupied Paris. Three young seamstresses live together above the fashion house where they are employed. Each of them is involved in the French resistance in different ways. They are initially unaware that the others are actively working to free France. Move forward to 2017. One of the seamstress’ granddaughter comes to Paris hoping to learn more about her family as she still mourns her mother’s suicide some years earlier. Coincidently, she ends up in the same apartment as her grandmother and is rooming with a young woman whose grandmother was also a seamstress and living in that apartment. As granddaughter Harriet learns more about her grandmother Claire, she gains insight into her family and into herself. Harriet is also in Paris during the time of bombings and terrorist attacks in France. This is an interesting and unique plot line. However, I think the author missed some opportunities here to make some stronger connects between the time periods. Several things made this a two star rating for me. First, the writing is average and just basic storytelling. Compared to other books I have read on this topic, The Dressmaker’s Gift is WWII lite and lacks emotional resonance. There are also too many happy coincidences and too many happy endings for my taste. This was a three star book until the idea of inherited trauma was introduced. Specific to the book, Grandma Claire was in a Nazi prison camp, Harriet’s mother committed suicide, and Harriet has some unspecified issues of her own. Harriet finds some comfort in this trauma domino effect. Though the author does mention in her afterward that the idea of inherited trauma is debated and that “some scientists remain skeptical” I worry that some vulnerable readers may latch onto this idea. This is pretty new research with small sample sizes and poorly supported outcomes. My understanding is that there are a lot more questions than answers about an ancestor’s trauma altering genes in the next generations. Certainly other readers may find my soapbox rant irrelevant to the book. Finally, my recommendations for some powerhouse books about about Nazi occupied France and the French resistance: Dragonfly by Leila Meacham; The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah; and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.