Have I read this before: No. I know we had the book in our junior high library, though, and I considered it during those very first few months of using my Book List. Never did read it, though.

Review: Oof. This book. This was a hard read because basically every chapter was “here’s this soldier’s life from birth until he gets to Andersonville. Get invested in him, he’s interesting. Oops, now he’s died the most horrible death imaginable!”

Of course there was a main storyline threading through the whole thing, but that’s what a majority of this book felt like.

It was very well-written. Very impactful. You don’t really think about those types of prison conditions in the US, even back then, but the real Andersonville Prison was probably even worse than in these fictionalized tales.

Favorite Part: the interaction between Coral and Naz near the end. That whole segment of the book was the most emotional part, in my opinion, because of everything building up to it and how so much of their relationship was built wordlessly and was based on their circumstance and histories instead. Easily the most memorable part of a very memorable book.

Also, these few lines (which was pretty much the only humor in the whole book) between Coral and Naz.

“What’s them?”
“From tropic lands. From many an ancient river, from any a palmy plain.”
“Hain’t you smart with your rhymes and truck!”
“It’s a hymn.”
“Don’t care if it’s a her.”

Rating: 6/10