The Diamond Eye
The Diamond Eye
By: Kate Quinn
[This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022]
“I only knew that my dark side awoke when I realized there was no room in my life for mistakes. When I realized I could not miss, not ever. When I heard a rifle sing in my hands as I buried a bullet through the neck of a bottle and sent the base flying into diamond shards… and realized who and how I could be.”
What drives a woman to become a sniper in WWII?
The Diamond Eye is the fictionalized-true story of Mila Pavlichenko, female sniper in the Russian army.
Mila is driven by her love for her son, Slavka. Slavka’s father is absent and disinterested in their life so Mila is determined to be both mother and father to her son. When the call comes for soldiers, she hones her shooting skills and becomes a sniper.
She will show her son strength and courage.
Though her gender kept her from the military decorations awarded to other soldiers, her official kill count tallied at over 300 and her skill and heroism was never questioned by her fellow soldiers.
I still like Quinn’s The Rose Code better than Diamond Eye because of its more suspenseful story line, but I still enjoyed this one. I also wonder if I had a subconscious moral dilemma about how I should feel toward Russian soldiers. But for a stretch of time they were fighting Hitler, so there is honor in that I suppose.
As usual, Quinn shows her superb research skills. There was a lot of historical and technical data in this book about battles and guns and politics and such. I did feel like it got a bit long, but I appreciate the effort Quinn takes to understand her subject matter and create a work as close to truth as she can while still adding some spice.
I loved how she showed that Mila was both a courageous soldier and a thoughtful mom. In between her ‘sorties’ she was diligent to collect and send back leaves to her son as he was interested in learning about plants. As a mom, I can’t imagine what it took for her to simultaneously be away from her son and facing extreme danger.
But her rough circumstances early on in life taught her to take control of her life, to see a path, and walk it in determination. She will do whatever it takes to accomplish her goals. There is much to admire about Mila.
I also loved the relationship Mila had with both Kostia (her second husband) and Alexei (her sniper partner). I’m not sure how much of the interactions were elaborated or added but it made for a good story.
I liked Kostia’s humor. As is stated in the book, it’s hard for me to picture Russians as having a good sense of humor. They’re always portrayed so serious. It was an interesting mental picture. Plus Quinn did a good job writing the humor naturally.
Per Quinn’s MO, this book alternates between the past and the present. The past being Mila’s journey as a sniper. The present being the Russian delegation to America (of which Mila is part of) in hopes to acquire American assistance in their front lines against Hitler. The present is also there to show the unexpected friendship between Mila and Eleanor Roosevelt.
In the ‘present’ storyline is where the bit of mystery is. There is an unknown ‘marksman’ who plans to assassinate FDR and frame Mila for it. You don’t find out til the end who the marksman is and if they succeed.
Personally I felt like the story read more like a historical account/biography than historical fiction. It was so detailed and the overall storyline was not super complex. For that reason I think I would have preferred it to be a little shorter.
I also wish we would have gotten more information about her son. I don’t know if we just don’t have many historical records from him about what happened to him and how he felt about his mother doing what she was doing, but I’m very curious about the affect it all had on him and his life, his future.
The book reads:
“No matter how hard the metal, it yields to human strength. Everything does. All you have to do is devise the right weapon.”
This was also an interesting theme in this book and would make a good book club discussion question. Do you agree with this? Is human strength ultimate? With the right weapon?
We see Mila hold a variety of weapons, physical and mental, that allow her strength in her various battles. There is character development in this sense that was fun to follow.
“Don’t miss. I had those words stamped on my bones, and there were so many chances to miss in this life— to fail.”
She could fail as a student, an aspiring historian, as a mother, a woman, a Party member. But does ‘success’ mean perfection? What does life look like when you miss? ‘Don’t miss’ is a lot of pressure and is hard to sustain. It tells a lot about a person when we see how they handle a ‘miss’ in their life. And we see that with Mila.
I would recommend this book.
It may be a bit long or technical at times, but if you like historical fiction, you’ll find this a unique story and eye-opening to a new aspect of WWII.
Sidenote Question: Would ‘Lady Death’ have been a better title for this one? Or did Quinn have to stick with the ‘The ___’ formatting of her other books?
This book released March, 2022. You can use my affiliate link below to order.
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