Who Was Sylvia by Judy Gardiner is a haunting WWII tale involving two British sisters growing up in prewar England (1939) in a home with an overbearing father and an emotionally dismissive mother. Kit Coyrn idolizes her older sister Sylvia. She’s not only beautiful but full of life and love. Then one day it all changes. Kit arrives home to find her sister gone without a trace and without explanation from her parents. She’s just vanished. Kit never forgets Sylvia and when she is conscripted to serve during the war and off to London, her mother gives her a picture of Sylvia and tells her that she heard Sylvia was in London.
About the book: Who was Sylvia?
Most of the story is told in first-person retrospect and does a great job of pulling the reader along the undercurrents of Kit’s life. She learns the rigors of serving in the military, makes friends, finds love, but every time a possible clue about Sylvia surfaces, she after it like a dog on a hunt. The story unravels bits of Sylvia’s life, but remains a mystery raising new questions with each discovery. Finding Sylvia becomes an obsession that involves the reader.
Book Review: Who was Sylvia?
The setting of wartime London adds new depth to Kit’s character. Her captivating story grips the reader with page-turning fervor. When Kit finally prepares to meet her sister after all the years that have passed, the tension is high. The anticipation of learning why she left, and what has happened since propels the story forward along a sketchy trail wrought with details that don’t match Kit’s idyllic memories.
This story of love and loss is well written with one exception. The end. It brings you right to the edge with all kinds of twists and turns, but then falls off the cliff without resolution of who Sylvia really is. It left me disappointed, but I would still recommend it to readers who enjoy WWII fiction like Soraya M. Lane’s The London Girls. Just know the end feels incomplete and there is no second book to tidy up unresolved questions.
