Thursday, October 27, 2011

They Fought Like Demons by DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M Cook

I put They Fought Like Demons on my tbr list after reading about women soldiers in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Since it dovetailed nicely with the War Through The Generations challenge I decided to read it now. 
Blanton and Cook obviously put a lot of research into this book and attempted to show the reader how women got into the armies, fought and avoided or didn't avoid detection. But rather than a fluid story it was fragmented and repetitive. Each chapter is about a different aspect of the woman's life-why she joined the army, how soldiers were injured, life after the war. It was difficult for me to follow at times and the information was very dry. Several times I almost gave up. But I was hoping all this dry knowledge would be woven into a story. Sadly it never happened. Blanton and Cook refrained from too much conjecture, leaving a lot of holes that the facts didn't cover. I would have preferred each chapter talk about one woman from the beginning of her story to the end. They Fought Like Demons was too choppy for my taste. 
I would only recommend They Fought Like Demons if you need more information about a certain aspect of women soldiers lives. I wouldn't recommend reading the book straight through like I did. Others who shared their thoughts on They Fought Like Demons: Principles of Theology, Cootiehog, and Random Thoughts on History.
This was my seventh read for The War Through The Generations Challenge.

3 comments:

  1. Women in the army, and not about modern women, I do like that

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  2. That is a bummer!! I had high hopes for this one when I saw it in your library loot!!

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  3. Bummer that this one was not as good as you hoped. We've linked to this review.

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