Initially I thought this would be a book for young adults - sweet, somewhat slow, and potentially avoidant of the truth. However I was quickly fixated, reading this in the space of two days. While it is fantastical and held an ending more based on hopes than what could have been a reality, I will think about this book always.

When I received this book, I was amazed by how beautiful the cover design and the stunning endpapers were. Gorgeous illustrations are scattered throughout the book and a continuous red ribbon weaves the pages together. Set in Auschwitz, the story centres on four young women - Ella, Rose, Marta, and Carla - and how such horrific circumstances shape their characters and choices. The main character, Ella, is fifteen years old, and a talented seamstress. The beginning of the book questions how far Ella will go to survive. What's the line between collaborator and survivor? I became quickly invested in Ella's character and her relationship with the other women as she was just so well written.

Ella frequently interacts with three other young women at Auschwitz. Marta is a 'prominent', a Jewish prisoner put in charge of others. She seemingly represents the harsh decisions some prisoners made to survive at all costs, to put themselves first to ensure they stayed alive. Rose stands out from the others due to her upper-class accent and friendly nature. She is kind, generous, and empathetic, retaining her essential humanity and goodness despite such horrific suffering. The friendship between Ella and Rose is beautifully written and I desperately wanted them both to survive. The red ribbon they share is a symbol of hope and gives them the courage to continue fighting. The final young woman is Carla, a guard who takes a special interest in Ella. Carla is a very difficult character to understand. Her motivations remain obscured and the reasons behind her cruelty are often questioned.

Appropriately for a book about seamstresses, which is written by a costume historian, The Red Ribbon explores how we use clothes to project a certain appearance. The Jewish prisoners are stripped of their clothes and each given a nondescript dress -  they have the outward manifestation of their personality taken away. I particularly appreciated the nuances of the four young women and their hidden facets. They often subvert the reader's expectations, demonstrating that morality is not as black and white as it first appears. Lucy Adlington constantly returns to the moral choices about surviving and thriving that face each character. One of the main messages I think this book successfully gets across is that acts of kindness are acts of heroism. Each little piece of kindness is a kind of triumph in dark times. I would definitely recommend this book.