It’s the summer of 1942 and Liza Kaganova more than anything, wants her best friend Aka to come home. Liza's searched all over Leningrad, Russia, even the headquarters of the militia. However, after a messy run in with the militia, Liza can’t go back to there. She runs into two former classmates, one of which is now working for the militia and another who lives in the tunnels. Liza attempts to get them help her. In all the desperation, Liza doesn’t think to look at what is right in front of her.
There was one main issue I had with this book regarding the characters, especially the main character. Liza constantly makes dumb decisions that put peoples' lives at risk and then wonders why those people hate her. These people aren’t just strangers they are people who trust her and they assume that Liza trusts them too. Liza lies at completely unnecessary times causing a couple of characters to die. She was given a redemption, but only made it up to one character. She never makes up for all the hurt she caused the others. A minor issue I had was with the worldbuilding, I felt like the setting of where and when wasn’t embedded within the story well. One thing this novel did a good job of was keeping me engaged and entertained. This book really opened my eyes to all of the different things that were happening during World War II in different parts of Europe.