'Dragonfly' by Leila Meacham
/‘Dragonfly’ by Leila Meacham
Amid war, young Americans are recruited by the U.S. government — each for separate reasons — to create the 'Dragonfly' group. As a tight-knit group, they are trained at home and then dropped behind enemy lines, each with a separate task to complete. Meacham takes you through the lives of five covert operatives who are undercover and spying for the greater good, all while depicting war-torn France believably and pulling you into the novel.
She begins the story 20 years after the war ended from the perspective of the OSS officer who brought the group together. Within the first 100 words of the novel, he discovers proof in a history book that a member of the ‘Dragonfly’ group who has been presumed dead for the past 20 years may still be alive. This causes the officer to go back to the start, back to when he discovered the five young people who would form the group 'Dragonfly.' Thus, the novel begins, pulling you in from page one, to see if this mysterious member is still alive.
Meacham follows all their stories separately, showing their means of communication and the trials they face throughout the war. She keeps you on the edge of your seat as she portrays the lives they are forced to lead and the lines they must cross to keep their identity a secret. The story is rich in historical detail, focusing on small things that help set the stage for the novel.
She shows the heart-wrenching beauty and delicateness of discovering friendships in a war-torn country. Meacham depicts the unrest the Americans have to go through as they befriend Nazis and soon realize that not all are what they seem. She accurately shows her readers the struggles and horrors those who were allied spies in the war had to go through. She explains the consequences of actions, and how someone's life is sometimes the price you have to pay for your mistakes.
The story is evenly paced, with significant events placed throughout the story in such a way that you're never left waiting for something interesting to happen. Meacham creates razor-sharp tension in a city occupied by a Reich. You can see the daily drama of life under the reign of the Nazis; it may have only lasted a little more than four years but, to the occupants of the city, it felt like 1,000 years. Meacham brings us into their lives and shows us the everyday horrors they have to endure to survive. She allows us to walk with her characters through every turn in their lives and paints a picture so strongly I felt as if I were there with them. Through her incredible writing, she allows us to step onto the cobblestone streets of German-occupied France and walk down the blood-stained roads to see the horrors that took place there with our own eyes.
She writes with such emotion and clarity that I, as a reader, can see that she did her homework and researched the period she wanted to write in. She creates a world that makes us realize how horrific the war was. There are few people who are still alive that endured German-occupied France, so when authors like Meacham write novels that bring World War II to life, it shows us how terrible it would be if another world war broke out. It reminds us of the hatred that happened and how so many innocent people died fighting against the Nazi Regime, fighting for what is right. She gives her readers a lot to think about when she speaks about the war, bringing us into her characters' lives and taking their happiness away time and time again. She shows how, in a single moment, your life can be changed forever.
I highly recommend reading 'Dragonfly' by Leila Meacham. This novel shows the trepidation of war and how normalcy fought to exist in the worst of times. She brings France in the 1940s to life which genuinely shows her ability to create a world that so many of us in today's day and age did not live to see exist. This novel is impeccable and is a beautiful piece of historical fiction that shows the lives of those who lived in a war that threatened to endure forever.
Esther Jager
Esther Jager is a huge bookworm and constantly dreaming up her next place to travel to!
