Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

What a powerful read, and an important book that is encased in tragedy. Women bear the brunt of war often, and I deeply appreciate that this journalist worked to lift the voices of women who have been impacted by the war in Ukraine - ultimately losing her life to the war too.

Cannot recommend this read enough.

Absolutely crushing account of the early days of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia from the perspective of novelist Amelina and her decision to not only chronicle the conflict but throw herself into it. A collection of her thoughts, notes on war crimes committed by Russian troops, and interviews with women affected by the war, this diary completed posthumously by her friends after she was killed in the fighting is harrowing and so important. I think all of us thought by now it would be over, but it is heartbreakingly still going on. Please let it not continue to take lives and dignity.

Thank you to NetGalley for my digital copy. These opinions are my own.

This woman named Vic TORI. Was very courageous as she wrote about the war in Ukraine.. This book was very informative and how she told the history of Ukraine It was an interesting way to read this book. Because every chapter had a different meaning to it. A lot of people suffer and she knew these people are wrong. Especially like the part about Ukraine in the 30s and how these people are starving and murdered by the Soviet union military There was A p a r t where they were taken We're eventually taken away to be killed. This was really interesting because some of the really famous writers. She Talk about schools and buildings being Destroyed. These people.
Were very courageous and had keep going no matter what. They have to go through checkpoints. Just to go around it must be very hard. One of the things She talked How her friend was taken at a checkpoint and the family trying to get him back, but it was very hard and it was very interesting.What this person went through. She's a very Courageous To write this book. She became a spokesman for this and it was very interesting how she looked at war. Great.
Book.....

Looking at Women Looking At War is written by a Ukrainian novelist, Victoria Amelina, who, after the Russian full-scale invasion, joined the war crime research team to document war crimes committed by Russian forces. Victoria and her team traveled throughout Ukraine to the frontline and newly liberated towns and villages to collect testimonies about torture, rape, kidnappings, executions, bombings of civilian infrastructure, and destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, all committed by Russians.

Victoria Amelina chose to structure the book around the stories of women and the new roles many were forced to take on during the war: a lawyer who enlists in the army, a writer who becomes a war crime researcher, ordinary women, who come together to organize supplies for Ukrainian soldiers or help evacuate refugees from occupied territories. Victoria was not able to finish her book because she, herself, became a victim of a war crime. She was gravely injured and passed away as a result, following the Russian bombing of a cafe in the city of Kramatorsk.

Victoria was murdered by Russians, but her voice was not silenced and her book was published posthumously. Some chapters are finished and some only have fragments, ideas, and unfinished sentences that Victoria didn't have a chance to develop. When you read the book and come across unfinished sentences, it really hits you that the reason they are unfinished is because the author was killed. Looking at Women Looking at War is not an easy read, because of the horrors described in the book and the unfinished structure, but it is such an important read! I am very grateful that her US publisher, St. Martin's Press, proceeded with the publication. Looking at Women Looking at War is a powerful, moving war-time diary and a must-read.

This is book is a tough read because it is one of the most powerful books you'll read all year. WhenI got the blurb for the book I knew I had to be ready to read such a book. There would be no happy ending. It's a true story which make it all the more painful. The book is about Victoria Amelina a Ukranian poet. She was ariting a ook about Ukraine the hell it has been going through with the invasion. She meets people who are part of her book. She needs to tell th wrold what her people are going through. She is basically living her dream even though she is living in a hellscape. Without women like her getting the stories of civilians we would never understand the victims and sadness they are going through. All the innocent lives lost. These are the kind of books that get my juices flwoing because I always want to believe that if humankind hears stories like this that we will never seek war and strive for peace because what kind of person would want to put other people through stories like these. Sadly the author was having dinner one night and a bomb fell where she and her friends were eating and ended her life. I give it six stars. Something has to end the madness of the this war. PLEASE READ IT. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Marrtins Press. I don't I'll ever forget this book.

This is an incredibly difficult book to read and even more impossible to rate. I will give 5 stars as I am not able to see how to give anything else. Victoria Amelina was working on this book when she was killed by a Russian missile. It is created by the work she left behind, and filled in as her colleagues and friends were able to do so. Much of the book is unfinished or in note form. What I could read clearly was horrifying, heartbreaking, and infuriating, and I think that was what the original author intended us to feel. I tried to absorb as much of what she had been able to put to paper as possible. I found myself over and over wishing I had full sentences, or full descriptions, or endings to stories. All of which to say - it's so very tragic that we lost this remarkable woman Victoria Amelina far too soon, before she could truly accomplish what she set out to do. I am grateful to those who helped to bring her work forward so we could be exposed to it.

This was both an unsettling and a very powerful read. Knowing from the get-go that Amelina doesn't survive and that her manuscript is unfinished is a poignant reminder of the senselessness of war. Seeing so directly on the page her unfinished thoughts, phrases and ultimately the stories of the women she strove to document, it's a testament to the work of the editors who worked tirelessly on this book to ensure it came together in a way that respects her plan and style.

This story is really a collection of stories that woven together form the story of men and women, Ukrainians, who fought in a myriad of different ways from February 2022 onwards. And we learn, that they have been fighting through their art for decades.

This book has significance as a journal on the impact the Ukraine war has on its citizen's. The stories told within the pages and the tragedy of the authors life cut short is heart wrenching to read.
I personally struggled with the disconnected style of writing and the jumping between individuals stories. Maybe the chaos of this was deliberate to mirror the chaos of life in Ukraine for those living in the midst of the war.
I applaud every one of the women within these pages for their bravery.
Thank-you Netgalley for the ARC.

The end of the world isn’t as quick as everyone imagines; there’s time to learn. Yet there are no instructions. from Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina

I put off reading this book, and then reluctantly picked it up. I knew it would not be an easy book to read, especially under the current president, knowing that my country is pulling back support for the Ukraine.

The author was a novelist and mother when Russia began its war to take over her country. She became a war crimes researcher. What she documents is horrifying. She died in the war, leaving an incomplete manuscript.

The unfinished sentences, chapters, and stories do not detract, but amplify the incomplete lives lost in the war.

The truth is, sometimes, tired of crying or of being unable to cry, we laugh like crazy as if proving that here we are, Ukrainians, still alive. from Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina

But the book is not only documents sorrow and pain and loss and ruin. Portraits of resistance fighters and documenters of war crimes illuminate the narrative with their courage and righteousness. Women who risked all to tell the truth, to do what was right.

We are at a point in history when the future looks dark. We need inspiring examples of courage, like Victoria Amelina.

…evil is not somewhere in the past; it is here. from Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

My current read is LOOKING AT WOMEN LOOKING AT WAR, an in depth, inside look at the war in Ukraine from a woman that was “boots on the ground” through much of it.

Amelina documents stories from extraordinary women that join the resistance. Evgenia was a lawyer turned soldier, Oleksandra, who documented thousands of war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Yulia, a librarian who helped uncover the abduction and murder of a children’s book author.

Everyone knew she was documenting the war- photographs of school ruins, testimonies, eyewitness to atrocities. She began writing what would become this book.

On June 27th, 2023 she was having some dinner with a few other writers when a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant, causing her serious head injuries, which she succumbed to on July 1st at the age of 37.

This account chronicles the ravages of war- the cost of resistance- including death.

This is one of those nonfiction pieces that despite mood or otherwise, it should be read. We should know. We should honor women like Victoria Amelina.

Happy Posthumous Pub Day to Victoria Amelina. Thank you for sharing this with the world!

It is painful, tragic, sad and upsetting to come to this book knowing that its young (37), brave, fierce, talented author is no longer alive. Amelina was killed in Ukraine when she was out having pizza with other writers. Just knowing this, brings all of the horrors of the Ukraine war to light. So many innocent people have been caught up in events that did not have to be.

Left behind is this work which will, I think, become a classic. It looks at war’s impact on women and the resistance that they wage. It is beautifully written and unfinished for reasons that the reader knows. This greatly adds to its impact.

This is not an easy book to read but it needs to be read. I recommend it most highly.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

This book was unlike any other I've read. Victoria's strength and dedication is admirable. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the events in Ukraine.

Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary
Victoria Amelina
foreword by Margaret Atwood
St. Martin’s Press, 2025

I am endlessly thankful that editors proceeded with the publication of “Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary” despite the two-thirds complete manuscript at the time of Victoria Amelina’s death by airstrike in Ukraine in July 2023.

My previous lack of awareness of her writing prowess, combined with Amelina’s training as a war researcher with Truth Hounds, made this book all the more enticing. A heartrending read on the horrors of war, especially when directed at children, or when rape is used as a weapon.

Amelina’s ability to home in on the details of war research, probably from her years as a novelist and children’s book author, directs the reader’s eye to the idiosyncrasies of contemporary warfare: holes blown in kindergarten classroom ceilings and cartoon-covered walls, for example.

Thank you to the friends and family of Victoria Amelina, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the eARC.

An interesting book... definitely sad yet the women are so relatable. Read if you are interested in the Ukraine War and what ordinary people have had to live with. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. #sponsored

The urgency of this posthumous memoir was underscored last week when U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said at a NATO meeting in Brussels that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is “an unrealistic objective” and an “illusionary goal” in the peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump wants to accomplish.

Victoria Amelina was a well-known novelist and the director of a literary festival in the Donetsk region who turned to war reporting, interviewing witnesses and survivors for the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds. She and her son had been vacationing in Egypt when the full-scale Russian -Ukrainian war began on February 23, 2022. She left her son in Poland and returned to her apartment in Lviv, which she later turned into a shelter for the displaced. She had promised her son that she would return to Poland soon, but she admits “I lied to my child, and I will keep lying; war is a source of bad habits.” Her reaction to the war, when she returned to Ukraine, was, oddly, one of relief. She explains, “I’m not the only writer who has met the beginning of an apocalyptic war with something other than despair or anger. * * * The season of phantasmal peace is over.”

Amelina captures in brief vignettes Ukrainian citizens, predominately from the arts, who were impacted by the Russian occupation. She describes how the downing of a single Russian helicopter shattered for Ukrainians “the entire myth of Russian Invisibility.” She speaks with a woman, Iryna, about the horrendous days she had spent in Russian captivity in 2014, a victim of gender-based violence. A photo of Iryna had appeared in the New York Times prompting her miraculous release; however, despite her husband’s efforts to purchase her safety in Kyiv, “Iryna is waiting for the attack on her new home, new garden, and new life. She ran away, but Russia is catching up.” Amelina interviews a museum director who worked with her staff and defense soldiers to load the manuscripts, letters and first editions of the Ukrainian writers of the twentieth century on a train heading west, and a librarian who felt duty-bound to keep the library open as it served as “a help center for the elderly, a safe space for women, and a club for children.” She reports on a renowned artist of the sixties who dies in her own home of hunger, an owner of a beauty parlor who, at sixty-years-old, worked as a combat paramedic, a lawyer who defends against grave human rights violations, such as the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, and an elderly man who lost his animals to Russian offenders and, with the animals, went his sense of purpose in life. Amidst these horrors, she also reports on the efforts of a group of people to save a beetle stuck on a crowded train platform in Kharkiv, and “how much we all laugh during this horrible war. We may not do it that much in front of the foreign reporters, who mostly expect to see Ukrainian women’s despair or heroism, The truth is, sometimes, tried or crying or of being unable to cry, we laugh like crazy as if proving that here we are, Ukrainians, still alive.”

Amelina was killed by Russian missiles at a Kramatorsk restaurant in the summer of 2023, and she had not completed her book at the time of her death. Her editors have heavily footnoted the book to give the reader context and have meticulously noted where they have tinkered with incomplete text. The inclusion of Amelina’s unedited notes underline the tragedy of her death in a Russian missile strike. This is a beautifully rendered compilation with writing that is urgent, messy and personal. Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for an advance copy of this important book.

Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina was such a heart-wrenching read.
A devastating and tough memoir to read.
But the storytelling was just amazing.
A powerful and devastating super of what is happening in Ukraine.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Victoria Amelina was busy writing a novel, taking part in the country’s literary scene, and parenting her son. Then she became a war crimes researcher and the chronicler of extraordinary women like herself who joined the resistance. These heroines include Evgenia, a prominent lawyer turned soldier, Oleksandra, who documented tens of thousands of war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, and Yulia, a librarian who helped uncover the abduction and murder of a children’s book author. Everyone in Ukraine knew that Amelina was documenting the war. She photographed the ruins of schools and cultural centers; she recorded the testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses to atrocities. And she slowly turned back into a storyteller, writing what would become this book. On the evening of June 27th, 2023, Amelina and three international writers stopped for dinner in the embattled Donetsk region. When a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant, Amelina suffered grievous head injuries, and lost consciousness. She died on July 1st. She was thirty-seven. She left behind an incredible account of the ravages of war and the cost of resistance. Honest, intimate, and wry, this book will be celebrated as a classic.

This was a difficult book to read for me, but a necessary one as I wanted to understand the Ukraine's war with Russia. The author left portions of the book with just fragments of thoughts but never got the chance to flesh them out so they were inserted in the book as she left them. She wrote enough of the book, though, to understand the devastation of war and its effect on the people of Ukraine. She also was able to describe the brave women who tried to document it by risking their lives to travel the country and talk to the people. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for ofering this book so people of the world could better understand the war and the people involved.

Perhaps the most important book you will read all year.

Slated to be released on February 18, a mere six days before the three-year anniversary of Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and in the middle of peace talks that Ukraine is not part of, „Looking at Women Looking at War“ is one woman’s timely and urgent yet incredibly poetic legacy, a collection of stories of Ukrainian women documenting war crimes.

The author, Ukrainian novelist, poet, and literary festival founder turned war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina (1986-2023), was killed by a Russian missile strike against a civilian target, eventually succumbing to her injuries on July 1, 2023. At the time of her death, only 60 percent of this book - her only work of non-fiction, written in English to reach the widest possible audience - was finished. A team of editors did a marvelous job of compiling different drafts of Victoria‘s manuscript into one harrowing account of war while not shying away from leaving numerous of its later chapters empty, sentences and whole accounts unfinished, thoughts not verbalized - some of the book only a fragment, unfinished, much like the life of its author.

What remains is a unique and harrowing collection of diary entries, stories derived from countless interviews and Victoria Amelina‘s own investigations and experiences, research reports, interviews, poetry, and, above all, the author‘s poetic prose that has the reader looking at the these women up close and through them gaining an intimate view of the war while always being keenly aware of the tragic loss of this incredibly talented author.

„Looking at Women Looking at War“ is unflinching in its honesty of the brutalities of war, yet never without hope or determination. Perhaps one of the most important books you will read this year.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin‘s Press for the honor of reading Victoria Amelina‘s war and justice diary before its release on February 18, 2025. All opinions are my own.

Victoria Amelina’s Looking at Women Looking at War is a haunting and powerful testament to resilience, loss, and the unbreakable spirit of those who document war. Through her vivid storytelling, Amelina introduces us to women who turned grief into action—lawyers, librarians, and journalists who risked everything to ensure the truth was recorded.

The book’s strength lies in its deeply personal narrative, intertwining Amelina’s own journey with those of the women she honors. Her writing is both intimate and unflinching, a blend of reportage and reflection that ensures these stories will not be forgotten.

Tragically, Amelina’s own life was cut short by the very war she documented, making this book even more poignant. While at times the structure feels fragmented, the weight of its message is undeniable. A must-read for those seeking to understand not just war, but the courage of those who bear witness.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

It was the title that seduced me to hit the request button. More than likely, it will be the picture of the woman on the front cover and what was written on the pages that will stick with me forever.

Ukraine, 2022 is marked by war with Russia, a war that has been ongoing since 2014 and the lives of Victoria Amelina, her family, her neighbours and all of her country are forever changed. It isn't the first time Ukraine has found itself invaded by its giant of a neighbour. Time and time again, the book refers to the many offences Ukraine has suffered in its history. Once a children's writer, Victoria Amelina feels she needs a new purpose and will become a war crimes journalist. She introduces us to many of the women who have forever been changed by this conflict. Amelina herself died tragically while out in the field, but her editors felt that her unfinished manuscript needed to be sent out to the world.

Frankly, I am glad that they did. Because it is the eyewitness accounts of women who were mothers, daughters, artists, etc, that we need to remember. As is mentioned in the book, "Why do we say more the names of the perpetrators than the people they have terrorized? " These heroines include Evgenia, a prominent lawyer turned soldier, Oleksandra, who documented tens of thousands of war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, and Yulia, a librarian who helped uncover the abduction and murder of a children’s book author.

About the Author
On the evening of June 27th, 2023, Amelina and three international writers stopped for dinner in the embattled Donetsk region. When a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant, Amelina suffered grievous head injuries and lost consciousness. She died on July 1st. She was thirty-seven.



Expected Publication Date 18/02/25
Goodreads Review Date 16/02/25