In “Looking at Women, Looking at War”, writer-turned-war-reporter Victoria Amelina compiled a first-hand account of her crime documentation in the recent Russo-Ukrainian war. A morbid irony has it that her book was unfinished as she became a victim of the very war she researched, succumbing to the aftereffects of a missile that hit the restaurant she visited.

Since her death, her oeuvre d’art has been edited meticulously to form a comprehensive collection of stories, some as mundane as the mourning of a farmer’s goats, others detailing the atrocities in horrific narration.

I found myself engrossed in the countless short vignettes Amelina included. The confusion the many names and locations brought on soon became secondary to the overarching theme of despair, of resilience, of her dedication to telling the truth. Who knows if the book would have achieved a more concise narrative arc had the author survived? But one thing is clear–the version honoring her draft provides an almost encyclopedic reference documenting the endless cruelty against Ukrainians–and this book format is an accomplishment perhaps even greater than the expected outcome. An end result to celebrate and disseminate widely, posthumously.

In gratitude to St. Martin’s Press for the Advance Reader’s Copy.

A War and Justice Diary

With a foreword by Margarite Atwood

Victoria Amelia was writing a novel when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 2022. She became a war crimes researcher and the chronicler of women like herself who joined de resistance. The heroines in this book are a prominent lawyer Evgenia, Yulia a librarian and Olexsandra a Nobel Peace prize winner. Amelia was documenting the war, photographed ruins and recorded testimonies….till June 27th when a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant where she had stopped for a bite…she died on July 1st at thirty seven….she left behind her unedited notes.

Written by a poet, this book is also a work of literature but foremost a powerful look at courage of resistance.

The first section of her diary was completed before her death and the second section consist of unfinished notes and paragraphs. The second part is very fragmented and very distracting to a point I skipped some passages. Having said this, it doesn’t remove that Amelia was one of Ukraine’s most celebrated young writers and her dairy is very honest and intimate.

It is a difficult read, poignantly detailed on the experiences by many Ukrainians and the atrocities suffered by the population during the conflict, Ms. Amelina brigs us up close to the reality of war.

Most reviewers loved this book well I am an exception for my part I stand on the fence still trying to evaluate my feelings. Not loving it yet not disliking it.

This book was put together by respectful editors who cleverly and carefully crafted a version of the book Victoria would have completed and published, had she not been killed in 2023 in an airstrike in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As an avid reader I admire unique ways an authors shares the story and this book is in that rare category. The reader is required to follow along on the author’s rough draft, notes and perhaps some interpretation of what Victoria ( the author ) would have set down in her final written compilation.

This element caused me to respect the author’s effort and drew me in as though I was privileged to be included in the process, not just the final output.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. This is my honest review.

This was eye opening, to read the stories about so many women and what they have experienced in a country at war. It's so sad to know that these are now shared by an author that did not live to see their work published. It was a bit jumbled at times since there are chapters that were never able to be finished, or thoughts that were jotted down and never completed, but also it's extremely humbling being allowed to read these notes written by Amelina.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and publisher for a chance to read this book about such an important and poignant topic.

Victoria Amelina was an author who decided to become a war journalist to document what was happening in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. She documented her work with the intention of writing a book about the experiences of those in Ukraine. Sadly, Victoria was killed before she was able to finish. This book is gathered and edited together from her diary and notes. The first half of the book is a compelling story about the early days of the invasion while the second half is mostly unfinished material gathered from her notes. This was an emotional read in parts but also disjointed and hard to get into in others. However, even unfinished this is powerful, first-person account of what is happening in Ukraine and is an important read for anyone to understand the horrors of war.

Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina is a heartbreaking, partially finished diary detailing the work of the author and several other women as they document the war in Ukraine.

The content of the diary is touching as the daily lives of those who are living in an active war zone are examined: constant fear, loss, detachment, uncertainty about the fate of friends, relatives and neighbors, the need to evacuate, worries about health and violence, and not knowing how long it will all last.

Interestingly, Amelina, who is an award-winning fiction and poetry author, had to make the switch to non-fiction. She not only narrated the stories of other women documenting the war but also learned to write about war crimes herself. I think this is where the disconnect came for me. Clearly, these are important, emotional, and harrowing situations; they had and continue to have deep impact on Amelina and the people she is writing about. However, that emotion did not resonate with me as much as I would have expected it to, unlike similar types of war/genocide diaries. This could be due to the unfinished nature of the book or the structure not working well for me. Perhaps it was because I wanted more about the author herself which I think she downplayed to highlight the other women. Amelina was certainly an amazing poet judging by the poem included here and others found online.

Due to the unfinished nature of the book, the second section was difficult because it was lacking in narrative flow. However, the editors’ decision not to fill in or expand it does give a sense of confusion and constant change that the author must have experienced. I appreciated the historical context of the current war in Ukraine provided in both the writing and footnotes.

Overall, this is a significant first-person documentation centering on women in war.

Thank you to St.Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARK.
3.5 stars

The memoir “Looking at Women, Looking at War” is one writer’s journey to answer this question in the face of occupation and war. Victoria Amelina, children’s literature author and mother to a young son was confronted with this question on February 24, 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and her world was upended. The resulting memoir is her experience as a war crimes researcher and writer reconciling with her own identity and the “forever endangered Ukrainian culture”.

An honest and intimate chronicle of her own experience, it is also of other extraordinary women in the resistance. Women like Evgenia, a prominent lawyer who were colourful clothing to court, but now carries a gun at the frontline. Oleksandra, her friend and mentor, who documented tens of thousands of war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, though not one of her hundreds of cases went to The Hague in the seven years prior. The finer details like this sucked the air out of my lungs while reading. This book offers brilliant insight into the experience of women in and at war, but it is also contemporary evidence of Russia's criminal attack on Ukraine. It is undeniable yet it continues.

War is absurd and banal and evil, a continuing slog of noise and death. Victoria Amelina captures the unspeakable despair and moments of joy that are the experience of war. It is an assault on the senses and in juxtaposition she writes of feeling disconnected and worn out. Body tired from the trauma and grief. Oleksandra tells her to take time and put cream on her face but to really feel it before she does anything else. How often do we do something similar? This sensory experience is a return to another time and a centring moment before she returns to recording war crimes and atrocities.

This book could so easily be a litany of awful events pieced together, but it is instead a raw and lyrically beautiful account of a woman making her way in a world of war, attempting to create a path for justice. The awful things are alluded to but Amelina is a writer of grace and compassion, the reader can understand the allusions to violence and sexual assault without needing the details.

The manuscript is unfinished. Victoria Amelina’s life was cut short by a Russian missile attack and she died on 1 July 2023. There are sentences left undone because of her death. Fragmented notes tell of awful Russian actions, like the small bit of a master’s work that could be seen on a FaceBook photo, posted by the Russian soldier who stole it Half of a sentence tells us about the death of a man miraculously rescued in another chapter. I had to stop reading and watch the crows in my favourite tree for a while after that. There is no ledger of fairness in war.

Amelina reveals the bleak despair wrought by the violence of war and the fear of being close to death so that we can understand the small ways people are trying to retain their humanity in the face of war. The bag of walnuts a mother gives to Victoria after their interview. The reader is brought into the group of artists trying to save a snag beetle found on the sidewalk,their attempt to save an inconsequential life after the gut punch of learning about Volodomyr Vakulenko’s abduction by Russian forces. His death is a terrible thread woven through the novel and each time we are reminded that Amelina was writing about friends and colleagues. She is not simply an outside observer in this conflict.

Reading this makes me consider what I would do if my country came under attack and I had to face the reality of war crimes and terror. Would I be brave and charge into the war zone to document the horrors done by the enemy? Would I find a sturdy basement and plead with my neighbours to find shelter with me? I should hope so, and I think we can hold on to what Victoria Amelina says here: “No choice made by those who want true justice is easy, and for most of us, the outcome of our battle is still unknown.” (p.10)

Victoria Amelina’s roots as a storyteller can be found “Looking at Women, Looking at War”, evident as she set out to chronicle the lives of extraordinary women. In writing about the people in the embattled Donetsk region, we’re invited into her inner world and what made her courage necessary. Such is the cost of resistance.

Recommended to readers who enjoy history and women’s literature. The memoir requires patience, broken sentences will never be fit together, we won’t ever have answers as to what she intended in some sections. The tragedy of war exists in these gaps. "Looking at Women, Looking at War" will be be published 18 February 2025 and available at all fine retailers and booksellers after that date.

For further reading, check out Hunting for Vakulenko to read more about the poet and his abduction and murder by Russian forces. A murdered writer, his secret diary from the Guardian provides further context about Vakulenko.

Interesting diary format covering the beginningsof the most recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It is very informative, but somewhat hard to follow for someone who has not closely followed the locations of the invasion of Ukraine, or is familiar with the names of the women giving their impressions of the war. It is not a book to be 'enjoyed', but i a learning experience. My library is in a small rural town, and I don't think this book would appeal to many in my town, but I will reccommend it to folks in more urban areas. .

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina, from St. Martin's Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

I wanted to like this book so much. And I understand that I’m in the minority with my opinion on it, but so be it….

My thought is that those who took Victoria Amelina’s work and created this book did her memory a disservice. The strong voice and emotional connection I was expecting were both lacking. I felt as if I were reading a poorly edited history textbook. Would give it 1.5 stars if I could.

Of course I did not read this book in a void, so to speak. I graduated with a double major in political science and history, and one of my political science areas of focus was war. I at one point had a career goal of working as a war correspondent for the Associated Press (didn’t happen, for which my mother was—and I think still is—thankful). And even since those long-ago undergraduate days I have read a tremendous amount about war, from a variety of perspectives.

Also I am comparing what I read today (DNF at about a third of the way through, too bored to keep going) with, in particular, the recent works of the Palestinian-American author and poet Summer Awad, whose writings make one understand the impact of war on a visceral level. Here’s the link to her website: https://summerawad.com

PS
I think this book might’ve hit differently if I had emotional ties to/firsthand knowledge of Ukraine. Although now that I’ve typed that I’m reconsidering….I don’t have emotional ties to/firsthand knowledge of other war-torn areas and I’ve been engaged/moved by writings about them. Hmm. Nope, gonna have to remind myself that if I think something is too dry for me, then it is, in fact, too dry for me.

DESCRIPTION
"Devastating...not to be missed." —Publishers Weekly ( Starred)

Destined to be a classic, a poet’s powerful look at the courage of resistance

WITH A FOREWORD BY MARGARET ATWOOD

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. Now she became someone new: 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.

Victoria Amelina's "Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary" is a profound testament to the resilience and courage of Ukrainian women amid the harrowing backdrop of the 2022 Russian invasion. This book follows the author's personal transformation since the start of the war through the compelling narratives of women who transitioned from civilian roles to frontline defenders and justice seekers.

Her diary introduces readers to figures like Evgenia and Evhenia; both lawyers turned soldiers - told to "Aim at everything that shines," and Oleksandra, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who meticulously documented war crimes. She lists names, dates, and detailed accounts of the unlawful detention and imprisonment of civilians and those who experienced inhuman detention conditions, torture, and even murder by Russian soldiers.

Amelina's authentic writing captures these women's emotional and psychological landscapes, offering an intimate portrayal of their strength, bravery, and vulnerability. It can be very difficult to read at times. Still, I found certain aspects of this book fascinating, such as her detailed notes on the extensive training Victoria went through in researching and interviewing victims of torture (without causing more torture and pain), war crimes, victims of war crimes, and more.

The author's own journey—from a writer and mother to a war crimes researcher and investigator—is poignantly detailed, reflecting the broader metamorphosis experienced by many Ukrainians during the conflict who became soldiers overnight. Her commitment to documenting atrocities and preserving cultural heritage, even at great personal risk, underscores the diary's authenticity and urgency.

Victoria shares her personal stories of growing up in an environment that is familiar with the sounds of bombing, but it's different when you're now trying to save lives and keep her own son safe. Upon returning to the apartment she shares with her son and dog to take what they need to evacuate, she's afraid to go inside, thinking, "During the following months of this war, could I tell the displaced children to please not touch his Lego creations? They can take anything they need, play with his toys, read his books, and sleep on his bed, but they can't touch his constructions; they took so much time to build."

The distance of this war can make it hard to imagine until you're reading her words, and the connections make it feel so real. Amelina also shares stories of her brother-in-law being deployed to the front lines and the emotions involved in evacuating his family and her parents. She's also a part of numerous other searches and evacuations. In each search, Victoria collects diaries and any documentation that will continue someone's legacy or provide proof of the atrocities she has seen. As she transitions more into a non-fiction writer, Victoria shares in her diary how she would like to write a book based on the stories of those who are documenting war crimes with the intent of holding criminals accountable.

I wasn't quite prepared for this up close and personal look at the disturbing reality of this war while also experiencing the extraordinary strength of not only the women she's writing about but just the mere fact that this is Amelina's "unfinished" diary - as her life cut short in a missal attack in June 2023. I kept asking myself, could I be as strong as the women in this book? I want to think so.

I hope her family finds strength that her legacy endures through this vital historical record and tribute to the women who confront oppression with unwavering resolve. Their enduring bravery and power of resistance were so incredibly inspiring.

I love that they left her diary intact and did not try to fill in the blanks, embellish it, or assume what Victoria was trying to share.

Many of her diary entries stood out to me, but this one really lingered: "I imagined that one day I would join the army too. But it appears it is so hard to dig, and how would I dig a trench then? Everyone knows that digging, not shooting or anything else that is romantic, is, in fact, the most crucial skill to survive. If you want to live, dig, they say on the frontline."

Maybe her way of joining the army was to document, research, interview, and evacuate others. And she did it well.

It is scheduled for publication on February 18, 2025

Thank you, #NetGalley, #VictoriaAmelina, and #StMartinsPress, for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of #LookingatWomenLookingatWar.

This book was incredibly touching. Victoria decided to become a war reporter on the first day of the Russian invasion of her country, Ukraine. Although she has passed, her editors decided to publish what was finished of her book on the women she saw during the war. It was a very emotional read.

This was a heartbreaking and powerful read. Victoria Amelina was an author and mother, who decided she must become a war crimes journalist to document what was going on in Ukraine. The book documents her experience with war, and that of many other women bravely enduring the unimaginable. The first half of the book feels finished and was a compelling read, but the second part is very fragmented and unfinished, as the author tragically died in the middle of writing this story. Some might wonder why it was published if it was unfinished, but I thought there was great power and weight lent to the book by highlighting how war leaves things unfinished, destroyed and fragmented. A very powerful read, and amazing primary source for the world to have. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

First, I want to say I have never read such a riveting true story like this ever, and I have read a lot of war books. This book is the most emotional telling of war crimes I have experienced, due to this is absolutely what it says it is, a war and justice diary told by a woman dedicated to telling what is truly happening in Ukraine.

WWII’s holocaust is difficult to read about, we could have only hoped we learned from those tragic events, but a different type of holocaust is still happening today in Ukraine. If you want to know how the citizens of Ukraine have been living in the past few years, and really since 2014, pick this book up and read it. It is not a light read, it is sad and depressing but most importantly eye-opening. This young author gave her life trying to do something good and punish the people responsible for heinous crimes. God Bless her, rest in peace Victoria. You were a true warrior for mankind.

I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my unbiased review – This one comes in with a high 5 stars.

What a great book! Author,,Victoria Amelia , did a wonderful job writing “Looking at Women Looking at War”. It was heartbreaking and Informative to say the least.

She had become a war crimes researcher and the chronicler of extraordinary women like herself who joined the resistance in a peaceful nonmilitary way as a poet and novelist. Her country, like many others, has been repeatedly overrun by a country known for its acquisitiveness and brutality. A happy ever after seems unlikely for Ukraine at this time, and it is now too late for the author who died of her injuries in 2023. But she remains a voice for women oppressed by the violence of war everywhere. A wrenching coverage of war in the 2020s.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected digital galley from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.
Avail Feb 18, 2025
#LookingAtWomenLookingAtWar A War and Justice Diary by Victoria Amelina @stmartinspress #NetGalley @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble @waterstones ***** Review @booksamillion @bookshop_org @bookshop_org_uk #UkraineWar #PeacefulResistance #WarHistory

My thanks to both NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book that is a memoir of life during wartime, an eyewitness statement of the evils that people can do, a showing of what the right people can do, all written by an author who never lived to see her book finished.

I live in a country that supports its troops but has no idea, nor could find on a map the countries they are sent too. Even worse why. War is still a diplomacy by other means, however as it is the 21st century, one would think there has to be a better way. Though in this century the reason why one country goes to war might not be the same. Countries love war as it is a way to control their own populous. Can't say anything bad about a war leader, one might oneself falling out of a window, in Russia or losing a career like the the Dixie Chicks did when insulting George Bush. One of the worst things in war is being an eyewitness. This is something that both sides do not want. Neither side wants their people to know what is going on, what governments allow. Bombing schools, stealing children, sexual assault on grand scales. This confuses the message. It's hard to say one is liberating when standing in a pit full of bodies. Victoria Amelina understood this. Within days of the invasion of the Ukraine by Russian aggressors, Amelina had found a new calling war crimes researcher. A calling that would kill her. Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary by Victoria Amelina is a memoir of a good person going to war as an eyewitness to those who can't tell their stories, a portrait of others doing the same, and what they saw and a shout from the grave to the world to stop allowing this kind of diplomacy to happen. Though it only seems to get worse.

Victoria Amelina was a novelist working on her book, planning a vacation with her son, and locking down the details for a literary festival in her native Ukraine when the invasion, long discussed by Russian invaders finally happened. Amelina's old life ended an a new one began. As a war crimes researcher, acting as eyewitness to the many atrocities that were happening in her country. Amelina began a diary keeping all these stories, and as Amelina worked she meet others, lawyers who fought both on the front lines and the court rooms. A woman tracking the death of a writer. Schools deliberately attacked, children taken away to Russia for adoption. Amelina began to plan a book, but while dining with a group of foreign observers and writers at a pizzeria, a missile hit the building and she was killed.

The book was half finished, the first part approved by the writer and is a narrative of a country that is changing by the second, as are the people around her. The second is made up of notes and sketches, interviews and scribbles, showing things breaking down, the battle front changing, and more and more atrocities coming to life. Both halves are strong in different ways. The beginning is painful as one can see the life that Amelina had. Sharing stories about her boy, one knows what will happen, that soon he shall lose his mom, just like so many others. The second is war at its worst, 21st century bloodshed for the Twitter era, and is brutal, sad and harrowing. What becomes clear is that even in the worst of times people can still go on. And people can still get worse. A sad, wonderfully written narrative that asks a lot of readers. Most of these questions being Why. Why do we allow this? Why is killing in the name of whatever excepted doctrine. Is it fear, not caring, or just something human. These are questions we need to ask ourselves, as Victoria Amelina deserves an answer.

I appreciated Victoria Amelina sharing their story with us, it showed the horror of war and was invested in what was happening in this diary. Victoria Amelina wrote this perfectly and was glad everything worked overall.

This is a most unusual and unusually compelling book. The author is Victoria Amelina, a Ukranian novelist and essayist who decided in the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to become a war reporter, documenting war crimes and individual portraits of people (primarily women) affected by the war. Amelina was killed during a Russian air strike before completing the book, but the editors here have taken the extraordinary step of publishing what does exist, making notes throughout but not attempting to fill out Amelina’s prose. The result is a book that contains short essays, incomplete chapters, and many pages that are just notes and statistics. While this naturally make the book hard to follow as a consistent narrative, it is also completely evocative of the fragmented life that Amelina and all Ukranians live under the war.

One of the aspects of this book that hit me hard is that Amelina and many of the people she shares stories about were writers, poets and artists before the war. Some remained artists, documenting the war in whatever way they could, from sculptures to poems. A couple of poems are even included. When we hear stories of war, we don’t often hear about the artists, but as an artist and writer myself, it made the writing feel very close to home. In the process of talking about artists, we also hear some news about museums, libraries, cultural centers and literary festivals affected by the war - news we have not seen in American news coverage. As one writer in the book put it, as long as the writing remains, Ukraine is alive.

The complete writing we have from Amelina is beautiful and descriptive. The statistics show her skill not just as a writer, but as a reporter. Many thanks to the editors of this book for choosing to share this extraordinary work.

Thanks also to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Victoria Amelina’s Looking at Women Looking at War offers a compelling and deeply moving perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This book serves as both a personal journal and a tribute to the resilience of Ukrainian women, weaving together the author’s firsthand experiences with those of other female writers engaged in acts of resistance. These courageous women venture into conflict zones to document atrocities, risking their lives to bear witness to war crimes. The book sheds light on their extraordinary bravery and the harsh realities of living through war in Ukraine.

Tragically, Victoria Amelina was killed before completing the book, leaving it unfinished. The first half is polished and fully developed, while the latter half consists of raw notes and fragmented passages. This structure makes the book a true primary source—authentic and invaluable for understanding the war—but the lack of cohesion in the second half can be challenging to navigate.

The editors did an admirable job organizing Amelina’s journal entries into a readable format, but the brief and disjointed segments in the latter portion reflect the abrupt end to her work. Readers should approach this book with the understanding that it does not offer a traditional narrative arc but instead stands as a testament to the author’s interrupted efforts and the horrors of war.

I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking an unfiltered, firsthand account of war’s impact, but it is not a conventional or complete story. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

If you read anything about the war in Ukraine, it should be this book. Gathered together from materials written by Victoria Amelina before she was killed by Russia in its horrific war on Ukraine, it chronicles her own life as she shifted from author to war crimes investigator and reporter, and those of her colleagues and friends during the first year of the war. It is devastating and essential to read her accounts of Russian atrocities and Ukrainian resistance, of the actions ordinary people did to save others, of how NGOS operate in the country, of what the world is losing as Russia slaughters children, poets, farmers, writers, scientists, parents, journalists, and others. Read this book, and take action: support the Ukraine any way you can, through donations, through calls to your congresspeople, through activism and raising awareness. Slava Ukraini.