In Inkflower, Suzy Zail provides a realistic protagonist facing the gravest loss, and she relates her story with detail, meticulous historical description, and courage. While the story is gripping and complex, what is most extraordinary about Inkflower is the resilience, strength, and compassion of Lisa, the main character.
Inkflower bridges two historical settings: Australia in the 1980's where Lisa is a high school student working hard at fitting in and not standing out., and a series of concentration caps in World War II where Lisa's father struggles to survive each day of punishment, privation, and pain. Lisa is steeped in high school drama, social norms, and her boyfriend until her father is diagnosed with ALS. Immediately, he begins to share with Lisa and her two brothers the secret story of his past in Czechoslovakia where he was harassed as a Jew, relocated in a ghetto, and eventually sent to a concentration camp with his family. In alternating chapters, Zail relates Lisa's struggle to keep her father's illness and her Jewish heritage a secret and her father's story from the Holocaust. As his stories progress, Lisa's love of her father and appreciation of his courage and selflessness grow, and her values begin to shift as she recognizes the sacrifices her father has made to shield her and her brothers from the pain he endured. As her father opens his own sealed past, Lisa begins to open her mind to let others in and reveal her own true self, her family's battle with ALS, and her Jewish heritage.
Lisa is a YA hero that readers can relate to and emulate. Her fears of rejection and her place in the social sphere are credible and so realistic, and her growth and change occur gradually and in believable ways as she sees what matters and what doesn't. Zail's ability to bridge the traumas of the Holocaust and a parent's terminal illness is masterful, and readers will find themselves tallying their own blessings and cheering for the courage these characters show.

Wow this was an amazing read. Lisa is dealing with a lot as she finds out that her father has ALS and only has so long to live. She is just trying to be a normal teenager, but then feels she can't tell her friends what she is going through. Her father wants to tell his story about his time during the Holocaust and that is a whole other thing added to her plate. But as she sees her father's condition worsen and learns more of his story, she finds that she doesn't need to fit in a be normal, she just needs to be herself. She finds that the people around really do care as she opens up about what is happening.
This is a great look at ALS and the Holocaust. The Holocaust needs to be discussed and shown that people lived through it, so that something like that doesn't happen again.
This book gives a really in depth look at ALS and how quickly it can move. I liked that her father wasn't afraid to show emotion and take help, as he knew that he needed it as his condition worsened.

A beautiful story of family, friendship and finding yourself even in the midst of tragedy.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC.

This is not an easy book. If you read the description, you already know this. However, it is an impactful story about the impact that even our untold stories have on the generations that come after us and the effects they have when we choose to tell them.

Alternating between Lisa's present where she must confront the fact that her dad is dying from ALS and the past where her dad is struggling to come to terms with the effects of the Holocaust, the story is even more impactful when the author reveals that much of it is based on her own life.

Is this a story that the reader is going to walk away from with a lighter heart? No, but it will remind you of what a gift life can be even the messy, horrible, hard parts, and perhaps it will remind you to embrace all of it.