Veiled in Smoke

3.5 starsHonestly, I have been mulling over my review for awhile because I'm not really sure what I thought about a number of things. First, the story starts with the fire and that's some really gripping storytelling, with graphic details about the fire that honestly had me putting the book down to settle my stomach. But then the scene switches suddenly to a completely different scene and we have the girls getting used to life in a fancy house. Then again it's back to the bookstore lot and everything changes again, plus there's the insane asylum that lends lots of dark detail.The asylum scenes are super intense and deal with similar material as another I read this year, [b:The Gray Chamber 43363467 The Gray Chamber Grace Hitchcock https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556128446l/43363467.SY75.jpg 67353488], but I think it was even more gritty than the other novel. It also addresses the issues of the most famous of the Civil War's prisons, Andersonville and Camp Douglas. While I did appreciate the highlight that the North has their own infamous place (which most fiction conveniently ignores) the statistics in the end notes also ignored the additional facts that, while the South was so pinched for food that even the guards were starving, the North was pinched neither for food nor cloth and had no reason to starve their prisoners and leave them forcibly exposed to harsh winter temperatures. It left me with an interesting conflict because I admire the wish to show that the North wasn't perfect as far as prisons went, but then it fell short because I felt she was making excuses by comparison and basically saying “yeah, it was really bad, but it wasn't so bad because they were worse.” And the guard who was there “wasn't so nasty because he only stole personal items from the prisoners but didn't torture them” and I was a bit shocked that his thefts would be considered so lightly.Meg was my favorite of the sisters. Her staunch spirit even when faced with personal losses as well as material ones and I really enjoyed having a character who was that adult in her emotional responses rather than finding a corner to go mope in. She's a strong woman without being unnecessarily abrasive, which I really liked. Sylvie was not as vibrant to me but that may change in the next book, since her character was showing positive signs near the end of the book.Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.