This is another excellent book~! One of the reviewers said that it was the most historically accurate novel about plastic surgery during WWI - it is fascinating!

Slow beginning, unlikeable protagonist from a rarified level of society that's virtually impossible to relate to, horrifying effects of a brutal war--what's not to love, right? Still, the novel improves as more interesting characters appear. This is an excellent book club read that will provoke plenty of animated discussion.

This book was a good summer read. Amazing character development and details about facial muscles and other medical stuff. I really like this author. The end kind of bugged me though. It wasn't conclusive enough for me. Also, some of the characters' interactions with each other were so awkward!! Over all, I thought it was a fun read, especially if you like romance, or war-time eras.

Glad I listened to this as it might have been a slow read. The birth of plastic surgery?

This is such a unique story. Something fell apart, though. The stars come from the idea, not the execution. This would have been much better as a short story.

This story conveys rare insight into how we humans psychologically process damage to our bodies, in this case from combat injuries. With special insight, the author conveys the terrible trauma of damage to our greatest vanity, the face. I enjoy reads that leave me a wiser person. The Crimson Portrait most surely did.

Less an actual story and more a recitation of all the stuff the author learned from her research.

in view of today's plastic surgery the efforts of doctors to rebuild faces during the war seem barbaric.
Every patient was in fact a guinea pig. A bit of a stretch - the countess tricking the artist and doctors re-create her hubby's face instead of the true face of the injured soldier. I enjoyed the character of the artist.

So creepy..

I learned a lot about the history of plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery. I also really liked the way Shields develops her characters. I plan to read more of her books.

Having read Jody Shields’ first novel, The Fig Eater, I was delighted to find a second novel by this author. Set in a makeshift military hospital in England during WWI, this story deals with war and the physical and psychological trauma that result. Told through a cast of damaged but compelling characters, Shields’ prose is vaporous, poetic and haunting, reality blending seamlessly with imagination. The plot has some holes. On finishing, I had to go back and reconnect some details that were a bit ephemeral. But as a reading experience it was lovely; a trance I was reluctant to emerge from.

This book is very dreamy. For such a serious, somber, and horrifying subject matter (the terrible facial injuries of WWI), it somehow manages to never really touch me on how it would have felt for the soldiers and the people they encountered. Too wrapped up in a very strange warped set of love stories that didn't make much sense. It wasn't awful, but I wouldn't recommend it.