Broken Angels - Gemma Liviero - A Short Summary and Review
Broken Angels - Gemma Liviero - A Short Summary and Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A short summary:
Broken Angels unfolds through three intersecting perspectives during the rise and reign of the Nazi regime, revealing how ordinary lives are warped and destroyed by state-sponsored cruelty. Each viewpoint illuminates a different facet of complicity, resistance, and victimhood, showing how ideology seeps into homes, relationships, and consciences.
As the story moves between characters whose fates are bound by power and fear, the novel exposes the machinery of dehumanization and the impossible choices forced upon individuals living under totalitarian rule. It is less a single narrative than a moral panorama of a society collapsing under sanctioned evil.
My favorite quote from the book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My review:
This book is devastating, and it should be. The horrors of the Nazi regime are presented without euphemism or distraction, making Broken Angels difficult to put down precisely because it refuses comfort. Liviero writes with control and empathy, allowing the weight of events to land without sensationalism.
What lingers most is the novel’s moral clarity. It recognizes suffering while rejecting the notion that every wound can be redeemed. For some acts, there is no earthly absolution, and the book is honest enough to say so. That honesty is what gives the story its power.
By threading multiple perspectives, Liviero forces the reader to confront not just atrocity, but proximity: how violence is enabled, tolerated, or resisted by those who live alongside it. The result is a deeply unsettling, necessary read that demands witness rather than forgiveness.
_____________________________________________________________________________
About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
✨ #TakeTheBackRoads
Enjoyed this post? Support the adventure by visiting my sponsors, shopping the gallery, or buying me a cup of coffee!
